e Rue des Catonnes with a very
doubtful chance of returning, but I had rarely gone out with such a
pressing sense of danger as now. Pillot's sudden appearance, his
strange story, and the memory of former deceptions wrought on my
nerves, and I almost wished Raoul or John Humphreys was with me.

The rioters, too, now that the soldiers had departed, returned to the
street in a very quarrelsome humour. They stood in groups talking
angrily; and one brawny ruffian, yelling "Death to the Nobles!" struck
at me with a pike. Happily my sword was free and I pinked his arm;
still it would have gone hard with me but for Pillot, who procured us a
passage by the use of some jargon well-known to these night-birds.

"Be cautious, monsieur," he said, "the mob is growing dangerous. The
riot has not spread far, but to-morrow----!"

"Will the city rise?"

"Nothing can stop it, monsieur. These people are like wild animals.
You can excite them to a certain pitch, but beyond that----"

"What is the grievance now?" I asked, and Pillot shrugged his shoulders.

"There are many things, monsieur, but at present the chief is hunger.
The inhabitants of these quarters are half starved, and they want to
know why. They will put the question very loudly in a day or two."

"Will they rise against the throne?"

"It all depends. A whim or a word will do it. Some one will cry 'Down
with Conde!' and there is your revolution ready-made. The man who is
starving does not stop to reason. The cry may be 'Down with the
Nobles!'--no one knows as yet, and no one cares."

Presently I asked why he had ventured abroad on the day when the King
was declared of age.

"My master was better then," he said, "and desired to learn how affairs
were shaping. We heard a rumour that Conde would not be present; so I
went to find out. It was a risky thing, and the sight of you
frightened me."

"It need not have done; I wish my cousin no harm."

"True, monsieur, but we were not aware of that."

"Where have you hidden your master?"

"In an outhouse at La Boule d'Or. We dared not take him to the inn; he
would have been discovered. I was afraid the other evening when you
came with M. Beauchamp."

"Then you saw us?"

"I watched you enter, monsieur--and go away," and the rascal could not
help chuckling.

Through dirty courts and fetid alleys where the sun never shone, my
guide led the way, bringing me at last to the familiar Rue de Roi. My
distrust had