the vehicle, and as it passed me I caught at
the window, which luckily was open, and drawing up my legs I hung there
despite the shower of mud which the revolving wheels deposited upon me.

From the bowels of the coach I was greeted by a woman's scream; a pale
face, and a profusion of fair hair flashed before my eyes.

"Fear not, Madame," I shouted. "I am no assassin, but rather one
who stands in imminent peril of assassination, and who craves your
protection."

More I would have said, but at that juncture the lash of the coachman's
whip curled itself about my shoulders, and stung me vilely.

"Get down, you rascal," he bellowed; "get down or I'll draw rein!"

To obey him would have been madness. The crowd surged behind with hoots
and yells, and had I let go I must perforce have fallen into their
hands. So, instead of getting down as he inconsiderately counselled, I
drew myself farther up by a mighty effort, and thrust half my body into
the coach, whereupon the fair lady screamed again, and the whip caressed
my legs. But within the coach sat another woman, dark of hair and
exquisite of face, who eyed my advent with a disdainful glance. Her
proud countenance bore the stamp of courage, and to her it was that I
directed my appeal.

"Madame, permit me, I pray, to seek shelter in your carriage, and suffer
me to journey a little way with you. Quick, Madame! Your coachman is
drawing rein, and I shall of a certainty be murdered under your very
nose unless you bid him change his mind. To be murdered in itself is a
trifling matter, I avow, but it is not nice to behold, and I would not,
for all the world, offend your eyes with the spectacle of it."

I had judged her rightly, and my tone of flippant recklessness won
me her sympathy and aid. Quickly thrusting her head through the other
window:

"Drive on, Louis," she commanded. "Faster!" Then turning to me, "You may
bring your legs into the coach if you choose, sir," she said.

"Your words, Madame, are the sweetest music I have heard for months," I
answered drily, as I obeyed her. Then leaning out of the carriage again
I waved my hat gallantly to the mob which--now realising the futility of
further pursuit--had suddenly come to a halt.

"Au plaisir de vous revoir, Messieurs," I shouted. "Come to me one by
one, and I'll keep the devil busy finding lodgings for you."

They answered me with a yell, and I sat down content, and laughed.

"You are not a coward, Monsieur," sai