Had not the king visited him on his sick-bed and sat by him for an hour together?
Surely, I thought, if there were danger, these men would know of it.
And then the Huguenots' main enemy, Henri le Balafre, the splendid Duke of Guise, "our great man," and "Lorraine," as the crowd called him--he, it was rumoured, was in disgrace at court.

In a word these things, to say nothing of the peaceful and joyous occasion which had brought the Huguenots to Paris, and which seemed to put treachery out of the question, were more than enough to prevent me forecasting the event.
If for a moment, indeed, as I hurried along towards the river, anything like the truth occurred to me, I put it from me.

I say with pride I put it from me as a thing impossible.

For God forbid--one may speak out the truth these forty years back--God forbid, say I, that all Frenchmen should bear the blood guiltiness which came of other than French brains, though French were the hands that did the work.
I was not greatly troubled by my forebodings therefore: and the state of exaltation to which Madame d'O's confidence had raised my spirits lasted until one of the narrow streets by the Louvre brought me suddenly within sight of the river.

Here faint moonlight bursting momentarily through the clouds was shining on the placid surface of the water.