And what wonder that an appalling terror sat on the heart and mastered
the soul of Sholto MacKim. For how did he know that he was not
treading under foot at each step the calcined fragments of the fair
body of Maud Lindesay?

Twenty sacks had been filled ready for transport, and as many more lay
folded and empty in a heap in a corner. The marshal, uneasy perhaps as
to the suspicions against him, and anxious to remove evidence from the
precincts of his castle, had ordered this Tower of Death to be
cleared. But truly his devil had once more forsaken him. The order had
been given a day too late.

"God's grace, I stifle. Let us get out of this, and seize the
murderer," quoth Duke John, making his way towards the door.

"Wait a moment," said Pierre de l'Hopital, "we must consider. We
cannot let the commons see this or they will sack the castle from
foundation to roof tree, and slay the innocent with the guilty. We
must seize and hold for fair trial all who are found within. _And I,
Pierre de l'Hopital, will try them!_"

"What then do you propose?" said the Duke, getting as near the door as
possible.

"Let us bring in hither the officers and what soldiers you can
trust--that is not my business," answered the President. "Then we will
go through the castle, and after we have secured the prisoners and
made sure of sufficient pieces of justificative evidence, of which we
have infinite supply in these sacks, we may e'en permit the people to
work their will."

As it was Sholto who had first entered, so it was Sholto who first
left the Tower of Death. He it was also who, at the head of a strong
band, surprised the marshal's sleepy inner guard, and helped to bind
them with his own hands. It was Sholto who, at the foot of the stairs
of the great keep, stood listening that he might know the right moment
to lead the besiegers upward.

But even as he stood thus, down the stairway there came pealing a
terrible cry, the shriek of a woman in the final agony, shrill,
desperate, unavailing.

And at the sound Sholto flew up the stone steps in the direction of
the cry, not knowing what he did, save that he went to kill.

And scarce a foot behind him followed the woodman, Louis Verger, and
as they fled upward the red gloom grew brighter till they seemed to be
rushing headlong into a furnace mouth.

CHAPTER LVIII

THE WHITE TOWER OF MACHECOUL

So at the command of the Marshal de Retz they sent to bring forth
Margaret of D