Avon Modern Short Story Monthly #36 — page 92: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

~ a a oe ee a Vi Tote , i we SRT Diet ate F< Lae’ he ttre NN bx 0 ee re au tie. . “fy fy ba -—. - x ie ~ | "Tice Vight of Escape 7) CASANOVA’S ESCAPE FROM THE PIOMBI ATRICIAN influence from without had procured Casanova’s removal in August of that year, 1756, from the loathsome cell he had occupied for thirteen months in the Piombi—so called from the leaded roof immediately above those prisons which are simply the garrets of the Doge’s palace. That cell had been no better than a kennel seldom reached by the light of day, and so shallow that it was impossible for a man of his fine height to stand upright in it. But his present prison was com- paratively spacious and it was airy and well-lighted. by a barred window, whence he could see the Lido. Yet he was desperately chagrined at the change, for he had almost completed his arrangements to break out of his former cell. The only ray of hope in his present despair came from the fact that the im- plement to which he trusted was still in his possession, safely con- cealed in the upholstery of the armchair that had been moved with him into his present quarters. That implement he had fashioned for himself with infinite pains out of a door-bolt some twenty inches long, which he had found discarded in a rubbish-heap in a corner of the attic where he had been allowed to take his brief daily exercise. Using as a whetstone a small slab of black marble, similarly acquired, he had shaped that bolt into a sharp octagonal-pointed chisel or spontoon. . It remained in his possession, but he saw no chance of using it now, for the suspicions of Lorenzo, the gaoler, were aroused, and daily a couple of archers came to sound the floors and walls. True they did not sound the ceiling, which was low and within reach. 92 Gomichbooks (E(0)