Nicolas de Calviere approving of this plan, desired that it should be carried out at once; but the carpenter pointed out that it would be necessary to wait for stormy weather, when the waters swollen by the rain would by their noise drown the sound of the file.

This precaution was doubly necessary as the box of the sentry was almost exactly above the grating.

M.de Calviere tried to make Maduron give way; but the latter, who was risking more than anyone else, was firm.

So whether they liked it or not, de Calviere and the rest had to await his good pleasure.
Some days later rainy weather set in, and as usual the fountain became fuller; Maduron seeing that the favourable moment had arrived, glided at night into the moat and applied his file, a friend of his who was hidden on the ramparts above pulling a cord attached to Maduron's arm every time the sentinel, in pacing his narrow round, approached the spot.
Before break of day the work was well begun.

Maduron then obliterated all traces of his file by daubing the bars with mud and wax, and withdrew.