ac. If you will
come with me I will draw off the men from that part; and you may go in
and get the key from him.'

His terror, which surpassed all feeling, and satisfied me without doubt
that he was in earnest, was so intense that it could not fail to infect
me. I felt my face, as I looked into his, grow to the same hue. I
trembled as he did and grew sick. For if there is a word which blanches
the soldier's cheek and tries his heart more than another, it is the
name of the disease which travels in the hot noonday, and, tainting the
strongest as he rides in his pride, leaves him in a few hours a poor
mass of corruption. The stoutest and the most reckless fear it; nor
could I, more than another, boast myself indifferent to it, or think of
its presence without shrinking. But the respect in which a man of birth
holds himself saves him from the unreasoning fear which masters the
vulgar; and in a moment I recovered myself, and made up my mind what it
behoved me to do.

'Wait awhile,' I said sternly, 'and I will come with you.'

He waited accordingly, though with manifest impatience, while I sent
for M. d'Agen, and communicated to him what I was about to do. I did not
think it necessary to enter into details, or to mention Bruhl's state,
for some of the men were well in hearing. I observed that the young
gentleman received my directions with a gloomy and dissatisfied air. But
I had become by this time so used to his moods, and found myself so
much mistaken in his character, that I scarcely gave the matter a second
thought. I crossed the court with Fresnoy, and in a moment had mounted
the outside staircase and passed through the heavy doorway.

The moment I entered, I was forced to do Fresnoy the justice of
admitting that he had not come to me before he was obliged. The three
men who were on guard inside tossed down their weapons at sight of me,
while a fourth, who was posted at a neighbouring window, hailed me with
a cry of relief. From the moment I crossed the threshold the defence was
practically at an end. I might, had I chosen or found it consistent with
honour, have called in my following and secured the entrance. Without
pausing, however, I passed on to the foot of a gloomy stone staircase
winding up between walls of rough masonry; and here Fresnoy stood on one
side and stopped. He pointed upwards with a pale face and muttered,'The
door on the left.'

Leaving him there watching me as I went upwards, I mounted slowly