scarcely believe their ears; no, nor their eyes, when a few
minutes later, the street being now quiet, they passed out, and stood in
it shuddering. For there swung the corpse dimly outlined above them!
There! Certainly there! The clerk seized his companion's arm and drew
him back. "It was the fiend!" he stammered. "See, your father is still
there! It was the fiend who helped us!"

But at that the figure they were watching became agitated; an instant
and it slid gently to the ground. It was the soldier. "O ye gods!" he
cried, bent double with silent laughter. "Saw you ever such a trick? How
I longed to kick, if it were but my toe at them, and I forbore! Fools!
Did man ever see a body hung in its sword? But it was a good trick, eh?"
he continued, appealing to them with a simple pride in his invention. "I
had the rope loose in my hand when they came, and I drew it twice round
my neck--and one arm trust me--and swung off gently. It is not every one
who would have thought of that, my children!"

It was odd. They shook with fear, and he with laughter. He did not seem
to give a thought to the danger he had escaped. Pride in his readiness
and a keen sense of the humorous side of the incident possessed him
entirely. At the very door of the house he still chuckled from time to
time; muttering between the ebullitions, "Ah, I must tell Diane! Diane
will be pleased--at that! It was good! Very good!"

Once in the house, however, he acted with more delicacy than might have
been imagined. He stood aside while the other two carried the body
upstairs; and while they were absent, he waited patiently in the bare
room below, which showed signs of occasional use as a stable. Here the
clerk Adrian presently found him, and murmured some apology. Mistress
Marie, he said, had fainted.

"A matter which afflicts you, my friend," the soldier replied with a
grimace, "about as much as your master's death. Pooh, man, do not look
fierce! Good luck to you and your suit. Only if--but this is no house
for gallantry to-night--I had spruced myself and taken a part, you had
had to look to your one ewe lamb, I warrant you!"

The clerk turned pale and red by turns. This man seemed to read his
thoughts as if he had indeed been the fiend. "What do you wish?" he
stammered.

"Only shelter until the early morning when the streets are most quiet;
and a direction to the Rue des Lombards."

"The Rue des Lombards?"

"Yes, why not?" But though the soldier still