esty, there is not one of us whom they would suffer
to survive you, even if we would."

"Now, that is what I call good corporal bail for fidelity," said Le
Glorieux, who, as already mentioned, with the restlessness proper to an
infirm brain, had thrust himself into their company.

Meanwhile the Seneschal, hastily summoned, was turning with laborious
effort the ponderous key which opened the reluctant gate of the huge
Gothic Keep, and was at last fain to call for the assistance of one of
Crevecoeur's attendants. When they had succeeded, six men entered
with torches, and showed the way through a narrow and winding passage,
commanded at different points by shot holes from vaults and casements
constructed behind, and in the thickness of the massive walls. At the
end of this passage arose a stair of corresponding rudeness, consisting
of huge blocks of stone, roughly dressed with the hammer, and of unequal
height. Having mounted this ascent, a strong iron clenched door admitted
them to what had been the great hall of the donjon, lighted but very
faintly even during the daytime (for the apertures, diminished, in
appearance by the excessive thickness of the walls, resembled slits
rather than windows), and now but for the blaze of the torches, almost
perfectly dark. Two or three bats, and other birds of evil presage,
roused by the unusual glare, flew against the lights, and threatened
to extinguish them; while the Seneschal formally apologized to the King
that the State Hall had not been put in order, such was the hurry of the
notice sent to him, adding that, in truth, the apartment had not been in
use for twenty years, and rarely before that time, so far as ever he had
heard, since the time of King Charles the Simple.

"King Charles the Simple!" echoed Louis; "I know the history of the
Tower now.--He was here murdered by his treacherous vassal, Herbert,
Earl of Vermandois.--So say our annals. I knew there was something
concerning the Castle of Peronne which dwelt on my mind, though I could
not recall the circumstance.--Here, then, my predecessor was slain!"

"Not here, not exactly here, and please your Majesty," said the old
Seneschal, stepping with the eager haste of a cicerone who shows the
curiosities of such a place.

"Not here, but in the side chamber a little onward, which opens from
your Majesty's bedchamber."

He hastily opened a wicket at the upper end of the hall, which led into
a bedchamber, small, as is usual