Holding the instrument thus obtained within my teeth, I now
proceeded to untie the knot of my cravat. I had to rest several
times before I could accomplish this manoeuvre, but it was at length
accomplished. To one end of the cravat I then made fast the buckle,
and the other end I tied, for greater security, tightly around my
wrist. Drawing now my body upwards, with a prodigious exertion of
muscular force, I succeeded, at the very first trial, in throwing
the buckle over the car, and entangling it, as I had anticipated, in
the circular rim of the wicker-work.
My body was now inclined towards the side of the car, at an angle of
about forty-five degrees; but it must not be understood that I was
therefore only forty-five degrees below the perpendicular. So far from
it, I still lay nearly level with the plane of the horizon; for the
change of situation which I had acquired, had forced the bottom of the
car considerably outwards from my position, which was accordingly
one of the most imminent and deadly peril.
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