It had been known, more or less, for three days.

Men had read it in other men's eyes.

The tongue of a scold, the sneer of an injured woman had spread it, the birds of the air had carried it.

From garret window to garret window across the narrow lanes of the old town it had been whispered at dead of night; at convent grilles, and in the timber-yards beside the river.

Ten thousand, fifty thousand, a hundred thousand, it was rumoured, had perished in Paris.