Receiving no answer to his summons, the man climbed through,
followed by three other fellows, all armed to the teeth. You
will see here how important it is not to neglect small
precautions, for had I left the man's gun where I found it, a
search must have followed and I should certainly have been
discovered. As it was, the patrol saw no sign of their sentry,
and thought, no doubt, that he had moved along the line of the
roofs.
They hurried on, therefore, in that direction, and I, the instant
that their backs were turned, rushed to the open trap-door and
descended the flight of steps which led from it. The house
appeared to be an empty one, for I passed through the heart of it
and out, by an open door, into the street beyond.
It was a narrow and deserted lane, but it opened into a broader
road, which was dotted with fires, round which a great number of
soldiers and peasants were sleeping.
The smell within the city was so horrible that one wondered how
people could live in it, for during the months that the siege had
lasted there had been no attempt to cleanse the streets or to
bury the dead.
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