The troop was made up of worthless members of society--idlers,
highwaymen, outcasts, and desperate characters, who had lost all sense
of respectability and morality. The majority of them had sought the
asylum of the battle-field to escape imprisonment or worse.

When their commander led his "demons" to an attack, he was wont to urge
them thus:

"_Avanti, avanti, Signori briganti! Cavalieri ladroni, avanti!_"
("Forward, forward, Messieurs Highwaymen! My chivalrous footpads,
forward!")

A division of this legion of demons had made its way with the vice-king
of Italy thus far through the belt-line, and had been intrusted with the
mission mentioned in De Fervlans's letter to General Guillaume. The
marquis commanded this body of the demons, he having, as Colonel
Barthelmy in the Austrian army, become thoroughly familiar with that
part of Hungary.

* * * * *

Lisette and Satan Laczi's little son were living alone at the Nameless
Castle.

When Marie, who was come in quest of her friend Cambray, rang the bell,
the door was opened by the lad.

"Is there a strange gentleman here?" she asked.

"I don't know. He went to see Lisette, and I did not see him come away,"
was the reply.

"Then let me come in," said the young girl. "I want to speak to Lisette,
too."

"She will beat me if I let you come in," returned the boy, opening the
door after a moment's hesitation.

The fumes of camphor were perceptible even in the vestibule; and when
Marie's little conductor knocked at the door of the kitchen, a heaping
shovelful of hot and smoking coals was thrust toward him, and a scolding
voice demanded irritably:

"What do you want again? Why do you keep annoying me, you little
torment!"

"Excuse me, Lisette," humbly apologized the lad, "but our young mistress
from the manor is here."

At this announcement Lisette hastily shut the door again, and opened a
small loophole in an upper panel, through which she spoke in a sharp
tone:

"Why do you come here? Has the Lord forsaken you over yonder, that you
come back to this pest-house? Get out of it as quickly as you can. Go
down and hide yourself in the Schmidt's cottage--perhaps they will not
betray you. Anyway, you can't stop here with us."

"That is just what I mean to do, Lisette,--stop here with you,"
smilingly responded Marie. "Where is my friend Cambray?"

"How should I know where he is? A pretty question to ask me! He is n't
anywhere.