of light cavalry and the first swordsman of the Grand Army, to be
overpowered by a single unarmed man in such a fashion! Yet I lay
quiet, for there is a time to resist and there is a time to save
one's strength. I had felt the fellow's grip upon my arms, and I
knew that I would be a child in his hands. I waited quietly,
therefore, with a heart which burned with rage, until my
opportunity should come.

How long I lay there at the bottom of the boat I can not tell;
but it seemed to me to be a long time, and always there were the
hiss of the waters and the steady creaking of the oar. Several
times we turned corners, for I heard the long, sad cry which
these gondoliers give when they wish to warn their fellows that
they are coming. At last, after a considerable journey, I felt
the side of the boat scrape up against a landing-place. The
fellow knocked three times with his oar upon wood, and in answer
to his summons I heard the rasping of bars and the turning of
keys. A great door creaked back upon its hinges.

"Have you got him?" asked a voice, in Italian.

My monster gave a laugh and kicked the sack in which I lay.

"Here he is," said he.

"They are waiting." He added something which I could not
understand.

"Take him, then," said my captor. He raised me in his arms,
ascended some steps, and I was thrown down upon a hard floor. A