Before he had formed any plan, a movement took place near the door.  The stairs shook beneath the sudden trampling of feet, a voice cried “De par le Roi!  De par le Roi!” and the babel of the room died down.  The throng swayed and fell back on either hand, and Marshal Tavannes entered, wearing half armour, with a white sash; he was followed by six or eight gentlemen in like guise.  Amid cries of “Jarnac!  Jarnac!”—­for to him the credit of that famous fight, nominally won by the King’s brother, was popularly given—­he advanced up the room, met the Provost of the merchants, and began to confer with him.  Apparently he asked the latter to select some men who could be trusted on a special mission, for the Provost looked round and beckoned to his side one or two of higher rank than the herd, and then one or two of the most truculent aspect.

Tignonville trembled lest he should be singled out.  He had hidden himself as well as he could at the rear of the crowd by the door; but his dress, so much above the common, rendered him conspicuous.  He fancied that the Provost’s eye ranged the crowd for him; and to avoid it and efface himself he moved a pace to his left.

The step was fatal.  It saved him from the Provost, but it brought him face to face and eye to eye with Count Hannibal, who stood in the first rank at his brother’s elbow.  Tavannes stared an instant as if he doubted his eyesight.  Then, as doubt gave slow place to certainty, and surprise to amazement, he smiled.  And after a moment he looked another way.

Tignonville’s heart gave a great bump and seemed to stand still.  The lights whirled before his eyes, there was a roaring in his ears.  He waited for the word that should denounce him.  It did not come.  And still it did not come; and Marshal Tavannes was turning.  Yes, turning, and going; the Provost, bowing low, was attending him to the door; his suite were opening on either side to let him pass.  And Count Hannibal?  Count Hannibal was following also, as if nothing had occurred.  As if he had seen nothing!

The young man caught his breath.  Was it possible that he had imagined the start of recognition, the steady scrutiny, the sinister smile?  No; for as Tavannes followed the others, he hung an instant on his heel, their eyes met again, and once more he smiled.  In the next breath he was gone through the doorway, his spurs rang on the stairs; and the babel of the crowd, checked by the great man’s presence, broke out anew, and louder.

Tignonville shuddered.  He was saved as by a miracle; saved, he did not know how.  But the respite, though its strangeness diverted his thoughts for a while, brought short relief.  The horrors which impended over others surged afresh into his mind, and filled him with a maddening sense of impotence.  To be one hour, only one short half-hour without!  To run through the sleeping streets, and scream in the dull ears which a King’s flatteries had