The House of the Wolf: A Romance

outwitted. For myself I did not at once grasp the position. I did not understand. I could not disentangle myself in a moment from the belief in which I had entered the house-that it was Louis de Pava

nding hoarsely even in my own ears. "What h

looked down at my face-a flushed and troubled face doubtless

rted, "how do

hild. "M. Anne does not seem to understand," he said with mock courtesy, "that I

cried confusedly. "But Blaise Bure tol

he continued, and as he spoke his tone changed strangely, and he fixed us suddenly with angry eyes, "to play a rubber with me! With me, you imbeciles! You thought the wolf of Bezers could be hunted down like any hare! Then listen, and I will tell you the

t, M. de Bezers, first," I broke out fiercely, my words leaping over one another in my haste, "a word with you! Let me tell you what I think of you! You are a treacherous h

moved. "I do not do my own dirty work," he said q

e had entered. "Very well, we will kill you first!" I cried wrathfully, my eye on his eye, and every savage passion in

h, how I hated him! But he did not stir. Had he spoken, had he moved so much as an eyelid, or drawn back his foot, or laid his hand on his hilt, I should have killed him there. But he did not stir and I could not do it. M

if he had not been in peril at all. "It was what I was going to ask you to do. If the o

shame I could have put my hands to my face and cried. He stood in the middle under the lamp, a head taller than the tallest of us; our master. And we stood

il smile. "You have arrived in Paris at a fortunate moment. There is going to be a-well, there is a little scheme on foot appointed for to-night-singularly lucky you are!-for removing some objectionable people, some friends of ours perhaps among them, M. Anne. That is all. You

d were gloating over the picture. The idea that this was so took such a hold upon me that I shrank back, shuddering; reading too in Croisette's face the same thought-and a lat

l follow me," he said, "I will see you disposed of. You may have to complain of your lodging-I have o

thought apparently to the possibility that we might strike him from behind. There certainly

orentine-who died that year I remember-and richer glass from Venice, with a crowd of meaner vessels filled with meats and drinks covered the table; disordere

id; saying it coldly, however, I thought. And the two eyed one another with little favour; rather as birds of prey about to quarr

we must have seemed a miserable and dejected crew enoug

icular out of doors, Coadjutor, as you know, but this is my house, and we are going to sup

elt so much disgust mingled with my anger that when Bezers by a gesture invited me to sit down, I drew back. "I w

ed me with a look, that was not all ferocity, though the veins in his great temples swelled. A moment, nevertheless, and he was

he lower part of the table. More than this, mingled with the hatred I felt for the Vidame, there was now a strange sentiment tow

judge him hastily. The two at the upper end talked fast, and from the little that reached us, I

"and I shall serve them. But there I stop. You have your own. Well, serve them, but do not talk to me of the cause! The cause? To hell wi

gested the priest

ame answered recklessly-meaning the queen

se of the Church?" t

u are doing. You want me to help you to get rid of your branch, and you offer in return to aid me with mine-and then, say you, there will be no stick left to beat either of us. But you may understand once for all"-and

rejoinder, and the Vidame, seeing we had finished, rose. "Armand!" he cried,

sed, and grim fellows, in corslets and padded coats, peered out. The clank of arms and murmur of voices sounded continuously about us; and as we passed a window the jingle of bits, and the hollow clang of a restless hoof on the flags below, told us that the great ho

warning to stumble down again as fast as he could. I did not know what he was about; but muttering something to Marie, I followed the lad to see. At the foo

my face. He had heard our returning footsteps, and eyed me suspiciously; but gave way after a moment with a grunt of doubt I hastened on, reaching the door of the room

lbow. And Croisette was stooping forward, his ha

in my hand, "it were better to stab her at once than break

n the boy. The priest sneered. "Hearts are

y-otherwise ignoring him. "Not Kit's! You d

"I wrote to Mademoiselle what I would do, and that I shall do! A Bezers keeps his word. By the G

appealing to the Great Registrar of his vow, in the very moment in which he all bu

e long shadows we cast on the walls and two pallets hastily thrown down in one corner, the place was empty. I did not look much at it, and I would not look at the others. I flung myself on one of the pallets and turned my face to the wall, despairing. I thought bitterly of the failure we had made of it, and of the Vidame's triumph.

moved about the room or lay still. But it was Croisette's hand on my shoulder, touching me with a quivering eagerness that in

aid, sitting up a

he bega

oof, inclined slightly also. He had raised the shutter which closed it, and on his tip-toes-for the sill was almost his own height from the floor-was peering out.

