Page:History and adventures of Jack Mansong.pdf/19

19 which Jack descended when a dreadful groan assailed her ear ; she stopt—another groan succeeded. Astonished, she turned back, and hastening to the place from whence it proceeded, she opened the door of an inner cell, and beheld her Orford, pale and bloody ! She uttered a loud scream, and fainted. This aroused Jack, who on discovering the cause, was about to put her to death ; but his passion abating, he thrust the helpless Orford farther into the cell, and locked the door ; then taking the ladder he ascended, and hung the key upon a projecting part of the rock, nearly thirty feet from the ground. Rosa was now recovered ; Jack seated her on a log which served him as a chair ; and tying her hands together with a long cord, one end of which he fastened to one part of the rock, and holding the other in his hand, he retired to his mat, placing the ladder beneath him, and sunk again into a sound sleep.

Rosa was now lost to all hope : she despaired of effecting her escape, or the release of her suffering lover. Distracted at the thought, she knew not what to do ; the obstacles seemed insurmountable, and she gave up all as lost. The idea of Jack again awaking, and perhaps putting a period to the existence of her lover, for his attempting to escape, presented itself to her troubled mind—the agony of thus losing her lover, and the dreadful situation she saw him in, almost overcame her resolution. After some time spent in anxious thought, hope illuminated her heart Near where she sat was placed a table, on which stood a lighted taper; and her only means was to consume the cord that bound her hands. Joyful at the idea, she drew the table nearer with her feet, and holding her hands over the light, burnt the cord. Now disengaged, she tied the end of the rope to the leg