"I have noticed all day that the family is gradually succumbing to the
ravages of hunger and thirst.... If we call for help it will mean a
FIRING SQUAD for sure.... The criminal crew who have already reported
our death will HAVE to KILL us to make good their boast.... So we must
stay here and silently watch one another collapse from day to day....
"... My prisoner says he is willing to give himself up if his death
will enable the rest of us to escape.... The girls will not listen
to such a proposition,--they are all agreed that they would rather
organize themselves into a little platoon and FIGHT IT OUT if we
can ever get out of this cistern.... It indicates a mighty good
spirit,--but that gang outside would have us strung up in the
twinkling of an eye....
"... I KNOW that Marie expects ME to do something from the inquiring
way she gazes in my eyes.... She says nothing, but any man of spirit
who looks into such clear, unflinching eyes under conditions such
as these, will understand instinctively what is written in their
suggestive depths!... They literally SHAME me for the little I
can do.... Some lounge lizards may speculate on the nature of the
sentiments this grateful princess will reveal if I display sufficient
ingenuity to save us all from this slowly approaching DEATH!... How
dramatic!... How absurd!
"... I have lately laughed at those Italian poets who bewail the
isolation of their Lauras, yet, recalling my Lady Buckingham's
repeated rescues, I begin to recognize a reason for the existence of
that poetic fervor which agitates the artistic heart when either its
safety or its vanity is at stake."...