f a
gargoyle. But he did not count on the narrowness of the loopholes of the
tower; it was impossible to pass through them. He then resolved to get
out upon the roof of the house through the window of the staircase on
the second floor. To accomplish this daring project he must leave his
room, and Cornelius had carried off the key.

By way of precaution, the young man had brought with him, concealed
under his clothes, one of those poignards formerly used to give the
"coup de grace" in a duel when the vanquished adversary begged the
victor to despatch him. This horrible weapon had on one side a blade
sharpened like a razor, and on the other a blade that was toothed like
a saw, but toothed in the reverse direction from that by which it would
enter the body. The young man determined to use this latter blade to saw
through the wood around the lock. Happily for him the staple of the lock
was put on to the outside of the door by four stout screws. By the help
of his dagger he managed, not without great difficulty, to unscrew and
remove it altogether, carefully laying it aside and the four screws with
it. By midnight he was free, and he went down the stairs without his
shoes to reconnoitre the localities.

He was not a little astonished to find a door wide open which led down a
corridor to several chambers, at the end of which corridor was a window
opening on a depression caused by the junction of the roofs of the hotel
de Poitiers and that of the Malemaison which met there. Nothing could
express his joy, unless it be the vow which he instantly made to the
Blessed Virgin to found a mass in her honor in the celebrated parish
church of the Escrignoles at Tours. After examining the tall broad
chimneys of the hotel de Poitiers he returned upon his steps to fetch
his dagger, when to his horror, he beheld a vivid light on the staircase
and saw Maitre Cornelius himself in his dalmatian, carrying a lamp, his
eyes open to their fullest extent and fixed upon the corridor, at the
entrance of which he stood like a spectre.

"If I open the window and jump upon the roofs, he will hear me," thought
the young man.

The terrible old miser advanced, like the hour of death to a criminal.
In this extremity Philippe, instigated by love, recovered his presence
of mind; he slipped into a doorway, pressing himself back into the angle
of it, and awaited the old man. When Cornelius, holding his lamp in
advance of him, came into line with the current