After we had had a good supper I told them how the affair stood, and that I was determined to escape, and to carry my goods with me.  “And now,” I said, “I want your advice.”

After a brief silence Binetti said if I could get to his house I could lower myself down from a window, and once on the ground I should be outside the town walls and at a distance of a hundred paces from the high road, by which I could travel post and be out of the duke’s dominions by daybreak.  Thereupon Baletti opened the window and found that it would be impossible to escape that way, on account of a wooden roof above a shop.  I looked out also, and seeing that he was right I said that I should no doubt hit on some way of making my escape from the inn, but what troubled me chiefly was my luggage.  The Toscani then said:—­

“You will have to abandon your mails, which you could not take off without attracting attention, and you must send all your effects to my house.  I engage to deliver safely whatever you may put in my care.  I will take away your effects under my clothes in several journeys, and I can begin to-night.”

Baletti thought this idea a good one, and said that to do it the quicker his wife would come and help.  We fixed on this plan, and I promised Binetti to be with him at midnight on Sunday, even if I had to stab the sentry, who was at my door all day, but who went away at night after locking me in.  Baletti said he would provide me with a faithful servant, and a post-chaise with swift horses, which would take my effects in other mails.  To make the best use of the time, the Toscani began to load herself, putting two of my suits of clothes under her dress.  For the next few days my friends served me so well that, at midnight on Saturday, my mails and my dressing case were empty; I kept back all the jewellery intending to carry it in my pocket.

On Sunday, the Toscani brought me the keys of the two mails, in which she had put my goods; and Baletti came also to tell me that all the necessary measures had been taken, and that I should find a post-chaise, under the charge of his servant, waiting for me on the high road.  So far good, and the reader shall now hear how I contrived to escape from my inn.

The sentry confined himself to a small ante-chamber, where he walked up and down, without ever coming into my room, except at my invitation.  As soon as he heard that I had gone to bed he locked the door, and went off till the next day.  He used to sup on a little table in a corner of the ante-room; his food being sent out by me.  Profiting by my knowledge of his habits, I gave my Spaniard the following instructions: