Page:Adventures of Baron Wenceslas Wratislaw of Mitrowitz (1862).djvu/196

 make the guards tipsy with the schnapps, for the Turks are very fond of schnapps, which the Greeks make of excellent quality from figs and raisins.

One evening, when the guards were intoxicated, the two Greeks sawed in twain the rivets by which their own fetters and those of all the other prisoners were fastened, and soldered them together again with lead, in order that, if anybody should chance to look over them, he might find the fetters entire, and they might afterwards saw them through more easily in lead than iron, when need required. Every prisoner was also obliged to give the two Greeks his shirts, out of which they made a rope plaited throughout with the silken cord. On one occasion, then, they bade the rest of the prisoners to drink schnapps purposely with the Turkish guards, to sing, and to shout; meanwhile, messieurs the Greeks, during this shouting, cut through with the small saws the floors of the first second, and third stories above them, so that a man could creep through, and through the third opening climbed to the window of the tower, whence they that night measured the height of the tower, and made the rope long enough to reach to the ground. They had, moreover, a certain understanding with their friends, in consequence of which a swift boat, with a lantern burning all night long, was stationed by the sea-shore, and waited for them. The light burned all night in the lantern, in order that these Greeks might see whither to direct themselves when they got out of prison.

The next night—for the will of God was surely therein manifest—being the day of St. John the Baptist, they made their guards tipsy again, and during their first slumber gave the files to their fellow-prisoners.