a terrified cry from the Countess, both voices being
suddenly silenced at their height. I raised my head, and saw two
powerful men in black masks, one of whom was grasping the Countess by
the throat with his left hand while, with his right assisted by his
teeth, he was endeavouring to pass a looped cord around her neck. The
other man had both hands about the neck of Mathilde, that he might
sufficiently overpower her to apply a similar cord.

I leaped over the bed, and upon the man who was trying to strangle the
Countess. Mad to save and avenge her, I sank my dagger into the back of
his shoulder, and he fell without having seen who had attacked him. The
murderer who was struggling with Mathilde immediately turned from her
and drew sword to attack me, at the same time crying out, "Garoche, to
the rescue!"

[Illustration: "I LEAPED OVER THE BED, AND UPON THE MAN WHO WAS TRYING
TO STRANGLE THE COUNTESS."]

As I could not get the dagger out of the other man's shoulder joint in
time, I drew my sword, and parried my new antagonist's thrust. The door
now opened, and in came another man with drawn sword, not masked: he
was, I suppose, the man on guard on the landing. Seeing how matters
stood, he joined in the attack upon me. I backed into a corner, knocking
over the chair of the Countess, who had run to Mathilde. The two women
stood clasping each other, in terror. Suddenly my first assailant cried,
"I leave him to you for a moment, Garoche," and ran and transferred the
key from the outside to the inside of the door, which he then closed, so
as to lock us all in. This was doubtless to prevent the exit of the
Countess and Mathilde, the purpose being to keep the night's doings in
that room as secret as possible even from the rest of the household.
This man then pocketed the key, and, while Garoche continued to keep me
occupied in my corner, ran to a side of the cell and began working with
an iron wedge at a stone in the floor. He soon raised this, showing it
to be a thin slab, and left exposed a dark hole. He then turned to the
Countess, seized her around the waist, and tried to drag her toward the
opening. His instructions had been, no doubt, to slay the women without
bloodshed and drop the bodies through this secret aperture, but the
unexpected turn of affairs had made him decide to precipitate the end
and not strangle them first. Wild with horror at the prospect of their
meeting so hideous a death, I sprang into the air, and r