The ground he stood on was only encumbered close to the wall by rank weeds and low thickets, and was principally composed of damp, soft turf.

The bricks, therefore, as he carefully detached them, made no greater noise in falling than the slight rustling caused by their sudden contact with the boughs through which they descended.

Insignificant as this sound was, it aroused the apprehension of the wary Pagan.

He laid down his iron bar, and removed the thickets by dragging them up, or breaking them at the roots, until he had cleared a space of some feet in extent before the base of the wall.

He then returned to his toilsome task, and with hands bleeding from the wounds inflicted by the thorns he had grasped in removing the thickets continued his labour at the brick-work.