r house, he
offered to take her arm; but she told him it was not desirable that he
should come with her, for her husband would think that she had put these
words into his mouth. Then, taking one of his serving-men by the sleeve,
she said--

"Leave me this man, and as soon as it is time I will send him to seek
you. Meanwhile do you go and rest in your lodging."

He, having no suspicion of her conspiracy against him, went thither.

She gave supper to the serving-man whom she had kept with her, and who
frequently asked her when it would be time to go and seek his master;
but she always replied that his master would come soon enough. When it
was night, she sent one of her own serving-men to fetch Du Mesnil; and
he, having no suspicion of the mischief that was being prepared for
him, went boldly to St. Aignan's house. As his mistress was still
entertaining his servant there, he had but one with himself.

Just as he was entering the house, the servant who had been sent to
him told him that the lady wished to speak with him before he saw her
husband, and that she was waiting for him in a room where she was alone
with his own serving-man; he would therefore do well to send his other
servant away by the front door. This he did. Then while he was going up
a small, dark stairway, the Proctor St. Aignan, who had placed some
men in ambush in a closet, heard the noise, and demanded what it was;
whereupon he was told that a man was trying to enter secretly into his
house.

At the moment, a certain Thomas Guerin, a murderer by trade, who had
been hired by the Proctor for the purpose, came forward and gave the
poor young man so many sword-thrusts that whatever defence he was able
to make could not save him from falling dead in their midst.

Meanwhile the servant who was waiting with the lady, said to her--

"I hear my master speaking on the stairway. I will go to him."

But the lady stopped him and said--

"Do not trouble yourself; he will come soon enough."

A little while afterwards the servant, hearing his master say, "I am
dying, may God receive my soul!" wished to go to his assistance, but the
lady again withheld him, saying--

"Do not trouble yourself; my husband is only chastising him for his
follies. We will go and see what it is."

Then, leaning over the balustrade at the top of the stairway, she asked
her husband--

"Well, is it done?"

"Come and see," he replied. "I have now avenged you on the man who put
yo