But how often, I reflected, had all safeguards been set aside and all precautions eluded by those to whom he was committing himself! Guise had thought himself secure in this very building, which we were about to enter.

Coligny had received the most absolute of safe-conducts from those to whom we were apparently bound.

The end in either case had been the same--the confidence of the one proving of no more avail than the wisdom of the other.

What if the King of France thought to make his peace with his Catholic subjects--offended by the murder of Guise--by a second murder of one as obnoxious to them as he was precious to their arch-enemy in the South?
Rosny was sagacious indeed; but then I reflected with sudden misgiving that he was young, ambitious, and bold.
The opening of the door interrupted without putting an end to this train of apprehension.

A faint light shone out; so feebly as to illumine little more than the stairs at our feet.