take two men several days to loosen a single one of these blocks, and
if they finally succeeded in moving it, it must fall to the ground at
once, for their united strength would not have sufficed to lower it
gently.

"The facing is stone," said Malipieri, "but we shall find bricks
behind it. If we do not, we must try to get in by some other way."

In order to get any leverage at all, it was necessary to chisel out a
space between the first block to be moved and those that touched it,
an operation which occupied two whole days. Masin worked doggedly and
systematically, and Malipieri imitated him as well as he could, but
more than once nearly blinded himself with the flying chips of stone,
and though he was strong his hands ached and trembled at the end of
the day, so that he could hardly hold a pen. To Masin it was easy
enough, and was merely a question of time and patience. He begged
Malipieri to let him do it alone, but the architect would not hear of
that, since there was room for two to use their tools at the same
time, at opposite ends of the block. He was in haste to get over the
first obstacle, which he believed to be by far the most difficult, and
he was not the kind of man to sit idly watching another at work
without trying to help him.

On the third day they made an attempt to use a crowbar. They had two
very heavy ones, but they did not try to use both, and united their
strength upon one only. They might as well have tried to move the
whole palace, and it looked as if they would be obliged to cut the
block itself away with hammer and chisel, a labour of a fortnight,
perhaps, considering the awkward position in which they had to work.