The next morning at day-break, Lawrence brought coffee and a basket
filled with all the requisites for a good dinner. The abbe was
astonished, for he could not conceive how anyone could eat at such an
early hour. They let us walk for an hour in the garret and then shut us
up again, and we saw no more of them throughout the day. The fleas which
tormented us made the abbe ask why I did not have the cell swept out. I
could not let him think that dirt and untidiness was agreeable to me, or
that my skin was any harder than his own, so I told him the whole story,
and shewed him what I had done. He was vexed at having as it were forced
me to make him my confidant, but he encouraged me to go on, and if
possible to finish what I was about that day, as he said he would help me
to descend and then would draw up the rope, not wishing to complicate his
own difficulties by an escape. I shewed him the model of a contrivance by
means of which I could certainly get possession of the sheets which were
to be my rope; it was a short stick attached by one end to a long piece
of thread. By this stick I intended to attach my rope to the bed, and as
the thread hung down to the floor of the room below, as soon as I got
there I should pull the thread and the rope would fall down. He tried it,
and congratulated me on my invention, as this was a necessary part of my
scheme, as otherwise the rope hanging down would have immediately
discovered me. My noble companion was convinced that I ought to stop my
work, for I might be surprised, having to do several days' work before
finishing the hole which would cost Lawrence his life. Should the thought
of gaining my liberty at the expense of a fellow-creature have made me
desist? I should have still persisted if my escape had meant death to the
whole body of Venetian guards, and even to the Inquisitors themselves.
Can the love of country, all holy though it be, prevail in the heart of
the man whose country is oppressing him?

My good humour did not prevent my companion having some bad quarters of