foot, or
laid his hand on his hilt, I should have killed him there. But he did
not stir and I could not do it. My hand dropped. "Cowards!" I cried,
glancing bitterly from him to them--they had never failed me before.
"Cowards!" I muttered, seeming to shrink into myself as I said the
word. And I flung my sword clattering on the floor.

"That is better!" he drawled quite unmoved, as if nothing more than
words had passed, as if he had not been in peril at all. "It was what I
was going to ask you to do. If the other young gentlemen will follow
your example, I shall be obliged. Thank you. Thank you."

Croisette, and a minute later Marie, obeyed him to the letter! I could
not understand it. I folded my arms and gave up the game in despair,
and but for very shame I could have put my hands to my face and cried.
He stood in the middle under the lamp, a head taller than the tallest
of us; our master. And we stood round him trapped, beaten, for all the
world like children. Oh, I could have cried! This was the end of our
long ride, our aspirations, our knight-errantry!

"Now perhaps you will listen to me," he went on smoothly, "and hear
what I am going to do. I shall keep you here, young gentlemen, until
you can serve me by carrying to mademoiselle, your cousin, some news of
her betrothed. Oh, I shall not detain you long," he added with an evil
smile. "You have arrived in Paris at a fortunate moment. There is
going to be a--well, there is a little scheme on foot appointed for
to-night--singularly lucky you are!--for removing some objectionable
people, some friends of ours perhaps among them, M. Anne. That is all.
You will hear shots, cries, perhaps screams. Take no notice. You will
be in no danger. For M. de Pavannes," he continued, his voice sinking,
"I think that by morning I shall be able to give you a--a more
particular account of him to take to Caylus--to Mademoiselle, you
understand."

For a moment the mask was off. His face took a sombre brightness. He
moistened his lips with his tongue as though he saw his vengeance
worked out then and there before him, and were gloating over the
picture. The idea that this was so took such a hold upon me that I
shrank back, shuddering; reading too in Croisette's face the same
thought--and a late repentance. Nay, the malignity of Bezers' tone,
the savage gleam of joy in his eyes appalled me to such an extent that
I fancied for a moment I saw in him the devil i