"Could I have given you better news ?" "If you could have given me worse, I cannot think what it might have been," he groaned.

Then, as if smitten by a sudden notion that flashed a gleam of hope into this terrifying darkness that was settling down upon him, he suddenly looked up.

"You mean to resist him ?" he inquired.
She stared at him a second, then laughed, a thought unpleasantly.
"Pish! But you are mad," she scorned him.

"Do you need ask if I intend to resist--I, with the strongest castle in Dauphiny?
By God! sir, if you need to hear me say it, hear me then say that I shall resist him and as many as the Queen may send after him, for as long as one stone of Condillac shall stand upon another." The Seneschal blew out his lips, and fell once more to the chewing of his beard.
"What did you mean when you said I could have given you no worse news than that of his coming alone ?" she questioned suddenly.
"Madame," said he, "if this man comes without force, and you resist the orders of which he is the bearer, what think you will betide ?" "He will appeal to you for the men he needs that he may batter down my walls," she answered calmly.
He looked at her incredulously.

"You realize it ?" he ejaculated.