“But the bars?”
“We must remove one. Luckily they are single, so that one will be enough.”
“It is ninety feet from the ground.”
“We must get a rope.”
“A rope? Yes. But where?”
“I do not know,” I said, but I arose and went to the window. Yes, it was not less than ninety feet from the ground.
“Well,” said Richelieu, at my elbow, “suppose we had a rope. Suppose we had the bar out. What then? Do you not see the court is full of soldiers? We could not hope to escape them. But even if we did, there is the outer wall still to pass,—forty feet high and with a sentry at every twenty paces.”
I saw that what he said was true. To descend into the court would be to enter a nest of hornets. But of a sudden a new thought came to me.
“Well,” I asked, “if one way is impossible, why not try the other?”
“The other?” exclaimed Richelieu. “What other, de Brancas?”