in. I walked slowly along beneath them, keeping a sharp
look-out on every side; but there were few persons moving in the
streets, and I reached the Castle gates without misadventure. Here was
something of life; a bustle of officers and soldiers passing in and out,
of courtiers whose office made their presence necessary, of beggars who
had flocked hither in the night for company. In the middle of these I
recognised on a sudden and with great surprise Simon Fleix walking my
horse up and down. On seeing me he handed it to a boy, and came up to
speak to me with a red face, muttering that four legs were better than
two. I did not say much to him, my heart being full and my thoughts
occupied with the presence chamber and what I should say there; but
I nodded kindly to him, and he fell in behind me as the sentries
challenged me. I answered them that I sought M. de Crillon, and so
getting by, fell into the rear of a party of three who seemed bent on
the same errand as myself.

One of these was a Jacobin monk, whose black and white robes, by
reminding me of Father Antoine, sent a chill to my heart. The
second, whose eye I avoided, I knew to be M. la Guesle, the king's
Solicitor-General. The third was a stranger to me. Enabled by M. la
Guesle's presence to pass the main guards without challenge, the party
proceeded through a maze of passages and corridors, conversing together
in a low tone; while I, keeping in their train with my face cunningly
muffled, got as far by this means as the ante-chamber, which I found
almost empty. Here I inquired of the usher for M. de Crillon, and
learned with the utmost consternation that he was not present.

This blow, which almost stunned me, opened my eyes to the precarious
nature of my position, which only the early hour and small attendance
rendered possible for a moment. At any minute I might be recognised
and questioned, or my name be required; while the guarded doors of the
chamber shut me off as effectually from the king's face and grace as
though I were in Paris, or a hundred leagues away. Endeavouring to the
best of my power to conceal the chagrin and alarm which possessed me as
this conviction took hold of me, I walked to the window; and to hide my
face more completely and at the same time gain a moment to collect my
thoughts, affected to be engaged in looking through it.

Nothing which passed in the room, however, escaped me. I marked
everything and everyone, though all my thought was