eside him. I clutched
Marie's arm, and pointed to the bareheaded figure at Bezers' right hand.

It was Louis himself: our Louis de Pavannes, But he was changed indeed
from the gay cavalier I remembered, and whom I had last seen riding
down the street at Caylus, smiling back at us, and waving his adieux to
his mistress! Beside the Vidame he had the air of being slight, even
short. The face which I had known so bright and winning, was now white
and set. His fair, curling hair--scarce darker than Croisette's--hung
dank, bedabbled with blood which flowed from a wound in his head. His
sword was gone; his dress was torn and disordered and covered with
dust. His lips moved. But he held up his head, he bore himself
bravely with it all; so bravely, that I choked, and my heart seemed
bursting as I looked at him standing there forlorn and now unarmed. I
knew that Kit seeing him thus would gladly have died with him; and I
thanked God she did not see him. Yet there was a quietness in his
fortitude which made a great difference between his air and that of
Bezers. He lacked, as became one looking unarmed on certain death, the
sneer and smile of the giant beside him.

What was the Vidame about to do? I shuddered as I asked myself. Not
surrender him, not fling him bodily to the people? No not that: I
felt sure he would let no others share his vengeance that his pride
would not suffer that. And even while I wondered the doubt was solved.
I saw Bezers raise his hand in a peculiar fashion. Simultaneously a
cry rang sharply out above the tumult, and down in headlong charge
towards the farther steps came the band of horsemen, who had got clear
of the crowd on that side. They were but ten or twelve, but under his
eye they charged, as if they had been a thousand. The rabble shrank
from the collision, and fled aside. Quick as thought the riders
swerved; and changing their course, galloped through the looser part of
the throng, and in a trice drew rein side by side with us, a laugh and
a jeer on their reckless lips.

It was neatly done: and while it was being done the Vidame and his
knot of men, with those who had been searching the building, hurried
down the gallery towards us, their rear cleared for the moment by the
troopers' feint. The dismounted men came bundling down the steps,
their eyes aglow with the war-fire, and got horses as they could.
Among them I lost sight of Louis, but perceived him presently, pale and
bew