At first she had endured dismay at the fact that she had never beheld the Vicomte, and because she imagined that he would be, most probably, some elderly roue, as did so often fall to the lot of maidens in her station.

But upon finding him so very handsome to behold, so very noble of bearing, so lofty and disdainful that as he walked he seemed to spurn the very earth, she fell enamoured of him out of very relief, as well as because he was the most superb specimen of the other sex that it had ever been hers to observe.
And now that she had caught a glimpse of the soul that dwelt beneath that mass of outward perfections it had cost her a pang of disappointment, and the poisonous reflection cast upon his courage by that sardonic lady with whom she had talked was having its effect.
But the time was too full of other trouble to permit her to indulge her thoughts overlong upon such a matter.

A volley of musketry from below came to warn them of the happenings there.

The air was charged with the hideous howls of the besieging mob, and presently there was a cry from one of the ladies, as a sudden glare of light crimsoned the window-panes.
"What is that ?" asked Madame de Bellecour of her husband.
"They have fired the stables," he answered, through set teeth.

"I suppose they need light to guide them in their hell's work." He strode to the glass doors opening to the balcony the same balcony from which four years ago his guests had watched the flogging of La Boulaye--and, opening them, he passed out.