e added impatiently.

I replied that it was so.

'You are to go with one friend,' she went on, tearing the glove she
had taken off, to strips in her excitement, 'He is to meet you with one
also?'

'Yes,' I assented reluctantly, 'at the bridge, madame.'

'Then do not go,' she rejoined emphatically. 'Shame on me that I should
betray my husband; but it were worse to send an innocent man to his
death. He will meet you with one sword only, according to his challenge,
but there will be those under the bridge who will make certain work.
There, I have betrayed him now!' she continued bitterly. 'It is done.
Let me go!'

'Nay, but, madame,' I said, feeling more concerned for her, on whom from
the first moment of meeting her I had brought nothing but misfortune,
than surprised by this new treachery on his part, 'will you not run some
risk in returning to him? Is there nothing I can do for you--no step I
can take for your protection?'

'None!' she said repellently and almost rudely, 'except to speed my
going.'

'But you will not pass through the streets alone?'

She laughed so bitterly my heart ached for her. 'The unhappy are always
safe,' she said.

Remembering how short a time it was since I had surprised her in the
first happiness of wedded love, I felt for her all the pity it was
natural I should feel. But the responsibility under which his Majesty's
presence and the charge of mademoiselle laid me forbade me to indulge
in the luxury of evincing my gratitude. Gladly would I have escorted her
back to her home--even if I could not make that home again what it had
been, or restore her husband to the pinnacle from which I had dashed
him--but I dared not do this. I was forced to content myself with less,
and was about to offer to send one of my men with her, when a hurried
knocking at the outer door arrested the words on my lips.

Signing to her to stand still, I listened. The knocking was repeated,
and grew each moment more urgent. There was a little grille, strongly
wired, in the upper part of the door, and this I was about to open in
order to learn what was amiss, when Simon's voice reached me from the
farther side imploring me to open the door quickly. Doubting the lad's
prudence, yet afraid to refuse lest I should lose some warning he had to
give, I paused a second, and then undid the fastenings. The moment the
door gave way he fell in bodily, crying out to me to bar it behind him.
I caught a glimpse through the gap