to the ground. Badelon took it up, and
set it on the bed within reach of his master's hand.

Bigot swore fiercely. "It would be farther still," he growled, "if you
would be guided by me, my lord. Give me leave to bar the door, and
'twill be long before these fisher clowns force it. Badelon and I--"

"Being in your full strength," Count Hannibal murmured cynically.

"Could hold it. We have strength enough for that," the Norman boasted,
though his livid face and his bandages gave the lie to his words. He
could not move without pain; and for Badelon, his knee was as big as two
with plaisters of his own placing.

Count Hannibal stared at the ceiling. "You could not strike two blows!"
he said. "Don't lie to me! And Badelon cannot walk two yards! Fine
fighters!" he continued with bitterness, not all bitter. "Fine bars
'twixt a man and death! No, it is time to turn the face to the wall.
And, since go I must, it shall not be said Count Hannibal dared not go
alone! Besides--"

Bigot stopped him with an oath that was in part a cry of pain.

"D---n her!" he exclaimed in fury, "'tis she is that _besides_! I know
it. 'Tis she has been our ruin from the day we saw her first, ay, to
this day! 'Tis she has bewitched you until your blood, my lord, has
turned to water. Or you would never, to save the hand that betrayed us,
never to save a man--"

"Silence!" Count Hannibal cried, in a terrible voice. And rising on his
elbow, he poised the dagger as if he would hurl it. "Silence, or I will
spit you like the vermin you are! Silence, and listen! And you, old ban-
dog, listen too, for I know you obstinate! It is not to save him. It is
because I will die as I have lived, fearing nothing and asking nothing!
It were easy to bar the door as you would have me, and die in the corner
here like a wolf at bay, biting to the last. That were easy, old wolf-
hound! Pleasant and good sport!"

"Ay! That were a death!" the veteran cried, his eyes brightening. "So I
would fain die!"

"And I!" Count Hannibal returned, showing his teeth in a grim smile. "I
too! Yet I will not! I will not! Because so to die were to die
unwillingly, and give them triumph. Be dragged to death? No, old dog,
if die we must, we will go to death! We will die grandly, highly, as
becomes Tavannes! That when we are gone they may say, 'There died a
man!'"

"_She_ may say!" Bigot muttered, scowling.

Count Hannibal heard and glared at him,