le bourgeois's thanks and adieus, we walked out into
the sweet open air. As soon as his door was shut again, we took to our
heels, nor stopped running till we had put half a dozen streets between
us and the mouth of the tunnel. Then we walked along in breathless
silence.

Presently M. Etienne cried out:

"Death of my life! Had I fought there in the burrow, I should have
changed the history of France!"

XXI

_A chance encounter._

The street before us was as orderly as the aisle of Notre Dame. Few
way-farers passed us; those there were talked together as placidly as if
love-trysts and melees existed not, and tunnels and countersigns were
but the smoke of a dream. It was a street of shops, all shuttered,
while, above, the burghers' families went respectably to bed.

"This is the Rue de la Ferronnerie," my master said, pausing a moment to
take his bearings. "See, under the lantern, the sign of the Pierced
Heart. The little shop is in the Rue de la Soierie. We are close by the
Halles--we must have come half a mile underground. Well, we'll swing
about in a circle to get home. For this night I've had enough of the
Hotel de Lorraine."

And I. But I held my tongue about it, as became me.

"They were wider awake than I thought--those Lorrainers. Pardieu! Feix,
you and I came closer quarters with death than is entirely amusing."

"If that door had not opened-" I shuddered.

"A new saint in the calendar--la Sainte Ferou! But what a madcap of a
saint, then! My faith, she must have led them a dance when Francis I was
king!

"Natheless it galls me," he went on, half to himself, "to know that I
was lost by my own folly, saved by pure chance. I underrated the
enemy--worst mistake in the book of strategy. I came near flinging away
two lives and making a most unsightly mess under a lady's window."

"Monsieur made somewhat of a mess as it was."

"Aye. I would I knew whether I killed Brie. We'll go round in the
morning and find out."

"I am thankful that monsieur does not mean to go to-night."

"Not to-night, Felix; I've had enough. No; we'll get home without
passing near the Hotel de Lorraine, if we go outside the walls to do it.
To-night I draw my sword no more."

To this day I have no quite clear idea of how we went. A strange city at
night--Paris of all cities--is a labyrinth. I know that after a time we
came out in some meadows along the river-bank, traversed them, and
plunged once more into narrow, high-w