e dared do the feat; but I
was the eldest and the biggest, and the iron entered into my heart. Day
after day for a week, whenever the chamber was empty, I crept to the
window and looked down and watched the kites hover and drop, and plumbed
the depth with my eyes. But only, to turn away--sick. I could not do it.
Resolve as I might at night, in the morning, on the window ledge, with
the giddy deep below me, I was a coward.

One evening, however, when the King was supping with M. de Roquelaure,
and I believed the chamber to be deserted, I chanced to go to the window
of the ante-chamber after nightfall. I stepped on the seat--that I had
done often before; but this time, looking down, I found that I no longer
quailed. The darkness veiled the ravine; to my astonishment I felt no
qualms. Moreover, I had had supper, my heart was high; and in a moment
it occurred to me that now--now in the dark I could do it, and regain my
pride.

I did not give myself time to think, but went straight out to the
gallery, where I found Antoine and two or three others teasing Mathurine
the woman-fool. My entrance was the signal for a taunt. "Ho, Miss White
Face! Come to borrow Mathurine's petticoats?" Antoine cried, standing
out and confronting me. "It is you, is it?"

"Yes," I answered sharply, meeting his eyes and speaking in a tone I had
not used for a week. "And if you do not mend your manners, Master
Antoine----"

"Go round the buttress!" he retorted with a grimace.

"I will!" I answered. "I will! And then----"

"You dare not!"

"Come!" I said; "come, and see! And when I have done it, my friend----"

I did not finish the sentence, but led the way back to the ante-chamber;
assuming a courage which, as a fact, was fast oozing from me. The cold
air that met me as I approached the open window sobered me still more;
but Antoine's jeers and my companions' incredulity stung me to the
necessary point, and at once I stepped on the ledge, and without giving
myself time to think, turned my face to the wall and began to edge
myself slowly along it; my heart in my mouth, my flesh creeping, as I
gradually realized where I was; every nerve in my body strung to
quivering point.

Certainly in the daylight I could not have done it. Even now, when the
depth over which I balanced myself was hidden by the darkness, and I had
only my fancy to conquer, I trembled, my knees shook, a bat skimming by
my ear almost caused me to fall; I was bathed in perspir