And the troopers.

What if, when I had killed their leader, they made the place too hot for me, Monseigneur's commission notwithstanding?
I should look silly, indeed, if on the eve of success I were driven from the place by a parcel of jack-boots.
I liked the thought so little that I hesitated.

Yet it seemed too late to retreat.

The Captain and the Lieutenant were waiting for me in a little open space fifty yards from the house, where a narrower path crossed the broad walk, down which I had first seen Mademoiselle and her sister pacing.

The Captain had removed his doublet, and stood in his shirt leaning against the sundial, his head bare and his sinewy throat uncovered.