rse mutter more fearful than any shouting.

"Knee to knee, Gawain," said Gaspard, "as at St. John d'Ulloa. Remember,
Petrucci is for me."

The Italian's band, crazy with drink and easy slaying, straggled across
the wide quay and had no thought of danger till the two horsemen were
upon them. The songs died on their lips as they saw bearing down on them
an avenging army. The scared cries of "The Huguenots!" "Montgomery!"
were to Gaspard's following a confirmation of their treachery. The
swords of the bravos and the axes and knives of the Parisian mob made
havoc with the civilian rabble, but the men-at-arms recovered themselves
and in knots fought a stout battle. But the band was broken at the start
by the two grim horsemen who rode through it as through meadow grass,
their blades falling terribly, and then turned and cut their way back.
Yet a third time they turned, and in that last mowing they found their
desire. A tall man in crimson appeared before them. Gaspard flung his
reins to Champernoun and in a second was on the ground, fighting with
a fury that these long hours had been stifled. Before his blade the
Italian gave ground till he was pinned against the wall of the Bourbon
hotel. His eyes were staring with amazement and dawning fear. "I am a
friend," he stammered in broken French and was answered in curt Spanish.
Presently his guard weakened and Gaspard gave him the point in his
heart. As he drooped to the ground, his conqueror bent over him. "The
Admiral is avenged," he said. "Tell your master in hell that you died at
the hands of Coligny's kinsman."

Gaspard remounted, and, since the fight had now gone eastward, they rode
on to the main gate of the Louvre, where they met a company of the royal
Guards coming out to discover the cause of an uproar so close to the
Palace. He told his tale of the Spanish Embassy and showed Guise's
jewel. "The streets are full of Huguenots badged as Catholics. His
Majesty will be well advised to quiet the rabble or he will lose some
trusty servants."

In the Rue du Coq, now almost empty, the two, horsemen halted.

"We had better be journeying, Gawain. Guise's jewel will open the gates.
In an hour's time all Paris will be on our trail."

"There is still that priest," said Champernoun doggedly. He was
breathing heavily, and his eyes were light and daring. Like all his
countrymen, he was slow to kindle but slower to cool.

"In an hour, if we linger here, we shall be at his mercy.