the city, which he
had been hitherto too busy to explore. He had seen the principal
streets, in the company of his comrades, had admired the mansions
of the nobles, the richness of the goods exposed to view in the
windows, and the gaiety and magnificence of the dresses of the
upper class. His friends had warned him that, if he intended to go
farther, he should never do so alone, but should take with him his
soldier servant, a trooper named Mike Callaghan.

Mike was some twenty-eight years old, strong and bony; his hair
was red, and the natural colour of his face was obscured by a host
of freckles; his eyes were blue, and his nose had an upward turn;
his expression was merry and good humoured, but there was a
twinkle about his eyes that seemed to show that he was by no means
wanting in shrewdness.

"Even in the daytime," O'Neil said, "it is not safe for a man, if
well dressed and likely to carry money in his pocket, to go into
some quarters of the town. Paris has always been a turbulent city,
and, while it is the abode of the richest and noblest of
Frenchmen, it is also the resort of the rascaldom of all France.
Some streets are such that even the city guard would not venture
to search for an ill doer, unless in considerable force and
prepared for battle. There are, of course, many streets, both on
this and the other side of the river, where life and property are
as safe as in the Rue Royal; which, by the way, is not saying
much, for it was only three days ago that a man was assassinated
there in broad daylight. He was a captain in the Picardy regiment,
and it was supposed that his murderer was a man who had been
dismissed from the regiment with ignominy. But, whoever it was, he
has got clear away, for your Parisian citizen takes good care not
to interfere in such matters, and no one thought of laying hands
on the villain, although it is said he walked quietly off.

"It is in the streets that I am speaking of that adventures may
most easily be met with. Here there are too many hotels of the
nobles, with their numerous retainers, for it to be safe to commit
crime, and the city guard are generally on the alert, for, were
harm to come to one of the gentlemen attached to the great houses,
the matter would be represented to the king, and the city
authorities would come in for a sharp reproof for their failure to
keep order in the city; whereas, anything that happens among the
bourgeois would pass wholly without notice.