We can easily get away unseen, and you may be sure that no one will
come out on the ice to look for us. We must be twenty miles away before
dawn."
The boat was a heavy one, and they stumbled and fell several times;
for there was no foothold, and both were lightly made men. At last they
reached the running water and cautiously launched into it.
"We must lie down in the bottom of the boat," said Kosmaroff, "and take
our chances of being crushed until we are past the citadel."
As he spoke they shot under the bridge. Above them, to the left, towered
the terrace of the castle, and the square face of that great building
which has seen so many vicissitudes. Every window was alight. For
the castle is used as a barracks now, and the soldiers, having been
partially withdrawn from the streets, were going to bed. Soon these
lights were left behind, and the outline of the citadel, half buried in
trees, could be dimly seen. Then suddenly they left the city behind, and
were borne on the breast of the river into the outer darkness beyond.
Kosmaroff sat up.
"Give me a piece of bread," he said. "I am famished."
But he received no answer. Prince Martin was asleep.
The sky was beginning to clear.
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