"Well, you see, peg number one goes in here, where I have picked a hole between the stones. Then I've made this other log into a mallet, and with two cracks there it is firm fixed, so that you can put your weight on it. Now these two go in the same way into the holes above here. So! Now, you see, you can stand up there and look out of that window without asking too much of your toe joint. Try it."
De Catinat sprang up and looked eagerly out between the bars.
"I do not know the place," said he, shaking his head.
"It may be any one of thirty castles which lie upon the south side of Paris, and within six or seven leagues of it. Which can it be? And who has any interest in treating us so? I would that I could see a coat of arms, which might help us. Ah! there is one yonder in the centre of the mullion of the window. But I can scarce read it at the distance. I warrant that your eyes are better than mine, Amos, and that you can read what is on yonder escutcheon."
"On what?"
"On the stone slab in the centre window."
"Yes, I see it plain enough. It looks to me like three turkey-buzzards sitting on a barrel of molasses."
"Three allurions in chief over a tower proper, maybe. Those are the arms of the Provence De Hautevilles. But it cannot be that. They have no chateau within a hundred leagues. No, I cannot tell where we are."
He was dropping back to the floor, and put his weight upon the bar. To his amazement, it came away in his hand.
"Look, Amos, look!" he cried.