Methinks that it were well for me to pass my dagger through his throat, for his end is very near." "Not for your life!" cried the leader.

"If he die without wound, they cannot lay it to our charge.

Turn now to the other." The man bent over De Catinat, and placed his hand upon his heart.

As he did so the soldier heaved a long sigh, opened his eyes, and gazed about him with the face of one who knows neither where he is nor how he came there.

De Vivonne, who had drawn his hat down over his eyes, and muffled the lower part of his face in his mantle, took out his flask, and poured a little of the contents down the injured man's throat.
In an instant a dash of colour had come back into the guardsman's bloodless cheeks, and the light of memory into his eyes.