emy, Henri le Balafre, the splendid Duke
of Guise, "our great man," and "Lorraine," as the crowd called him--he,
it was rumoured, was in disgrace at court. In a word these things, to
say nothing of the peaceful and joyous occasion which had brought the
Huguenots to Paris, and which seemed to put treachery out of the
question, were more than enough to prevent me forecasting the event.

If for a moment, indeed, as I hurried along towards the river, anything
like the truth occurred to me, I put it from me. I say with pride I
put it from me as a thing impossible. For God forbid--one may speak
out the truth these forty years back--God forbid, say I, that all
Frenchmen should bear the blood guiltiness which came of other than
French brains, though French were the hands that did the work.

I was not greatly troubled by my forebodings therefore: and the state
of exaltation to which Madame d'O's confidence had raised my spirits
lasted until one of the narrow streets by the Louvre brought me
suddenly within sight of the river. Here faint moonlight bursting
momentarily through the clouds was shining on the placid surface of the
water. The fresh air played upon, and cooled my temples. And this
with the quiet scene so abruptly presented to me, gave check to my
thoughts, and somewhat sobered me.

At some distance to my left I could distinguish in the middle of the
river the pile of buildings which crowd the Ile de la Cite, and could
follow the nearer arm of the stream as it swept landwards of these,
closely hemmed in by houses, but unbroken as yet by the arches of the
Pont Neuf which I have lived to see built. Not far from me on my
right--indeed within a stone's throw--the bulky mass of the Louvre rose
dark and shapeless against the sky. Only a narrow open space--the
foreshore--separated me from the water; beyond which I could see an
irregular line of buildings, that no doubt formed the Faubourg St.
Germain.

I had been told that I should find stairs leading down to the water,
and boats moored at the foot of them, at this point. Accordingly I
walked quickly across the open space to a spot, where I made out a
couple of posts set up on the brink--doubtless to mark the landing
place.

I had not gone ten paces, however, out of the shadow, before I chanced
to look round, and discerned with an unpleasant eerie feeling three
figures detach themselves from it, and advance in a row behind me, so
as the better to cut off my retre