“Yes, it is so. I myself am a poor nothing. Oh, that I had the manhood of Marcianus!”
“Press against the bar, master. With a little force it will yield.”
Pedo removed the lamp that he had suspended by a hook from the crossbar. Baudillas threw himself with his full weight against the grating, and the stanchion did actually snap under the impact, at the place where filed.
“That is well,” said the slave. “Thy side of the bar is also nearly rasped through. Then we must saw across this upright staff of iron. To my thinking it is not fastened below.”
“It is not. I have thrust my foot between it and the paving. Methinks it ends in a spike and barbs.”
“If it please God that we remove the grating, then thou must follow me, bending low.”
“Is the distance great?”
“Sixty-four paces of thine; of mine, more, as I do but hobble.”
“Hah! this is ill-luck.”
With the energy of filing, and owing to the loosened condition of the bar, the lamp had been displaced, and it fell from where it had been suspended and was extinguished in the water.