n the doors--which had only the
minute before closed on Badelon and his prisoners--supposed that he had
his riders behind him; and these fled apace. But he knew better even
than they the value of time; he pushed his horse up to the gates, and
hammered them with his boot while be kept his pistol-hand towards the
Place and the cathedral, watching for the transformation which he knew
would come!

And come it did; on a sudden, in a twinkling! A white-faced monk, frenzy
in his eyes, appeared in the midst of the crowd. He stood and tore his
garments before the people, and, stooping, threw dust on his head. A
second and a third followed his example; then from a thousand throats the
cry of "Sacrilege! Sacrilege!" rolled up, while clerks flew wildly
hither and thither shrieking the tale, and priests denied the Sacraments
to Angers until it should purge itself of the evil thing.

By that time Count Hannibal had saved himself behind the great gates, by
the skin of his teeth. The gates had opened to him in time. But none
knew better than he that Angers had no gates thick enough, nor walls of a
height, to save him for many hours from the storm he had let loose!

CHAPTER XXXI. THE FLIGHT FROM ANGERS.

But that only the more roused the devil in the man; that, and the
knowledge that he had his own headstrong act to thank for the position.
He looked on the panic-stricken people who, scared by the turmoil
without, had come together in the courtyard, wringing their hands and
chattering; and his face was so dark and forbidding that fear of him took
the place of all other fear, and the nearest shrank from contact with
him. On any other entering as he had entered, they would have hailed
questions; they would have asked what was amiss, and if the city were
rising, and where were Bigot and his men. But Count Hannibal's eye
struck curiosity dumb. When he cried from his saddle, "Bring me the
landlord!" the trembling man was found, and brought, and thrust forward
almost without a word.

"You have a back gate?" Tavannes said, while the crowd leaned forward to
catch his words.

"Yes, my lord," the man faltered.

"Into the street which leads to the ramparts?"

"Ye-yes, my lord."

"Then"--to Badelon--"saddle! You have five minutes. Saddle as you never
saddled before," he continued in a low tone, "or--" His tongue did not
finish the threat, but his hand waved the man away. "For you"--he held
Tignonville an instant wit