As I moved forward to the place, many of my comrades caught me by the hand and wrung it, an attention I could well have done without.
'Keep an eye on Clausel!' I whispered to Laclas; and with that, got down on my elbows and knees took the rope in both hands, and worked myself, feet foremost, through the tunnel.

When the earth failed under my feet, I thought my heart would have stopped; and a moment after I was demeaning myself in mid-air like a drunken jumping-jack.

I have never been a model of piety, but at this juncture prayers and a cold sweat burst from me simultaneously.
The line was knotted at intervals of eighteen inches; and to the inexpert it may seem as if it should have been even easy to descend.

The trouble was, this devil of a piece of rope appeared to be inspired, not with life alone, but with a personal malignity against myself.

It turned to the one side, paused for a moment, and then spun me like a toasting-jack to the other; slipped like an eel from the clasp of my feet; kept me all the time in the most outrageous fury of exertion; and dashed me at intervals against the face of the rock.