!" said he,
retreating a few steps, so as to guard the door. "Defend your life,
sir!"

"Do you defend yours!"

Both drew at the same moment.

Two shrieks followed, one in the room, the other behind the tapestry,
for neither Angelique nor the widow had been able to restrain her
alarm as the two swords flashed in air. In fact the latter had been so
frightened that she fell heavily to the floor in a faint.

This incident probably saved the young man's life; his blood had already
begun to run cold at the sight of his adversary foaming with rage and
standing between him and the door, when the noise of the fall distracted
the duke's attention.

"What was that?" he cried. "Are there other enemies concealed here too?"
And forgetting that he was leaving a way of escape free, he rushed
in the direction from which the sound came, and lunged at the
tapestry-covered partition with his sword. Meantime the chevalier,
dropping all his airs of bravado, sprang from one end of the room to the
other like a cat pursued by a dog; but rapid as were his movements, the
duke perceived his flight, and dashed after him at the risk of breaking
both his own neck and the chevalier's by a chase through unfamiliar
rooms and down stairs which were plunged in darkness.

All this took place in a few seconds, like a flash of lightning. Twice,
with hardly any interval, the street door opened and shut noisily, and
the two enemies were in the street, one pursued and the other pursuing.

"My God! Just to think of all that has happened is enough to make one
die of fright!" said Mademoiselle de Guerchi. "What will come next,
I should like to know? And what shall I say to the duke when he comes
back?"

Just at this instant a loud cracking sound was heard in the room.
Angelique stood still, once more struck with terror, and recollecting
the cry she had heard. Her hair, which was already loosened, escaped
entirely from its bonds, and she felt it rise on her head as the figures
on the tapestry moved and bent towards her. Falling on her knees and
closing her eyes, she began to invoke the aid of God and all the saints.
But she soon felt herself raised by strong arms, and looking round,
she found herself in the presence of an unknown man, who seemed to have
issued from the ground or the walls, and who, seizing the only light
left unextinguished in the scuffle, dragged her more dead than alive
into the next room.

This man was, as the reader will have alread