with the removal of the body. "You must seek shelter with some friend,"
Felix urged, "before the city is astir. I can go to the University. I
shall be safe there."

"Could you not take us with you?" Marie suggested meekly.

He shook his head, his face flushing. It was hard to confess that he had
power to destroy, but none to protect. "You had better go to Nicholas
Toussaint's," he said. "You will be safe there, and he will take you in,
though he will have naught to do with me."

Marie assented with a sigh, and rose to make ready. Some few valuables
were hidden or secured, some clothes taken; and then the little party of
four passed out into the street, leaving but one solemn tenant in their
home. The cold light of a November morning gave to the lane an air,
even in their eyes, of squalor and misery. The kennel running down the
middle was choked with nastiness, while here and there the upper stories
leaned forward so far as to obscure the light.

The fugitives regarded these things little after the first shivering
glance, but hurried on their road; Felix with his sword marching on one
side of the girls, and Adrian with his club walking on the other. A
skulking dog got out of their way. The song of a belated reveller drove
them for a time under an arch. But they fell in with nothing more
formidable, and in five minutes came safely to the high wooden gates of
the courtyard in front of Nicholas Toussaint's house.

To arouse him or his servants without disturbing the neighbourhood was
another matter. There was no bell; only a heavy iron clapper. Adrian
tried this cautiously, with little hope of being heard. To his joy the
hollow sound had scarcely ceased when footsteps were heard crossing the
court, and a small trap in one of the gates was opened. An elderly man
with high cheek bones and curly grey hair looked out. His eyes lighting
on the girls lost their harshness. "Marie Portail!" he exclaimed. "Ah!
poor thing, I pity you. I have heard all. I returned to the city last
night only, or I should have been with you. And Adrian?"

"We have come," said the young man, respectfully, "to beg shelter for
Mistress Marie and her sister. It is no longer safe for them to remain
in the Rue de Tirchape."

"I can well believe it," cried Toussaint, vigorously. "I do not know
where we are safe nowadays. But there," he added in a different tone,
"no doubt the Sixteen are acting for the best."

"You will take them in then?" said Adri