other a great bunch of keys.

And St. Georges, standing there facing them, looked as brave a
gentleman as any who had ever been led to his fate.

"This is the condemned man?" the horseman asked of the chief official;
"the man who was sentenced at the _cours criminel_ on Friday last to
die this morning?"

"It is the man, Monsieur l'Herault," the official replied, his
questioner being none other than L'Herault, the head of the police
system.

"Remove his irons."

At this order the two jailers stepped forward, the one unlocking the
fetters that bound St. Georges's hands, the other knocking away with
the hammer the iron pegs that ran through the steel ring which held
the chains round his ankles. And in less than three moments chains and
fetters lay at his feet.

"Here is the warrant," L'Herault said, handing it to the governor of
the Hotel de Ville--for such the principal official by his side
was--"read it aloud to the prisoner," and it was read accordingly. It
ran:

"To M. l'Herault, superintendent of our police, and to the
governor of our Hotel de Ville at Paris:

"It is our royal will that the prisoner tried at our _cours
criminel_ by M. Barthe de la Rennie, one of our judges, and
sentenced to die on the morning of Monday, the 26th June of
this year 1692, be released and set free unconditionally.
And may----"

"What!" exclaimed St. Georges, reeling backward, and speaking in a
hoarse whisper--"what! what does this mean? Who has written that?"

"The king," L'Herault answered. Then he said briefly, "You are free."

"Free! Not to go to--to that?" and he pointed below.

"Not to go to that--though 'tis where escaped _galeriens_ usually go
sooner or later. Your time is not yet come, it seems. I know no more,
except that at midnight I was roused from my bed to ride here with
this," pointing to the paper in the governor's hand, "and with this,"
putting another in St. Georges's. "It will," he continued, "bear you
harmless in France so long as you offend no more."

"Sir," St. Georges said, and as he spoke L'Herault looked at him,
wondering if in truth this was an innocent man before him, "for your
errand of mercy I thank you. Yet, believe me or not as you will, I had
committed no sin when I went to the galleys."

Then he read the paper handed to him. It also was brief:

"The man bearing this is to be held free of arrest on any
charge and to be allowed to pass in freed