led back gave Fresnoy an opening, of
which he was not slow to avail himself. He sprang forward, lunging at me
furiously, and would have run me through there and then, and ended the
matter, bad not his foot, as he advanced, caught in the stool, which
still lay against the wall. He stumbled, his point missed my hip by a
hair's breadth, and he himself fell all his length on the floor, his
rapier breaking off short at the hilt.

His one remaining backer stayed to cast a look at him, and that was all.
The man fled, and I chased him as far as the head of the stairs; where
I left him, assured by the speed and agility he displayed in clearing
flight after flight that I had nothing to fear from him. Fresnoy lay,
apparently stunned, and completely at my mercy. I stood an instant
looking down at him, in two minds whether I should not run him through.
But the memory of old days, when he had played his part in more
honourable fashion and shown a coarse good-fellowship in the field, held
my hand; and flinging a curse at him, I turned in anxious haste to the
door, the centre of all this bloodshed and commotion. The light still
shone through the breach in the panel, but for some minutes--since
Fresnoy's rush up the stairs, indeed--I had heard no sound from
this quarter. Now, looking in with apprehensions which grew with the
continuing silence, I learned the reason. The room was empty!

Such a disappointment in the moment of triumph was hard to bear. I saw
myself, after all done and won, on the point of being again outwitted,
distanced, it might be fooled. In frantic haste and excitement I
snatched up the stool beside me, and, dashing it twice against the lock,
forced it at last to yield. The door swung open, and I rushed into the
room, which, abandoned by those who had so lately occupied it, presented
nothing to detain me. I cast a single glance round, saw that it was
squalid, low-roofed, unfurnished, a mere prison; then swiftly crossing
the floor, I made for a door at the farther end, which my eye had marked
from the first. A candle stood flaring and guttering on a stool, and as
I passed I took it up.

Somewhat to my surprise the door yielded to my touch. In trembling
haste--for what might not befall the women while I fumbled with doors
or wandered in passages?--I flung it wide, and passing through it, found
myself at the head of a narrow, mean staircase, leading, doubtless, to
the servants' offices. At this, and seeing no hindrance