s, then," said Coconnas, "and let your son repeat after me,
word for word, the prayer I shall say."

The father obeyed first.

"I am ready," said the son, also kneeling.

Coconnas then began to repeat in Latin the words of the _Credo_. But
whether from chance or calculation, young Olivier knelt close to where
his sword had fallen. Scarcely did he see this weapon within his reach
than, not ceasing to repeat the words which Coconnas dictated, he
stretched out his hand to take it up. Coconnas watched the movement,
although he pretended not to see it; but at the moment when the young
man touched the handle of the sword with his fingers he rushed on him,
knocked him over, exclaiming, "Ah, traitor!" and plunged his dagger into
his throat.

The youth uttered one cry, raised himself convulsively on his knee, and
fell dead.

"Ah, ruffian!" shrieked Mercandon, "you slay us to rob us of the hundred
rose nobles you owe us."

"Faith! no," said Coconnas, "and the proof,"--and as he said these words
he flung at the old man's feet the purse which his father had given him
before his departure to pay his creditor,--"and the proof," he went on
to say, "is this money which I give you!"

"And here's your death!" cried the old woman from the window.

"Take care, M. de Coconnas, take care!" called out the lady at the Hotel
de Guise.

But before Coconnas could turn his head to comply with this advice, or
get out of the way of the threat, a heavy mass came hissing through the
air, fell on the Piedmontese's hat, broke his sword, and prostrated him
on the pavement; he was overcome, crushed, so that he did not hear the
double cry of joy and distress which came from the right and left.

Mercandon instantly rushed, dagger in hand, on Coconnas, now bereft of
his senses; but at this moment the door of the Hotel de Guise opened,
and the old man, seeing swords and partisans gleaming, fled, while the
lady he had called "Madame la Duchesse," her beauty terrible in the
light of the flames, dazzling with diamonds and other gems, leaned half
out of the window, in order to direct the newcomers, pointing her arm
toward Coconnas.

"There! there! in front of me--a gentleman in a red doublet.
There!--that is he--yes, that is he."

CHAPTER X.

DEATH, MASS, OR THE BASTILLE.

Marguerite, as we have said, had shut the door and returned to her
chamber. But as she entered, panting, she saw Gillonne, who,
terror-struck, was leaning against the