Count Hannibal

The unknown dealt the fellow a buffet with his fist. "Down, rascal!" he

said hoarsely. "And you"--to the officer--"show me instantly to M. de

Biron!"

But the lieutenant, who stood in fear of his men, looked at him

doubtfully.

"Nay," he said, "not so fast!" And one of the others, taking the lead,

cried, "No! We may have no need of M. de Biron. Your name, monsieur,

first."

With a quick movement the stranger gripped the officer's wrist.

"Tell your master," he said, "that he who clasped his wrist thus on the

night of Pentecost is here, and would speak with him! And say, mark you,

that I will come to him, not he to me!"

The sign and the tone imposed upon the boldest. Two-thirds of the watch

were Huguenots, who burned to avenge the blood of their fellows; and

these, overriding their officer, had agreed to deal with the intruder, if

a Papegot, without recourse to the Grand Master, whose moderation they

dreaded. A knife-thrust in the ribs, and another body in the ditch--why

not, when such things were done outside? But even these doubted now; and

M. Peridol, the lieutenant, reading in the eyes of his men the suspicions

which he had himself conceived, was only anxious to obey, if they would

let him. So gravely was he impressed, indeed, by the bearing of the

unknown that he turned when he had withdrawn, and came back to assure

himself that the men meditated no harm in his absence; nor until he had

exchanged a whisper with one of them would he leave them and go.

While he was gone on his errand the envoy leaned against the wall of the

gateway, and, with his chin sunk on his breast and his mind fallen into

reverie, seemed unconscious of the dark glances of which he was the

target. He remained in this position until the officer came back,

followed by a man with a lanthorn. Their coming roused the unknown, who,

invited to follow Peridol, traversed two courts without remark, and in

the same silence entered a building in the extreme eastern corner of the

enceinte abutting on the ruined Tour de Billy. Here, in an upper floor,

the Governor of the Arsenal had established his temporary lodging.

The chamber into which the stranger was introduced betrayed the haste in

which it had been prepared for its occupant. Two silver lamps which hung

from the beams of the unceiled roof shed light on a medley of arms and

inlaid armour, of parchments, books and steel caskets, which encumbered

not the tables only, but the stools and chests that, after the fashion of

that day, stood formally along the arras. In the midst of the disorder,

on the bare floor, walked the man who, more than any other, had been

instrumental in drawing the Huguenots to Paris--and to their doom. It

was no marvel that the events of the day, the surprise and horror, still

rode his mind; nor wonderful that even he, who passed for a model of

stiffness and reticence, betrayed for once the indignation which filled

his breast. Until the officer had withdrawn and closed the door he did,

indeed, keep silence; standing beside the table and eyeing his visitor

with a lofty porte and a stern glance. But the moment he was assured

that they were alone he spoke.