The top of
this netting was provided with two handles, to which were
attached the ends of a cord many fathoms in length; the
whole of such durability, as to have borne weights equal
to those of three ordinary sized men, with which I had
proved it prior to my setting out. My first care was to
bandage the eyes of your mother, (who willingly and
fearlessly submitted to all I proposed,) that she might
not see, and become faint with seeing, the terrible chasm
over which she was about to be suspended. I then placed
her within the netting, which, fitting closely to her
person, and reaching under her arms, completely secured
her; and my next urgent request was, that she would not,
on any account, remove the bandage, or make the slightest
movement, when she found herself stationary below, until
I had joined her. I then dropped her gently through the
aperture, lowering fathom after fathom of the rope, the
ends of which I had firmly secured round the trunk of a
tree, as an additional safeguard, until she finally came
on a level with that part of the cliff on which I had
reposed when first she beheld me.
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