On his right stood Blandano, Captain of the Guard, bareheaded and black with powder; on his left Baudichon the councillor, panting, breathless, his fat face running with sweat and blood--for he bore an ugly wound--but with unquenchable courage in his eyes.

A man may be fat and yet a lion.
It was a moment in the lives of the five men who thus met which none of them ever forgot.

"Was it one of you two who lowered the portcullis ?" Blandano gasped, as he leaned an instant on his sword.
"He did," Marcadel answered, laying his hand on Claude's shoulder.

"And I helped him." "Then he has saved Geneva, and you have helped him!" Blandano rejoined bluntly.

"Your name, young man." Claude told him.
"Good!" Blandano answered.