in late one afternoon, and he determined to carry his plan into
execution that night. The storehouses were not in the great court,
but in a smaller one off it. Beyond two soldiers at the gate
and a sentry at the commandant's door, no guards were kept in the
courtyards, though a few sentries were placed upon the walls. Hector
had his supper as usual, and Paolo brought in the news that eight
of the waggons had not been unloaded in time to go out. A fatigue
party of soldiers were now completing the work, which would be
finished about nine o'clock. Taking off their boots a little after
that hour they went quietly downstairs, then put them on again
and boldly crossed the courtyard, for the night was so dark that
there was no fear of their figures being perceived.

As they entered the inner yard they again took off their boots
and walked up to the carts. In two of these the carters were fast
asleep. They passed on quietly, feeling in each cart for the sacks,
and were delighted to find that they were all placed in the one
farthest up the yard, which would therefore be the last to go out.
They were tidily piled in lines side by side at the forward end of
the waggon. They cautiously removed the sacks of the middle lines;
Hector lay down feet foremost, and Paolo laid the sacks regularly
over him till they reached the level of the others. Half a dozen
were doubled and packed neatly in at the end, so as to conceal
his head and prevent its being noticed that any had been taken out.
The rest were distributed evenly, so that the sacks were all as
level as before, and no one would have suspected that they had been
disturbed.

Paolo then returned to Hector's room. As the double sacks closing
the orifice at his head had not been packed very tightly, enough