the shop without fear of being
made to adore the Virgin. By seven in the evening, in April, 1560,
darkness was already falling, and the apprentices, seeing no signs of
customers on either side of the arcade, were beginning to take in the
merchandise exposed as samples beneath the pillars, in order to close
the shop. Christophe Lecamus, an ardent young man about twenty-two years
old, was standing on the sill of the shop-door, apparently watching the
apprentices.

"Monsieur," said one of them, addressing Christophe and pointing to
a man who was walking to and fro under the gallery with an air of
indecision, "perhaps that's a thief or a spy; anyhow, the shabby wretch
can't be an honest man; if he wanted to speak to us he would come
over frankly, instead of sidling along as he does--and what a face!"
continued the apprentice, mimicking the man, "with his nose in his
cloak, his yellow eyes, and that famished look!"

When the stranger thus described caught sight of Christophe alone on
the door-sill, he suddenly left the opposite gallery where he was then
walking, crossed the street rapidly, and came under the arcade in front
of the Lecamus house. There he passed slowly along in front of the shop,
and before the apprentices returned to close the outer shutters he said
to Christophe in a low voice:--

"I am Chaudieu."

Hearing the name of one of the most illustrious ministers and devoted
actors in the terrible drama called "The Reformation," Christophe
quivered as a faithful peasant might have quivered on recognizing his
disguised king.

"Perhaps you would like to see some furs? Though it is almost dark
I will show you some myself," said Christophe, wishing to throw the
apprentices, whom he heard behind him, off the scent.

With a wave of his hand he invited the minister to enter the shop, but
the latter replied that he preferred to converse outside. Christophe
then fetched his cap and followed the disciple of Calvin.

Though banished by an edict, Chaudieu, the secret envoy of Theodore de
Beze and Calvin (who were directing the French Reformation from Geneva),
went and came, risking the cruel punishment to which the Parliament, in
unison with the Church and Royalty, had condemned one of their number,
the celebrated Anne du Bourg, in order to make a terrible example.
Chaudieu, whose brother was a captain and one of Admiral Coligny's best
soldiers, was a powerful auxiliary by whose arm Calvin shook France at
the beginnin