s woman required. These, taking the place for
the moment of the anxious calculations and stern purposes which had of
late engrossed me, were only ousted by something which, happening under
my eyes, brought me violently and abruptly to myself.

This was the sudden appearance of three men, who issued one by one from
an alley a score of yards in front of us, and after pausing a second
to look back the way they had come, flitted on in single file along
the street, disappearing, as far as the darkness permitted me to judge,
round a second corner. I by no means liked their appearance, and, as a
scream and the clash of arms rang out next moment from the direction in
which they had gone, I cried lustily to Simon Fleix to follow, and ran
on, believing from the rascals' movements that they were after no good,
but that rather some honest man was like to be sore beset.

On reaching the lane down which they had plunged, however, I paused a
moment, considering not so much its black-ness, which was intense,
the eaves nearly meeting overhead, as the small chance I had of
distinguishing between attackers and attacked. But Simon and the men
overtaking me, and the sounds of a sharp tussle still continuing,
I decided to venture, and plunged into the alley, my left arm well
advanced, with the skirt of my cloak thrown over it, and my sword drawn
back. I shouted as I ran, thinking that the knaves might desist on
hearing me; and this was what happened, for as I arrived on the scene of
action--the farther end of the alley--two men took to their heels, while
of two who remained, one lay at length in the kennel, and another rose
slowly from his knees.

'You are just in time, sir,' the latter said, breathing hard, but
speaking with a preciseness which sounded familiar. 'I am obliged to
you, sir, whoever you are. The villains had got me down, and in a few
minutes more would have made my mother childless. By the way, you have
no light, have you?' he continued, lisping like a woman.

One of M. de Rambouillet's men, who had by this time come up, cried out
that it was Monsieur Francois.

'Yes, blockhead!' the young gentleman answered with the utmost coolness.
'But I asked for a light, not for my name.

'I trust you are not hurt, sir?' I said, putting up my sword.

'Scratched only,' he answered, betraying no surprise on learning who it
was had come up so opportunely; as he no doubt did learn from my voice,
for he continued with a bow, a slight pr