d their ears and fled in terror. To the ignorant populace the Vier
Prison was the home of noisome serpents and the rendezvous of the devil
and his witches of Rocbert.

When therefore the seafaring merchant of the Vier Marchi, whose massive,
brass-studded bahue had been as a gay bazaar where the gentry of Jersey
refreshed their wardrobes, with one eye closed--when he was transferred
to the Vier Prison, little wonder he should become a dreadful being
round whom played the lightnings of dark fancy. Elie Mattingley the
popular sinner, with insolent gold rings in his ears, unchallenged as to
how he came by his merchandise, was one person; Elie Mattingley, a torch
for the burning, and housed amid the terrors of the Vier Prison, was
another.

Few people in Jersey slept the night before his execution. Here and
there kind-hearted women or unimportant men lay awake through pity, and
a few through a vague sense of loss; for, henceforth, the Vier Marchi
would lack a familiar interest; but mostly the people of Mattingley's
world were wakeful through curiosity. Morbid expectation of the hanging
had for them a gruesome diversion. The thing itself would break the
daily monotony of life and provide hushed gossip for vraic gatherings
and veilles for a long time to come. Thus Elie Mattingley would not die
in vain!

Here was one sensation, but there was still another. Olivier Delagarde
had been unmasked, and the whole island had gone tracking him down. No
aged toothless tiger was ever sported through the jungle by an army
of shikarris with hungrier malice than was this broken traitor by the
people he had betrayed. Ensued, therefore, a commingling of patriotism
with lust of man-hunting and eager expectation of to-morrow's sacrifice.

Nothing of this excitement disturbed Mattingley. He did not sleep, but
that was because he was still watching for a means of escape. He felt
his chances diminish, however, when about midnight an extra guard was
put round the prison. Something had gone amiss in the matter of his
rescue.

Three things had been planned.

Firstly, he was to try escape by the small window of the dungeon.

Secondly, Carterette was to bring Sebastian Alixandre to the prison
disguised as a sorrowing aunt of the condemned. Alixandre was suddenly
to overpower the jailer, Mattingley was to make a rush for freedom, and
a few bold spirits without would second his efforts and smuggle him
to the sea. The directing mind and hand in the