same evening.

"We had not been misinformed, frays having already taken place in the
streets which had heated public opinion. One man had been killed on the
Esplanade by a musket shot, and it seemed as if his death would be only
the forerunner of many. The Catholics were awaiting with impatience the
arrival of those doughty warriors from Beaucaire on whom they placed
their chief reliance. The Protestants went about in painful silence, and
fear blanched every face. At length the white flag was hoisted and the
king proclaimed without any of the disorders which had been dreaded
taking place, but it was plainly visible that this calm was only a pause
before a struggle, and that on the slightest pretext the pent-up passions
would break loose again.

"Just at this time the memory of our quiet life in the mountains inspired
us with a happy idea. We had learned that the obstinate resolution of
Marshal Brune never to acknowledge Louis XVIII as king had been softened,
and that the marshal had been induced to hoist the white flag at Toulon,
while with a cockade in his hat he had formally resigned the command of
that place into the hands of the royal authorities.

"Henceforward in all Provence there was no spot where he could live
unmarked. His ultimate intentions were unknown to us, indeed his
movements seemed to show great hesitation on his part, so it occurred to
us to offer him our little country house as a refuge where he could await
the arrival of more peaceful times. We decided that M____ and another
friend of ours who had just arrived from Paris should go to him and make
the offer, which he would at once accept all the more readily because it
came from the hearts which were deeply devoted to him. They set out, but
to my great surprise returned the same day. They brought us word that
Marshal Brune had been assassinated at Avignon.

"At first we could not believe the dreadful news, and took it for one of
those ghastly rumours which circulate with such rapidity during periods
of civil strife; but we were not left long in uncertainty, for the
details of the catastrophe arrived all too soon."

CHAPTER VIII

For some days Avignon had its assassins, as Marseilles had had them, and
as Nimes was about to have them; for some days all Avignon shuddered at
the names of five men--Pointu, Farges, Roquefort, Naudaud, and Magnan.

Pointu was a perfect type of the men of the South, olive-skinned and
eagle-eyed, with