at the sentry on the roof of the third house from us; the farthest but
one. The man's back was to the parapet, and he was gesticulating
wildly.

"He sees him!" Marie muttered.

I nodded almost in apathy. But this passed away, and I started
involuntarily and shuddered, as a savage roar, breaking the silence,
rang along the front of the mob like a rolling volley of firearms.
What was it? A man posted at a window on the upper gallery had dropped
his pike's point, and was levelling it at some one inside: we could
see no more.

But those in front of the window could; they saw too much for the
Vidame's precautions, as a moment showed. He had not laid his account
with the frenzy of a rabble, the passions of a mob which had tasted
blood. I saw the line at its farther end waver suddenly and toss to
and fro. Then a hundred hands went up, and confused angry cries rose
with them. The troopers struck about them, giving back slowly as they
did so. But their efforts were in vain. With a scream of triumph a
wild torrent of people broke through between them, leaving them
stranded; and rushed in a headlong cataract towards the steps. Bezers
was close to us at the time. "S'death!" he cried, swearing oaths
which even his sovereign could scarce have equalled. "They will snatch
him from me yet, the hell-hounds!"

He whirled his horse round and spurred him in a dozen bounds to the
stairs at our end of the gallery. There he leaped from him, dropping
the bridle recklessly; and bounding up three steps at a time, he ran
along the gallery. Half-a-dozen of the troopers about us stayed only
to fling their reins to one of their number, and then followed, their
great boots clattering on the planks.

My breath came fast and short, for I felt it was a crisis. It was a
race between the two parties, or rather between the Vidame and the
leaders of the mob. The latter had the shorter way to go. But on the
narrow steps they were carried off their feet by the press behind them,
and fell over and hampered one another and lost time. The Vidame, free
from this drawback, was some way along the gallery before they had set
foot on it.

How I prayed--amid a scene of the wildest uproar and excitement--that
the mob might be first! Let there be only a short conflict between
Bezers' men and the people, and in the confusion Pavannes might yet
escape. Hope awoke in the turmoil. Above the yells of the crowd a
score of deep voices about me th