Secretly, for it was not Peppy's way to take men into his confidence
where it might be avoided, he got himself a coil of rope. Having
descended and quietly opened the postern, he made one end fast and
lowered the other to the water with extreme care, lest he should
dislodge, and so lose, that paper.
Assuring himself again that he was unobserved, he went down, hand over
hand, like a monkey, his feet against the rough-hewn granite of the wall.
Then, with a little swinging of the rope, he brought himself nearer that
crumpled ball, his legs now dangling in the angry water, and by a mighty
stretch that all but precipitated him into the torrent, he seized the
paper and transferred it to his teeth. Then hand over hand again, and
with a frantic haste, for he feared observation not only from the castle
sentries but also from the watchers in the besieger's camp, he climbed
back to the postern, exulting in that he had gone unobserved, and
contemptuous for the vigilance of those that should have observed him.
Softly he closed the wicket, locked it and shot home the bolts at top and
base, and went to replace the key on its nail in the guard-room, which he
found untenanted. Next, with that mysterious letter in his hand, he
scampered off across the courtyard and through the porch leading to the
domestic quarters, nor paused until he had gained the kitchen, where Fra
Domenico was roasting the quarter of a lamb that he had that morning
butchered. For now that the siege was established, there was no more
fish from the brook, nor hares and ortolans from the country-side.
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