and he hustled about the left corner of the room--the old woman saying
through the darkness:

The lantern! the lantern! Oh! That is the light that is most useful to
us poor folks. The lantern was the friend of the revolution! It is the
friend of the chiffonier! It helps us when all else fails.'

Hardly had she said the word when there was a kind of creaking of the
whole place, and something was steadily dragged over the roof.

Again I seemed to read between the lines of her words. I knew the lesson
of the lantern.

'One of you get on the roof with a noose and strangle him as he passes
out if we fail within.'

As I looked out of the opening I saw the loop of a rope outlined black
against the lurid sky. I was now, indeed, beset!

Pierre was not long in finding the lantern. I kept my eyes fixed through
the darkness on the old woman. Pierre struck his light, and by its flash
I saw the old woman raise from the ground beside her where it had
mysteriously appeared, and then hide in the folds of her gown, a long
sharp knife or dagger. It seemed to be like a butcher's sharpening iron
fined to a keen point.

The lantern was lit.

'Bring it here, Pierre,' she said. 'Place it in the doorway where we can
see it. See how nice it is! It shuts out the darkness from us; it is