It was a thing that to one in his position presented no difficulty and scarcely any danger.

He had but to withdraw the guards, or the greater part of them, from a portion of the wall, and to stop on one pretext or another--the bitter cold of the wintry weather would avail--the rounds that at stated intervals visited the various posts.
That was all; as a man of tried loyalty, intrusted with the safeguarding of the city, and to whom the officer of the watch was answerable, he might make the necessary arrangements without incurring, even after the catastrophe, more than a passing odium, a breath of suspicion.
And Baudichon and Petitot?
He tasted, when he thought of them, the only moments of comfort, of pleasure, of ease, that fell to his lot throughout these days.

They would thwart him no more.

Petty worms, whose vision went no farther than the walls of the city, he would have done with them when the flag of Savoy fluttered above St.Pierre; and when for the confines of a petty canton was substituted, for those who had eyes to see and courage to adapt themselves, the wide horizon of the Italian Kingdom.

When he thought of them--and then only--he warmed to the task before him; then only he could think of it without a shiver and without distaste.