"Down, rascal!" he said hoarsely.

"And you"-- to the officer--"show me instantly to M.de Biron!" But the lieutenant, who stood in fear of his men, looked at him doubtfully.
"Nay," he said, "not so fast!" And one of the others, taking the lead, cried, "No! We may have no need of M.de Biron.

Your name, monsieur, first." With a quick movement the stranger gripped the officer's wrist.
"Tell your master," he said, "that he who clasped his wrist _thus_ on the night of Pentecost is here, and would speak with him! And say, mark you, that I will come to him, not he to me!" The sign and the tone imposed upon the boldest.

Two-thirds of the watch were Huguenots, who burned to avenge the blood of their fellows; and these, overriding their officer, had agreed to deal with the intruder, if a Papegot, without recourse to the Grand Master, whose moderation they dreaded.

A knife-thrust in the ribs, and another body in the ditch--why not, when such things were done outside?
But even these doubted now; and M.Peridol, the lieutenant, reading in the eyes of his men the suspicions which he had himself conceived, was only anxious to obey, if they would let him.