nds. Like enough they have
led some of their fellows here, or why should they attack the door,
as it is unmarked?"

Claire joined them again. They hurried downstairs, and then out by
the back entrance into a narrow lane. Philip carried a heavy hammer
on his shoulder. Pierre had a large butcher's knife stuck
conspicuously in his girdle. He was bare headed and had dipped his
head in water, so that his hair fell matted across his face, which
was grimy and black.

Day was now breaking, but the light was as yet faint.

"Keep close to me, Claire," Philip said as they reached the street,
which was ablaze with torches. "Above all things do not shrink, or
seem as if you were afraid."

"I am not afraid," she said. "God saved me before from as great a
peril, and will save me again, if it seems good to Him."

"Keep your eyes fixed on me. Pay no attention to what is going on
around you."

"I will pray," she said simply.

Just as they entered the street the crowd separated, and the Duke
of Guise, followed by several nobles of his party, rode along,
shouting:

"Death to all Huguenots! It is the king's command."

"It is the command you and others have put into his mouth,
villain!" Philip muttered to himself.

A roar of ferocious assent rose from the crowd, which was composed
of citizen soldiers and the scum of Paris. They danced and yelled,
and uttered ferocious jests at the dead bodies lying in the road.

Here the work of slaughter was nearly complete. Few of the
Huguenots had offered any resistance, although some had fought
desperately to the last. Most of them, however, taken by surprise,
and seeing resistance useless, had thrown down their arms; and
either cried for quarter, or had submitted themselves calmly to
slaughter. Neither age nor sex had availed to save them. Women and
children, and even infants, had been slain without mercy.

The soldiers, provided with lists of the houses inhabited by
Huguenots, were going round to see that none had escaped attack.
Many in the crowd were attired in articles of dress that they had
gained in the plunder. Ragged beggars wore cloaks of velvet, or
plumed hats. Many had already been drinking heavily. Women mingled
in the crowd, as ferocious and merciless as the men.

"Break me in this door, friend," an officer, with a list in his
hand and several soldiers standing beside him, said to Philip.

The latter did not hesitate. To do so would have brought
destruction on himself an