He made a last attempt.' Come, old friend,' he said, swallowing his anger again, or pretending to do so, and speaking with a vile bonhomie which I knew to be treacherous, 'if we come to blows we shall give you no quarter.

But one chance you shall have, for the sake of old days when we followed Conde.

Go! Take the chance, and go.

We will let you pass, and that broken door shall be the worst of it.

That is more,' he added with a curse, 'than I would do for any other man in your place, M.de Marsac.' A sudden movement and a low exclamation in the room behind me showed that his words were heard there; and these sounds being followed immediately by a noise as of riving wood, mingled with the quick breathing of someone hard at work, I judged that the women were striving with the door--enlarging the opening it might be.