He packed impulsively until even the fat text-books bulked in his bundle, and the folly of flying for life with a Caesar and Melancthon on his back struck him.

Then he turned all out on the floor in a fury of haste lest she should surprise him, and think that he had had it in his mind to desert her.
Back he went on that to the living-room with its dying fire and lengthening shadows; and there he resumed his solitary pacing.

The room lay silent, the house lay silent; even the rampart without, which the biting wind kept clear of passers.

He tried to reason on the position, to settle what would happen, what steps Basterga and Blondel would take, how the blow they threatened would fall.

Would the officers of the Syndic enter and seize the two helpless women and drag them to the guard-house?
In that case, what should he do, what could he do, since it was most unlikely that he would be allowed to go with them or see them?
For a time the desperate notion of bolting and barring the house and holding it against the law possessed his mind; but only to be quickly dismissed.