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unknown that he turned when he had withdrawn, and came back to assure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