But nothing happened, and as the day wore on he grew more hopeful.

He might, indeed, have begun to think Anne over-timid and his fears unwarranted, if he had not seen, a little before sunset, a thing which opened his eyes.
Two women and some children came out of a house not far from the bastion.

They passed towards the Tertasse Gate, and he watched them.
Before they came to the Royaumes' house, the children paused, flung their cloaks over their heads, and, thus protected, ran past the house.
The women followed, more slowly, but gave the house a wide berth, and each passed with a flap of her hood held between her face and the windows; when they had gone by they exchanged signals of abhorrence.

The sight was no more than of a piece with the outrage on Anne; but, coming when it did, coming when he was beginning to think that he had been mistaken, when he was beginning to hope, it depressed Claude dismally.
For comfort he looked forward to the hour when it would be dark.

"By hook or by crook," he muttered, "I shall enter then." He had barely finished the sentence, when he observed moving along the ramparts towards him a figure he knew.