That is plain speaking, is it not ?" The priest's hand shook as he raised a full glass to his lips, but he made no rejoinder, and the Vidame, seeing we had finished, rose.
"Armand!" he cried, his face still dark, "take these gentlemen to their chamber.

You understand ?" We stiffly acknowledged his salute--the priest taking no notice of us--and followed the servant from the room; going along a corridor and up a steep flight of stairs, and seeing enough by the way to be sure that resistance was hopeless.

Doors opened silently as we passed, and grim fellows, in corslets and padded coats, peered out.

The clank of arms and murmur of voices sounded continuously about us; and as we passed a window the jingle of bits, and the hollow clang of a restless hoof on the flags below, told us that the great house was for the time a fortress.

I wondered much.