I need little help with County lucanor (spoilers) (can't find any other suitable subreddit)

There are game spoilers in this post, just a fair warning, even though everyone is probably off playing SMO

So I've been playing my way through Count Lucanor, doing fairly well I think

I tried to be nice to everyone at the start of the game, so I happily gave up my gold, apples, cane, and cheese

Now I'm stuck with one letter left to collect. I know where it is, I just can't get to it.

It's the green room on the left side of the castle, with the maze or spike walls

There's a chest that I can see very clearly over the other side of a hole.

There's a slot of a lever on the wall, but none of my items work with it

I have been stuck here for HOURS now. I checked for walkthroughs as a last resort and only found a let's play video where the player used the cane at the slot, which raised a platform filling the hole. Except I don't have the cane. I gave it away at the start. So does that mean I'm totally stuck and can't finish the game?