"But Marie says he can see a beam

ofs and gables stretching as far as I could see before me. Nearer, immediately under the window, yawned a chasm-a narrow street

o beam,"

" quoth Mari

o the opposite one-for the support of both, as is common in towns. In the shadow near the far end of this-it was so dir

ok my

measuring the distance to the beam a

rope," Croisette replied. His eye

e no answer. Surely he was the most stolid and silent of brothers

ng. And Marie had a hank of four-ply yarn in his pocket as it turned out, and I had some stout new garters, and two or three yards

ghtest," sai

at long ago-that Marie could walk the coping-stones of the battle

he must come last, because whoever do

ands and I might resign myself. Still one thing I would have. As Marie was to come last,

ied out. The rope was made fast to my left wrist. Then I mounted on Marie's shoulders, and climbed-not without qua

n my ears, I had a moment in which to think. The sense of the vibrating depth below me, the airiness, the space and gloom around

, and the two dark figures between me and the light. "No!" I added, hurriedly. "Croisette-boys, I

my hand. Somet

that in case of accident those above might not be strong enough to pull me up again. But it was too late to think of that, and in another second my feet touched the beam. I breathed again. Softly, very gin

hing under those dimly-seen roofs, with arms in their hands? How many sat with murder at heart? How many were waking, who at dawn would sleep for ever, or sleeping who would wake only at the knife's edge? These things I could not know, any more than I could picture how many boon-companions were parting at that instant, just risen from the dice, one t

ad given us at the inn occurred to me with new meaning. And I could not shake the feeling off. I fancied, as I sat in the darkness astride of my beam, that I could see, closing the narrow vista of the street, the heavy mass of the Louvre; and that the murmur of voices and the tramp of men assembling came from its courts, with now and

could once gain entrance to the house opposite, we had only to beg, or in the last resort force our way downstairs and out, and then to hasten with what speed we might to Pavannes' dw

ng out of the window to let down the shutter. And more he had at some risk lengthened our rope, and made a double line of it, so

m on the back. "Now they will not k

the other with our faces to the wall, and the night air blowing slantwise-well I am nervous on a height and I gasped. The window was a good six feet

uld, when Marie crawled quickly over us, and swung himself up to the narrow sill, much as I should mount a horse on the le

te. My legs dangled airily, and the black chasm of the street seemed to yawn for me. For a moment I turned sick. I recovered fro

pless. The bars of the window were close together. A woman, a child, could disengage our hands, and then-I turned sick

the woman whom we saw was richly dressed, though her silks and velvets were disordered. I saw a jewel gleam in her hair, and others on her hands. When she turned her face towards us-a wild, beautiful face, perplexed and tear-stained-I knew her instantly for a gentlewoman, and when she walked hastily to the door, and lai

ing softly, to attract

oked round, at the door first. Then she moved towards the window

me," I said again, speaking hurriedly, and striving to reassure her by the so

dly, her hand to her head. And then she murmured

n, disjointedly I am afraid. "And we have escaped. We cannot get back

avement," supplied Marie, with perfect

ered, starting back in new

n Kit, and lacked her pliant grace. I saw all this, and judging her nature, I spoke out of my despair. "Madame," I said piteously, "we are only boys. Croisette! Come up!"

her attention, as I had expected. Her express

what had we not at stake! What if she should remain obdurate? "We are in trouble-in despair," I panted. "

n forbid," she continued, her eyes on Croisette's face, "that,

k after all. Croisette did, indeed, squeeze through at last, and then by force pulled first one and then the other of us after him. But only necessity and that chasm behind coul

ould thwart him. It could be scarcely half-an-hour after midnight; we might still be in time. I stretched myself and trod the level

sword. "Madame," I said, "I am M. Anne de Caylus, an

o not know why-"am Madame de Pavannes, I

man! No doubt she could tell us where he was lodged, and so rid our task of half its difficulty. Cou

ith a rare shy sweetness this time.