stions, that marked the angle where
the ramparts met the Rhone; a point from which the wall descended to the
bridge. In one of these bastions he ensconced himself; and selecting a
place whence he could, without being seen, command the length of the
Corraterie, he set himself to watch the Royaumes' house. By-and-by he
would go into the town and procure food, and, returning, keep guard
until nightfall. After dark, if the day passed without event, he would
find his way into the house by force or fraud. In a rapture of
anticipation he pictured his entrance, her reluctant joy, her tears and
smiles, and fond reproaches. As he loved her, as he must love her the
more for the trick she had played him, she must love him the more for
his return in her teeth. And the next day was Sunday, when it was
unlikely that any steps would be taken. That whole day he would have
with her, through it he would sit with her! A whole day without fear? It
seemed an age. He did not, he would not look beyond it!

He had not broken his fast, and hunger presently drove him into the
town. But within half an hour he was at his post again. A glance at the
Royaumes' house showed him that nothing had happened, and, resuming his
seat in the deserted bastion, he began a watch that as long as he lived
stood clear in his memory of the past. The day was cold and bright, and
frosty with a nipping wind. Mont Blanc and the long range of snow-clad
summits that flanked it rose dazzlingly bright against the blue sky. The
most distant object seemed near; the wavelets on the unfrozen water of
the lake gave to the surface, usually so blue, a rough, grey aspect. The
breeze which produced this appearance kept the ramparts clear of
loiterers; and even those who were abroad preferred the more sheltered
streets, or went hurriedly about their business. The guards were content
to shiver in the guardrooms of the gate-towers, and if Claude blessed
once the kind afterthought which had dropped his cloak from the window,
he blessed it a dozen times. Wrapt in its thick folds, it was all he
could do to hold his ground against the cold. Without it he must have
withdrawn or succumbed.

Through the morning he watched the house jealously, trembling at every
movement which took place at the Tertasse Gate; lest it herald the
approach of the officers to arrest the women. But nothing happened, and
as the day wore on he grew more hopeful. He might, indeed, have begun
to think Anne over-timid