though my reason revolts against a belief in
this nightmare of yours, I am not such a fool as to refuse to pay
any attention to it. I know that you are no coward, and certainly
not one to indulge in wild fancies.

"Let us go a step farther. Suppose that all this should turn out
true, and that you, I, and--and some lady--are in disguise in the
midst of a howling mob shouting, 'Death to the Huguenots!' What
should we do next? Where should we go?

"It seems to me that your disguise for me is a badly chosen one. As
a monk, how could I keep with you as a beggar, still less with a
woman?"

"When I bought the monk's robe I had not thought of a woman,
monsieur. That was an afterthought. But what you say is just. I
must get you another disguise. You shall be dressed as a butcher,
or a smith."

"Let it be a smith, by all means, Pierre. Besides, it would be
safer. I would smear my face with dirt. I should get plenty on my
hands from climbing over the roofs.

"Let us suppose ourselves, then, in the mob. What should we do
next?"

"That would all depend, sir, whether the soldiers follow the Guises
and take part with the mob in their rising. If so, Paris would be
in a turmoil from end to end, and the gates closed. I have thought
it all over, again and again; and while your worship has been
attending the entertainments, I have been walking about Paris.

"If it is at night I should say we had best make for the river,
take a boat and drift down; or else make for the walls, and lower
ourselves by a rope from them. If it is in the day we could not do
that; and I have found a hovel, at present untenanted, close to the
walls, and we could wait there until night."

"You will end by making me believe this, Pierre," Philip said
angrily, as he again walked up and down the room, with impatient
steps. "If you had a shadow of foundation for what you say, even a
rumour that you had picked up in the street, I would go straight to
the Admiral. But how could I go and say:

"'My servant, who is a faithful fellow, has taken it into his head
that there is danger from an attack on us by the mob.'

"What think you the Admiral would say to that? He would say that it
was next door to treason to imagine such things, and that if men
were to act upon such fancies as these, they would be fit only for
hospitals for the insane. Moreover he would say that, even if you
had evidence, even if you had something to show that treachery was
meant, he would