The door closed on him; I waited in silence and with a beating heart. It was a long five minutes which elapsed; but at its expiration, as nearly as I could judge, I inserted the short crowbar between the staple which held the bolt, and the lintel of the door. The wood was crumbling and rotten, and the iron eaten with long gathering rust. Gradually, as I applied my strength, the mouldy timber gave way beneath the pressure, and the metal creaked and crackled. I could have burst it off with one effort of my muscles, but I feared to make a noise; and so, gradually working the point of the crowbar further and further into the wreck of the dilapidated fastenings, I increased the strain, until at length, with one long, steady and vehement wrench, I tore the staples from the yielding wood. The metal fell with a clash upon the floor; the door, which opened inwardly, swung back; and I saw—the ferret eyes and the twitching visage of the alcaide’s clerk, staring and grinning through the opening. I started back as though a demon had looked me in the face. The small wrinkled and puckered features worked and twisted, and the eyes gleamed so as to resemble nothing earthly. Then I saw the hand of the clerk creep stealthily towards the bosom of his mean doublet, without doubt to pluck therefrom a weapon; his lips moved, and the first syllables of a cry of alarm had passed them, when I sprang forward, and the grasp of my fingers round his meagre throat smothered the words. All this took place in an instant. I dragged the wretch inside the cell; struck to the door with a blow of my foot, and clutching both his thin wrists in my left hand, gripped his throat with my right, until the skin got blue and the eyes protruded all glaring and bloodshot. I thought for a moment to strangle him as we stood, but as I felt the weak struggles of the hapless creature, who writhed like a child in my grasp, my heart softened. I released my hold upon his throat. ‘Were you strong and I weak,’ I whispered to him, ‘there would be little pity shown. You are athirst for my blood, but Providence has willed that you shall not be gratified. As I grant you mercy now, show mercy to others.’ The clerk tried to speak, but only husky murmurs passed his lips. ‘Lie there,’ I continued, ‘until your friends come to your rescue.’