“I would die rather than make a false accusation.”

“Listen to me,” the Jew said sternly.  “You are weak now, too weak to suffer much.  This day week I will return, and then you had best change your mind, and sign a document I shall bring with me, with the full particulars of the plot to murder the king, and the names of those concerned in it.  This you will sign.  I shall take it to the proper authorities, and obtain a promise that your life shall be spared, on condition of your giving evidence against these persons.”

“I would never sign such a villainous document,” Charlie said.

“You will sign it,” Ben Soloman said calmly.  “When you find yourself roasting over a slow charcoal fire, you will be ready to sign anything I wish you to.”

So saying, he turned and left the room.  He talked for some time to the men outside, then Charlie heard him ride off.

“You villain,” he said to himself.  “When you come, at the end of a week, you will not find me here; but, if I get a chance of having a reckoning with you, it will be bad for you.”

Charlie’s progress was apparently slow.  The next day he was able to sit up and feed himself.  Two days later he could totter across the room, and lie down before the fire.  The men were completely deceived by his acting, and, considering any attempt to escape, in his present weak state, altogether impossible, paid but little heed to him, the peasant frequently absenting himself for hours together.

Looking from his window, Charlie saw that the hut was situated in a thick wood, and, from the blackened appearance of the peasant’s face and garments, he guessed him to be a charcoal burner, and therefore judged that the trees he saw must form part of a forest of considerable extent.

The weather was warm, and his other guard often sat, for a while, outside the door.  During his absence, Charlie lifted the logs of wood piled beside the hearth, and was able to test his returning strength, assuring himself that, although not yet fully recovered, he was gaining ground daily.  He resolved not to wait until the seventh day; for Ben Soloman might change his mind, and return before the day he had named.  He determined, therefore, that on the sixth day he would make the attempt.

He had no fear of being unable to overcome his Jewish guard, as he would have the advantage of a surprise.  He only delayed as long as possible, because he doubted his powers of walking any great distance, and of evading the charcoal burner, who would, on his return, certainly set out in pursuit of him.  Moreover, he wished to remain in the hut nearly up to the time of the Jew’s return, as he was determined to wait in the forest, and revenge himself for the suffering he had caused him, and for the torture to which he intended to put him.

The evening before the day on which he decided to make the attempt, the charcoal burner and the Jew were in earnest conversation.  The word signifying brigand was frequently repeated, and, although he could not understand much more than this, he concluded, from the peasant’s talk and gestures, that he had either come across some of these men in the forest, or had gathered from signs he had observed, perhaps from their fires, that they were there.