m wild and uncanny: he like the direct
simplicity of a summary trial, of the guillotine, or of his own well
stage-managed "Noyades." He did not feel that any ridicule or dishonour
would necessarily paralyze a man in his efforts at intrigue, and would
have liked to set Chauvelin's authority aside, to behead the woman
upstairs and then to take his chances of capturing the man later on.

But the orders of the Committee of Public Safety had been peremptory: he
was to be Chauvelin's help--not his master, and to obey in all things.
He did not dare to take any initiative in the matter, for in that case,
if he failed, the reprisals against him would indeed be terrible.

He was fairly satisfied now that Chauvelin had accepted his suggestion
of summarily sending to the guillotine one member of every family
resident in Boulogne, if Marguerite succeeded in effecting an escape,
and, of a truth, Chauvelin had hailed the fiendish suggestion with
delight. The old abbe with his nephew and niece were undoubtedly
not sufficient deterrents against the daring schemes of the Scarlet
Pimpernel, who, as a matter of fact, could spirit them out of Boulogne
just as easily as he would his own wife.

Collot's plan tied Marguerite to her own prison cell more completely
than any other measure could have done, more so indeed than the
originator thereof knew or believed.... A man like this d'Herbois--born
in the gutter, imbued with every brutish tradition, which generations of
jail-birds had bequeathed to him,--would not perhaps fully realize the
fact that neither Sir Percy nor Marguerite Blakeney would ever save
themselves at the expense of others. He had merely made the suggestion,
because he felt that Chauvelin's plans were complicated and obscure,
and above all insufficient, and that perhaps after all the English
adventurer and his wife would succeed in once more outwitting him, when
there would remain the grand and bloody compensation of a wholesale
butchery in Boulogne.

But Chauvelin was quite satisfied. He knew that under present
circumstances neither Sir Percy nor Marguerite would make any attempt to
escape. The ex-ambassador had lived in England: he understood the class
to which these two belonged, and was quite convinced that no attempt
would be made on either side to get Lady Blakeney away whilst the
present ferocious order against the bread-winner of every family in the
town held good.

Aye! the measures were sound enough. Chauvelin w