Monsieur," with a bow, half courteous, half ironical, "let me commend to you the advantages of silence and your mask." And he waved his hand in the direction of the door.
A moment Count Hannibal hesitated.

He was in the heart of a hostile fortress where the resistance of a single man armed to the teeth must have been futile; and he was unarmed, save for a poniard.

Nevertheless, for a moment the impulse to spring on Biron, and with the dagger at his throat to make his life the price of a safe passage, was strong.

Then--for with the warp of a harsh and passionate character were interwrought an odd shrewdness and some things little suspected--he resigned himself.
Bowing gravely, he turned with dignity, and in silence followed the officer from the room.
Peridol had two men in waiting at the door.

From one of these the lieutenant took a lanthorn, and, with an air at once sullen and deferential, led the way up the stone staircase to the floor over that in which M.de Biron had his lodging.