“Now the temple was far away in a wood in the suburbs, and to make successful pursuit impossible I had hired three fleet horses, and they would be in waiting at a certain rendezvous, where I with my brother and Rhadda would meet them at a particular hour late at night.
“But I had something else to do before this took place. I was to eat food with the priests that night, and drink so-called ‘holy wine.’ It was arrack pure and simple.
“However, I must devise a means of leaving their company so as not to excite suspicion.
“The ‘holy wine’ was never taken out till all the servants had salaamed and retired for the night.”
Here Antonio smiled grimly.
“I made that ‘holy wine’ still more holy that evening,” he said; “and scarcely had the priests partaken twice of it, ere they sank to sleep on their divans or mats, or even beneath the table.
. . . . . .
“So far everything was satisfactory.
“But the servants constituted the danger. They slept on mats behind the doors or in the long corridors, so I determined to escape by the open window.
“I borrowed—well, perhaps it was theft—I stole, then, a long dark camels’-hair cloak to hide my white dress, and exchanged my turban for a little straw skull-cap.