Page:Adventures of Baron Wenceslas Wratislaw of Mitrowitz (1862).djvu/197

 All, except a German named Hernstein, who only filed through the fetter on one of his feet, cut through the rivets in their fetters, and crept one after the other in the dark to the openings through the floors. Here the two Greeks, being experienced in these matters, and knowing how dear a thing freedom is, were afraid of their hurrying one over the other down the rope, and that somebody would fall down and betray the rest. They, therefore, made a list of all the rest, and, constructing a kind of chair of rugs and twisted rope, let them down in it by ages, the oldest first, and slid down last themselves, without the chair, like monkeys. Being now all together, they first fell on their knees and thanked the Lord God, and, as soon as they had all climbed out of the entrenchments, the Greeks took with them a Maltese knight, and bade adieu to the rest, and, after advising them to look to their own safety, though nobody knew whither to turn, hastened to their boat, and, making no delay, sailed off merrily in safety, whithersoever they would.

A Hungarian, Balak Dak Istvan, who had been, some years before, a lieutenant in the army at Erlau, being now advanced in age, and sick besides, was unable to climb to the top of the bastions, but remained lying on the spot. When morning dawned, and the summons to devotion was given by the Turkish priests, the Turks saw the rope hanging down from the tower, and quickly raised a shout. They then ran up into the tower, and saw the place through which all the prisoners had crept. The governor, all terrified, went immediately to Constantinople, and made known what had happened. All the gates in Constantinople and Galata were therefore