Let the woman of the house go,' he said.
I remarked and long remembered M.de Rosny's SANG-FROID on this occasion.

His pistols he had already laid on a chair beside him throwing his cloak over them; and now, while we waited, listening in breathless silence, I saw him hand a large slice of bread-and-meat to his equerry, who, standing behind his chair, began eating it with the same coolness.
Simon Fleix, on the other hand, stood gazing at the door, trembling in every limb, and with so much of excitement and surprise in his attitude that I took the precaution of bidding him, in a low voice, do nothing without orders.

At the same moment it occurred to me to extinguish two of the four candles which had been lighted; and I did so, M.de Rosny nodding assent, just as the muttered conversation which was being carried on below ceased, and a man's tread sounded on the stairs.
It was followed immediately by a knock on the outside of our door.
Obeying my companion's look, I cried, 'Enter!' A slender man of middle height, booted and wrapped up, with his face almost entirely hidden by a fold of his cloak, came in quickly, and closing the door behind him, advanced towards the table.

'Which is M.de Rosny ?' he said.
Rosny had carefully turned his face from the light, but at the sound of the other's voice he sprang up with a cry of relief.

He was about to speak, when the newcomer, raising his hand peremptorily, continued, 'No names, I beg.