'
'I can make shift to hop on my right foot,' I said, 'and for the rest we
must trust to fortune. It can give us no worse gifts than those we have
already.'
'So be it, Teule, and now farewell, for I dare stay no longer. I can
do nothing more. May your good star shine on you and lead you hence
in safety; and Teule, if we never meet again, I pray you think of me
kindly, for there are many in the world who will do otherwise in the
days to come.'
'Farewell, Marina,' I said, and she was gone.
We heard the doors close behind her, and the distant voices of those who
bore her litter, then all was silence. Otomie listened at the window for
a while, but the guards seemed to be gone, where or why I do not know to
this hour, and the only sound was that of distant revelry from the camp.
'And now to the work,' I said to Otomie.
'As you wish, husband, but I fear it will be profitless. I do not trust
that woman. Faithless in all, without doubt she betrays us. Still at the
worst you have the sword, and can use it.'
'It matters little,' I answered. 'Our plight cannot be worse than it is
now; life has no greater evils than torment and death, and they are with
us already.'
Then I sat upon the stool, and my arms being left sound and strong, I
hacked with the sharp sword at the wooden bars of the window, severing
them one by one till there was a space big enough for us to creep
through.
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