第96章 A ROYAL PERIL.(3)

Signing to her to stand still,I listened.The knocking was repeated,and grew each moment more urgent.There was a little grille,strongly wired,in the upper part of the door,and this Iwas about to open in order to learn what was amiss,when Simon's voice reached me from the farther side imploring me to open the door quickly.Doubting the lad's prudence,yet afraid to refuse lest I should lose some warning he had to give,I paused a second,and then undid the fastenings.The moment the door gave way he fell in bodily,crying out to me to bar it behind him.Icaught a glimpse through the gap of a glare as of torches,and saw by this light half a dozen flushed faces in the act of rising above the edge of the landing.The men who owned them raised a shout of triumph at sight of me,and,clearing the upper steps at a bound,made a rush for the door.But in vain.We had just time to close it and drop the two stout bars.In a moment,in a second,the fierce outcry fell to a dull roar;and safe for the time,we had leisure to look in one another's faces and learn the different aspects of alarm.Madame was white to the lips,while Simon's eyes seemed starting from his head,and he shook in every limb with terror.

At first,on my asking him what it meant,he could not speak.

But that would not do,and I was in the act of seizing him by the collar to force an answer from him when the inner door opened,and the king came out,his face wearing an air of so much cheerfulness as proved both his satisfaction with mademoiselle's story and his ignorance of all we were about.In a word he had not yet taken the least alarm;but seeing Simon in my hands,and madame leaning against the wall by the door like one deprived of life,he stood and cried out in surprise to know what it was.

'I fear we are besieged,sire,'I answered desperately,feeling my anxieties increased a hundredfold by his appearance--'but by whom I cannot say.This lad knows,however,'I continued,giving Simon,a vicious shake,'and he shall speak.Now,trembler,'Isaid to him,'tell your tale?'

'The Provost-Marshal!'he stammered,terrified afresh by the king's presence:for Henry had removed his mask.'I was on guard below.I had come up a few steps to be out of the cold,when I heard them enter.There are a round score of them.'

I cried out a great oath,asking him why he had not gone up and warned Maignan,who with his men was now cut off from us in the rooms above.'You fool!'I continued,almost beside myself with rage,'if you had not come to this door they would have mounted to my rooms and beset them!What is this folly about the Provost-Marshal?'

'He is there,'Simon answered,cowering away from me,his face working.

I thought he was lying,and had merely fancied this in his fright.But the assailants at this moment began to hail blows on the door,calling on us to open,and using such volleys of threats as penetrated even the thickness of the oak;driving the blood from the women's cheeks,and arresting the king's step in a manner which did not escape me.Among their cries I could plainly distinguish the words,'In the king's name!'which bore out Simon's statement.

At the moment I drew comfort from this;for if we had merely to deal with the law we had that on our side which was above it.

And I speedily made up my mind what to do.'I think the lad speaks the truth,sire,'I said coolly.'This is only your Majesty's Provost-Marshal.The worst to be feared,therefore,is that he may learn your presence here before you would have it known.It should not be a matter of great difficulty,however,to bind him to silence,and if you will please to mask,I will open the grille and speak with him.'

The king,who had taken his stand in the middle of the room,and seemed dazed and confused by the suddenness of the alarm and the uproar,assented with a brief word.Accordingly I was preparing to open the grille when Madame de Bruhl seized my arm,and forcibly pushed me back from it.