The House of the Wolf | Page 6

The blade fell, and-- thanks to

God--striking the buckle of the lad's belt, glanced off harmless. I saw
the steel flash up again--saw the spite in the man's eyes: but this time I
was a step nearer, and before the weapon fell, I passed my sword clean
through the wretch's body. He went down like a log, Croisette falling
with him, held fast by his stiffening fingers.
I had never killed a man before, nor seen a man die; and if I had stayed
to think about it, I should have fallen sick perhaps. But it was no time
for thought; no time for sickness. The crowd were close upon us, a line
of flushed threatening faces from wall to wall. A single glance
downwards told me that the man was dead, and I set my foot upon his
neck. "Hounds! Beasts!" I cried, not loudly this time, for though I was
like one possessed with rage, it was inward rage, "go to your kennels!
Will you dare to raise a hand against a Caylus? Go--or when the
Vicomte returns, a dozen of you shall hang in the market-place!"
I suppose I looked fierce enough--I know I felt no fear, only a strange
exaltation--for they slunk away. Unwillingly, but with little delay the
group melted, Bezers' following--of whom I knew the dead man was
one--the last to go. While I still glared at them, lo! the street was empty;
the last had disappeared round the bend. I turned to find Gil and
half-a-dozen servants standing with pale faces at my back. Croisette
seized my hand with a sob. "Oh, my lord," cried Gil, quaveringly. But I
shook one off, I frowned at the other.
"Take up this carrion!" I said, touching it with my foot, "And hang it
from the justice-elm. And then close the gates! See to it, knaves, and
lose no time."
CHAPTER II.
THE VIDAME'S THREAT.
Croisette used to tell a story, of the facts of which I have no
remembrance, save as a bad dream. He would have it that I left my
pallet that night--I had one to myself in the summer, being the eldest,
while he and Marie slept on another in the same room --and came to
him and awoke him, sobbing and shaking and clutching him; and

begging him in a fit of terror not to let me go. And that so I slept in his
arms until morning. But as I have said, I do not remember anything of
this, only that I had an ugly dream that night, and that when I awoke I
was lying with him and Marie; so I cannot say whether it really
happened.
At any rate, if I had any feeling of the kind it did not last long; on the
contrary--it would be idle to deny it--I was flattered by the sudden
respect, Gil and the servants showed me. What Catherine thought of the
matter I could not tell. She had her letter and apparently found it
satisfactory. At any rate we saw nothing of her. Madame Claude was
busy boiling simples, and tending the messenger's hurts. And it seemed
natural that I should take command.
There could be no doubt--at any rate we had none that the assault on
the courier had taken place at the Vidame's instance. The only wonder
was that he had not simply cut his throat and taken the letter. But
looking back now it seems to me that grown men mingled some
childishness with their cruelty in those days--days when the religious
wars had aroused our worst passions. It was not enough to kill an
enemy. It pleased people to make--I speak literally--a football of his
head, to throw his heart to the dogs. And no doubt it had fallen in with
the Vidame's grim humour that the bearer of Pavannes' first love letter
should enter his mistress's presence, bleeding and plaistered with mud.
And that the riff-raff about our own gates should have part in the insult.
Bezers' wrath would be little abated by the issue of the affair, or the
justice I had done on one of his men. So we looked well to bolts, and
bars, and windows, although the castle is well-nigh impregnable, the
smooth rock falling twenty feet at least on every side from the base of
the walls. The gatehouse, Pavannes had shown us, might be blown up
with gunpowder indeed, but we prepared to close the iron grating
which barred the way half-way up the ramp. This done, even if the
enemy should succeed in forcing an entrance he would only find
himself caught in a trap-- in a steep, narrow way exposed to a fire from
the top of the flanking walls, as well as from the front. We had a couple