Page:The genius - Carl Grosse tr Joseph Trapp 1796.djvu/192

 ducer smiled contentment and approbation, and soon afterwards had the assurance of claiming the purposed reward for his present. But forewarned as I was, opportunities were never wanting on my part, to evade his tender threats and loathsome caresses.

"Thus some weeks again elapsed, without my having any greater prospect than I had the first day, of effectuating my flight. The danger became daily more urgent; I neither knew the place nor its environs, and was seldom left an hour unguarded. At last I attempted, in the face of a thousand difficulties, that, which under more favourable circumstances I had never felt myself bold enough to execute. A few minutes previous to a fête that was to be given in honour of me, I seized an auspicious moment to deceive the vigilance of my keepers, went into the garden, where by means of a rope-ladder, I ascended a walnut-tree by throwing the rope over one of its lowermost branches, and removing the ladder, climbed up as high as I could towards the top, and hid myself in the thick green of its leaves. Soon after a solemn procession of my