Yet, search as he would, another fifteen days went by before he could find his opportunity.
At length Caleb was placed in charge of a watch upon the wall, and, the other members of his company falling asleep from faintness and fatigue, contrived in the dark to let himself down by a rope which he had secreted, dropping from the end of it into the ditch.

In this ditch he found many dead bodies, and from one of them, that of a peasant who had died but recently, took the clothes and a long winter cloak of sheepskins, which he exchanged for his own garments.

Then, keeping only his sword, which he hid beneath the cloak, he passed the Roman pickets in the gloom and fled into the country.

When daylight came Caleb cut off his beard and trimmed his long hair short.

After this, meeting a countryman with a load of vegetables which he had licence to sell in the Roman camp Caleb bought his store from him for a piece of gold, for he was well furnished with money, promising the simple man that if he said a word of it he would find him out and kill him.