“‘Yes, sure; see the bed and pillows lying on the grass yonder.’
“‘Oh, the cunning knave,’ said a third; ‘he threw those things out to soften his fall.’
“They searched the room, and, in fact, all the house; but I was so well concealed up the winding chimney that although they looked up they could not perceive me.
“The old woman and her friends left the room, and there I sat among the soot thinking what should be done next.
“The bed was brought up again, and the old woman tidied her room, and towards night went out, for, as she said, she was afraid to sleep there alone that night.
“She locked the door upon me, and as soon as I heard her do so I crept down, and lay for an hour in her clean sheets.
“When midnight chimed from the church towers I got up and tore the old woman’s sheets into strips.
“With these strips I made a sort of rope, and let myself down into the fields below.
“Seeing a black-looking forest not far off I ran towards it, and slept for an hour or two.
“My first business in the morning was to make towards a village to get bread, for I was almost famished with hunger.