if I touch
this bell"--and he pointed to another than the one which he had
already rung--"they will appear. Monsieur St. Georges, will you quit
Paris to-night and France directly afterward, or shall I call in the
soldiers?"

"Call in the soldiers," the other replied, now thoroughly desperate,
"or the servant, or as many of your following as you choose! Only--ere
you do so hear me," and he raised his hand in so authoritative a
manner that Louvois, who had made a step toward the bell, paused in
astonishment. Then St. Georges continued: "I am resolved to obtain an
audience of the king to-night, and can do so if not thwarted. My
charger is fleeter than the horses of his state carriage; I can reach
Marly as soon as he. To-day is Thursday, _le jour des audiences
iconnues_; it is my chance. Now, monsieur, shall I see the king
to-night unmolested, unprevented by you, or shall I be dragged before
him an assassin to plead my cause? A murderer, but a righteous one?"

"An assassin--a murderer!" exclaimed Louvois, stepping back, while his
face blanched. "Explain yourself."

"Then listen--and--abstain from that bell till you have heard
me"--seeing that the other's eye roved toward it. "I intend," speaking
rapidly, "to see the king to-night or in the morning at latest, and to
tell him of the foul plot of which an officer of his _chevaux-legers_
has been the victim; to ask him if, bearing this about me"--and he
produced from his breast the letter ordering him to leave Pontarlier
and travel to Paris--"he approves of the manner in which I have been
spied upon, tracked, nigh done to death, and robbed of my most
precious treasure, my child; to sue for permission to seek out those
who have done this thing and bring them at last to justice. And, M. de
Louvois, I tell you face to face and man to man that, if you approach
that bell, summon your soldiers until I am outside this door, they
shall find you a dead man when they open it! Once outside I can answer
for myself. Now choose!"

And as he spoke his right hand went round to his sword-hilt, while his
left raised the scabbard, so that the blade could easily be drawn.

CHAPTER XVI.

PASQUEDIEU!

St. Georges was not, however, destined to arrive at Marly on that
night, nor to see Louis and lay his story before him.

On quitting Louvois he made his way swiftly along the corridor leading
from the chamber on the ground floor in which he had been received to
the courtyard, no int