And then in a second, as by magic, he altered his demeanour completely, raising his head and looking me in the face.

'That, and so much besides, I know,' he continued, giving me, to my astonishment, frown for frown, 'that if you will listen to me for a moment, M.de Marsac, and listen quietly, I will convince you that the folly is not on my side.' Amazed at his new manner, in which there was none of the madness that had marked him at our first meeting, but a strange air of authority, unlike anything I had associated with him before, I signed to him to proceed.
'You think that I am in your power ?' he said, smiling.
'I think,' I retorted swiftly, 'that, escaping me now, you will have at your heels henceforth a worse enemy than even your own sins.' 'Just so,' he answered, nodding.

'Well, I am going to show you that the reverse is the case; and that you are as completely in my hands, to spare or to break, as this straw.

In the first place, you are here in Blois, a Huguenot!' 'Chut!' I exclaimed contemptuously, affecting a confidence I was far from feeling.

'A little while back that might have availed you.