[Count Hannibal by Stanley J. Weyman]@TWC D-Link bookCount Hannibal CHAPTER XIII 7/25
So gravely was he impressed, indeed, by the bearing of the unknown that he turned when he had withdrawn, and came back to assure himself that the men meditated no harm in his absence; nor until he had exchanged a whisper with one of them would he leave them and go. While he was gone on his errand the envoy leaned against the wall of the gateway, and, with his chin sunk on his breast and his mind fallen into reverie, seemed unconscious of the dark glances of which he was the target.
He remained in this position until the officer came back, followed by a man with a lanthorn.
Their coming roused the unknown, who, invited to follow Peridol, traversed two courts without remark, and in the same silence entered a building in the extreme eastern corner of the enceinte abutting on the ruined Tour de Billy.
Here, in an upper floor, the Governor of the Arsenal had established his temporary lodging. The chamber into which the stranger was introduced betrayed the haste in which it had been prepared for its occupant.
Two silver lamps which hung from the beams of the unceiled roof shed light on a medley of arms and inlaid armour, of parchments, books and steel caskets, which encumbered not the tables only, but the stools and chests that, after the fashion of that day, stood formally along the arras.
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