Paolo thoughtfully brought up a pail of water as well as of wine.

The ladies drank a little wine and water, while Hector took a long draught, and made the two retainers who had fought so stoutly, and his own men, do the same.

In half an hour the staircase was cleared and washed down, and the party then descended.

The baroness had told Hector that for the present at any rate she would go to Nancy, and would report to the new lord's agents there what had happened, and doubtless he would send a man to take charge of the place.
"These cups," she said, "were all the personal property of my husband, and I am therefore free to take them.

Many of them have been in his family for a very long time.