Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/256

234 THE DECLINE AND FALL ful restraint, from which the thirst of action and pleasure per- petually ur^ed him to escape. Alone and pensive, he per- ceived some broken bricks in a comer of the chamber, and gradually widened the passage till he had explored a dark and forgotten recess. Into this hole he conveyed himself and the remains of his provisions, replacing the bricks in their former position, and erasing with care the footsteps of his retreat. At the hour of the customary visit, his guards were amazed by the silence and solitude of the prison, and reported, with shame and fear, his incomprehensible flight. The gates of the palace and city were instantly shut ; the strictest orders were dispatched into the provinces for the recovery of the fugitive ; and his wife, on the suspicion of a pious act, was basely imprisoned in the same tower. At the dead of night, she beheld a spectre : she recognized her husband ; they shared their provisions ; and a son was the fruit of these stolen interviews, which alleviated the tediousness of their confinement. In the custody of a woman, the vigilance of the keepers was insensibly relaxed ; and the captive had accom- plished his real escape, when he was discovered, brought back to Constantinople, and loaded with a double chain. At length he found the moment and the means of his deliverance. A boy, his domestic servant, intoxicated the guards, and obtained in wax the impression of the keys. By the diligence of his friends, a similar key, with a bundle of ropes, was introduced into the prison, in the bottom of a hogshead. Andronicus employed, with industry and courage, the instruments of his safety, unlocked the doors, descended from the tower, con- cealed himself all day among the bushes, and scaled in the night the garden-wall of the palace. A boat was stationed for his reception ; he visited his own house, embraced his children, cast away his chain, mounted a fleet horse, and di- rected his rapid course towards the banks of the Danube. At Anchialus in Thrace, an intrepid friend supplied him with horses and money ; he passed the river, traversed with speed the desert of Moldavia and the Carpathian hills, and had almost reached the town of Halicz. in the Polish Russia, when he was intercepted by a party of Walachians, who resolved to convey their important captive to Constantinople. His presence of mind again extricated him from this danger. Under the pretence of sickness, he dismounted in the night, and was allowed to step aside from the troop ; he planted in the ground his long staff ; clothed it with his cap and upper gar-