r some time after the disappearance of his
familiar. Presently the low droning note of popular execration
changed into sharper exclamations of hatred, mingled with cries of
pain.

Then the marshal smiled, and rubbed his hands lightly one over the
other.

"That's my good lads," he said; "hear the rattle of the spear-hilts
upon the paving-stones? They are bringing the butts into close
acquaintance with certain very ill-shod feet. Ah, now they are gone!"

The marshal took a long breath and went on, half to himself and half
to Sybilla.

"But I own it is all most inconvenient," he said, thoughtfully. "Here
in Paris, in King Charles's country, it does not so greatly matter.
For the affair in Scotland has set me right with the King and in
especial with the Dauphin. By the death of the Douglases I have given
back the duchy of Touraine to the kings of France after three
generations. I have therefore well earned the right to be allowed to
seek knowledge in mine own way."

"The service of the devil is a poor way to knowledge," said the girl.

"Ah, there it is," said the marshal, raising his hand with gentle
deprecation, "even you, who are so highly privileged, are not wholly
superior to vulgar prejudice. I keep a college of priests for the
service of God and the Virgin. They have done me but little good.
Surely therefore I may be allowed a little service of That Other, who
has afforded me such exquisite pleasure and aided me so much. The
Master of Evil knows all things, and he can help whom he will to the
secrets of wealth, of power, and of eternal youth."

"Have you gained any of these by the aid of that Master whom you
serve?" asked the Lady Sybilla, with great quiet in her voice.

"Nay, not yet," cried the marshal, moved for the first time, "not
yet--perhaps because I have sought too eagerly and hotly. But I am now
at least within sight of the wondrous goal. See," he added, with
genuine excitement labouring in his voice, "see--I am still a young
man, yet though I, Gilles de Retz, was born to the princeliest fortune
in France, and by marriage added another, they have both been spent
well nigh to the last stiver in learning the hidden secrets of the
universe. I am still a young man, I say, but look at my whitening
hair, count the deep wrinkles on my forehead, consider my withered
cheek. Have I not tasted all agonies, renounced all delights, and cast
aside all scruples that I might win back my youth, and with it the
kno