ation. The depth
drew me; I dared not for my life look into it. Yet I turned the corner
of the buttress in safety, and edged my way along its front, glueing
myself to the wall; and came at last, breathing hard, to the second
corner, and turned it, and saw with a gasp of relief the lights in the
chamber. A moment--a moment more, and I should be safe.

At that instant I heard something, and cast a wary eye backwards the way
I had come. I saw a shadowy form at my elbow, and I guessed that Antoine
was following me. With a shudder I hastened my steps to avoid him, and I
was already in the angle formed by the wall and buttress--whence I
could leap down into the chamber--when he called to me.

"Hist!" he cried softly. "Stop, man! the King is there! He has been
there all the time, I think."

I thought it only too likely, for I could see none of our comrades at
the window; and I heard men's deeper voices in the room. To go on,
therefore, and show myself was to be punished; and I paused and knelt
down in the angle where the ledge was wider. I recognized the King's
voice, and M. Gourdon's, and that of St. Martin, the captain of the
guard; I caught even their words, and presently, in a minute or two, and
against my will, I had surprised a secret--so great a secret that I
trembled almost as much as I had trembled at the outmost angle of the
buttress, hanging between earth and sky. For they were planning the
great assault on Cahors; for the first time I heard named those points
that are now household words; the walnut grove, and the three gates, and
the bridge, that fame and France will never forget. I heard all--the
night, the hour, the numbers to be engaged; and turned quaking to learn
what Antoine thought of it. Turned, but neither saw nor addressed him;
for he had gone back, and my eye, incautiously cast down, saw far, far
beneath me a torch and a little group of men--at the bottom of the void.
I became giddy at this sudden view of the abyss, wavered an instant, and
then with a cry of fear I chose the less pressing danger, and tumbled
forward into the room.

M. de Roquelaure had his point at my throat before I could rise; and I
had a vision of half a dozen men part risen, of half a dozen startled
faces all glaring at me. Fortunately M. de Rosny knew me and held the
other's arm. I was plucked up roughly, and set on my feet before the
King, who alone had kept his seat; and amid a shower of threats I was
bidden to explain my pre