motto
remained, as if not willing to survive the downfall of those on whom it
was now less a boast than a sarcasm.

As I sat thus, the wide hall was gradually filled with men, whose
anxious and excited faces betokened the fears my presence had excited,
while not one ventured to speak or address a word to me. Most of them
were armed with cutlasses, and some carried pistols in belts round their
waists; while others had rude pikes, whose coarse fashion betokened the
handiwork of a village smith. They stood in a semicircle round me;
and while their eyes were riveted upon me with an expression of most
piercing interest, not a syllable was spoken. Suddenly a door was opened
at the end of a corridor, and De Beauvais called out,--

"This way, Burke; come this way!"

CHAPTER XXXII. THE CHATEAU d'ANCRE.

Before I had time to collect myself, I was hurried on by De Beauvais
into a room, when the moment I had entered the door was closed and
locked behind me. By the light of a coarse and rudely formed chandelier
that occupied the middle of a table, I saw a party of near a dozen
persons who sat around it,--the head of the board being filled by one
whose singular appearance attracted all my attention. He was a man of
enormous breadth of chest and shoulders, with a lofty massive head, on
either side of which a quantity of red hair fell in profusion; a
beard of the same color descended far on his bosom, which, with his
overhanging eyebrows, imparted a most savage and ferocious expression to
features which of themselves were harsh and repulsive. Though he wore
a blouse in peasant fashion, it was easy to see that he was not of the
lower walk of society. Across his brawny chest a broad belt of black
leather passed, to support a strong straight sword, the heavy hilt of
which peeped above the arm of his chair. A pair of handsomely-mounted
pistols lay before him on the table; and the carved handle of a poniard
could be seen projecting slightly from the breast-pocket of his vest.
Of the rest who were about him I had but time to perceive that they were
peasants; but all were armed, and most of them wearing a knot of white
ribbon at the breast of their blouses.

Every eye was turned towards me, as I stood at the foot of the table
astonished and speechless--while De Beauvais, quitting my arm, hastened
to the large man's side, and whispered some words in his ear. He rose
slowly from his chair, and in a moment each face was turned to him.