rses, he laid his hand on my arm. Glancing up to
see what he wanted, I was struck by the wild look in his face (which the
moonlight invested with a peculiar mottled pallor), and particularly in
his eyes, which glittered like a madman's. He tried to speak, but seemed
to find a difficulty in doing so; and I had to question him roughly
before he found his tongue. When he did speak, it was only to implore me
in an odd, excited manner to give up the expedition and return.

'What, now?' I said, surprised. 'Now we are here, Fresnoy?'

'Ay, give it up!' he cried, shaking me almost fiercely by the arm. 'Give
it up, man! It will end badly, I tell you! In God's name, give it up,
and go home before worse comes of it.'

'Whatever comes of it,' I answered coldly, shaking his grasp from my
arm, and wondering much at this sudden fit of cowardice, 'I go on. You,
M. Fresnoy, may do as you please!'

He started and drew back from me; but he did not reply, nor did he speak
again. When I presently went off to fetch a ladder, of the position of
which I had made a note during the afternoon, he accompanied me, and
followed me back in the same dull silence to the walk below the balcony.
I had looked more than once and eagerly at mademoiselle's window without
any light or movement in that quarter rewarding my vigilance; but,
undeterred by this, which might mean either that my plot was known,
or that Mademoiselle de la Vire distrusted me, I set the ladder softly
against the balcony, which was in deep shadow, and paused only to give
Fresnoy his last instructions. These were simply to stand on guard
at the foot of the ladder and defend it in case of surprise; so that,
whatever happened inside the chateau, my retreat by the window might not
be cut off.

Then I went cautiously up the ladder, and, with my sheathed sword in my
left hand, stepped over the balustrade. Taking one pace forward, with
fingers outstretched, I felt the leaded panes of the window and tapped
softly.

As softly the casement gave way, and I followed it. A hand which I could
see but not feel was laid on mine. All was darkness in the room, and
before me, but the hand guided me two paces forward, then by a sudden
pressure bade me stand. I heard the sound of a curtain being drawn
behind me, and the next moment the cover of a rushlight was removed, and
a feeble but sufficient light filled the chamber.

I comprehended that the drawing of that curtain over the window had cut
off m