ridden in every direction.

It was plain that I could depend for useful service on myself and three
others only--of whom, to his credit be it said, Simon Fleix was one.
Seeing this, I was immensely relieved when I presently heard that
Fresnoy was again seeking to speak with me. I was no longer, it will be
believed, for standing on formalities; but glad to waive in silence the
punctilio on which I had before insisted, and anxious to afford him no
opportunity of marking the slackness which prevailed among my men, I
hastened to meet him at the door of the courtyard where Maignan had
detained him.

I might have spared my pains, however. I had no more than saluted him
and exchanged the merest preliminaries before I saw that he was in a
state of panic far exceeding that of my following. His coarse face,
which had never been prepossessing, was mottled and bedabbled with
sweat; his bloodshot eyes, when they met mine, wore the fierce yet
terrified expression of an animal caught in a trap. Though his first
word was an oath, sworn for the purpose of raising his courage, the
bully's bluster was gone. He spoke in a low voice, and his hands shook;
and for a penny-piece I saw he would have bolted past me and taken his
chance in open flight.

I judged from his first words, uttered, as I have said, with an oath,
that he was aware of his state. 'M. de Marsac,' he said, whining like a
cur, 'you know me, to be a man of courage.'

I needed nothing after this to assure me that he meditated something of
the basest; and I took care how I answered him. 'I have known you stiff
enough upon occasions,' I replied drily. 'And then, again, I have known
you not so stiff, M. Fresnoy.'

'Only when you were in question,' he muttered with another oath. 'But
flesh and blood cannot stand this. You could not yourself. Between
him and them I am fairly worn out. Give me good terms--good terms, you
understand, M. de Marsac?' he whispered eagerly, sinking his voice still
lower, 'and you shall have all you want.'

'Your lives, and liberty to go where you please,' I answered coldly.
'The two ladies to be first given up to me uninjured. Those are the
terms.'

'But for me?' he said anxiously.

'For you? The same as the others,' I retorted. 'Or I will make a
distinction for old acquaintance sake, M. Fresnoy; and if the ladies
have aught to complain of, I will hang you first.'

He tried to bluster and hold out for a sum of money, or at least for
his hors