of a glare as of torches, and saw
by this light half a dozen flushed faces in the act of rising above the
edge of the landing. The men who owned them raised a shout of triumph at
sight of me, and, clearing the upper steps at a bound, made a rush for
the door. But in vain. We had just time to close it and drop the two
stout bars. In a moment, in a second, the fierce outcry fell to a dull
roar; and safe for the time, we had leisure to look in one another's
faces and learn the different aspects of alarm. Madame was white to the
lips, while Simon's eyes seemed starting from his head, and he shook in
every limb with terror.

At first, on my asking him what it meant, he could not speak. But that
would not do, and I was in the act of seizing him by the collar to force
an answer from him when the inner door opened, and the king came out,
his face wearing an air of so much cheerfulness as proved both his
satisfaction with mademoiselle's story and his ignorance of all we were
about. In a word he had not yet taken the least alarm; but seeing Simon
in my hands, and madame leaning against the wall by the door like one
deprived of life, he stood and cried out in surprise to know what it
was.

'I fear we are besieged, sire,' I answered desperately, feeling my
anxieties increased a hundredfold by his appearance--'but by whom I
cannot say. This lad knows, however,' I continued, giving Simon, a
vicious shake, 'and he shall speak. Now, trembler,' I said to him, 'tell
your tale?'

'The Provost-Marshal!' he stammered, terrified afresh by the king's
presence: for Henry had removed his mask. 'I was on guard below. I had
come up a few steps to be out of the cold, when I heard them enter.
There are a round score of them.'

I cried out a great oath, asking him why he had not gone up and warned
Maignan, who with his men was now cut off from us in the rooms above.
'You fool!' I continued, almost beside myself with rage, 'if you had not
come to this door they would have mounted to my rooms and beset them!
What is this folly about the Provost-Marshal?'

'He is there,' Simon answered, cowering away from me, his face working.

I thought he was lying, and had merely fancied this in his fright. But
the assailants at this moment began to hail blows on the door, calling
on us to open, and using such volleys of threats as penetrated even the
thickness of the oak; driving the blood from the women's cheeks, and
arresting the king's step in a manner w