His first glance had informed him of the position of affairs in the dungeon, and, with the door closed against retreat, his survey, it may be supposed, was not calculated to encourage him. While he was yet overwhelmed with alarm, Hildebrand, seizing his arm with one hand, levelled one of his pistols at him with the other, and, in a decided and peremptory tone, proceeded to require his surrender. “Lie thee down there,” he said, pointing to where his master, the gaoler, still lay senseless, “and no harm shall come to thee. If thou hesitate, I will straight take thy life.” The man, however, did hesitate, though only for a moment. Seeing that Hildebrand displayed no indecision, he shortly fulfilled his injunction, and laid himself down by the gaoler without a word. All these incidents, which it has taken so long to describe, scarcely occupied a moment, and, as has been remarked, the gaoler was still insensible. Hildebrand did not fail to seize this advantage. Directly the gaoler’s man had lain down, he hastened to secure him, and, at the same time, further secure his master, by tying them together by their arms and legs. Their leather girdles, with the sash of his companion, which he quickly possessed himself of, supplied him with the necessary bonds; and, in a moment after the design had occurred to him, they no longer afforded him ground for any apprehension. Having tied them well together, he turned to his ally. “Now, Senhor, quick!” he said. “Take up the light, and lead the way.” The young Spaniard, with a trembling hand, which Hildebrand did not overlook, caught up the lamp, and drew open the door. Hildebrand followed him into the passage, when, turning round, he paused to secure the door. Having drawn it home to the jamb, and shot the bolts into their sockets, he prepared to set forward again. “Art thou well advised of the way?” he whispered to his companion. “Right surely,” answered the other. “But there is a chamber on one side of the door, overlooking the passage, where, when I entered, there was an alguazil on guard. I waited there, on my entry, while the gaoler examined my pass; and I noted that the alguazil was armed.” Although Hildebrand had remarked in the young cavalier what he could not but consider as traces of cowardice, the manner in which he delivered this information, and the forethought and judgment revealed by its acquisition, effaced the impression he had conceived in that respect, and quite restored him to his esteem. Indeed, he began to think, from his present bearing and aspect, that the manifestations which he had supposed to indicate pusillanimity were rather the effect of the passing excitement, and that it was the novelty of his situation, not its peril, that had so sensibly agitated him. He did not pause to make these reflections, but, with the quickness of perception peculiar to his profession, caught them on the instant; and then rendered his reply.