In any case I adapted my conduct to this supposition, since it
was clear that I must get them out of the room, and this would
give me a ready excuse to do so. I first cast a glance at the
door and observed that the key was within. I then made a gesture
to the nuns to follow me. The Mother Superior asked me some
question, but I shook my head impatiently and beckoned to her
again.

She hesitated, but I stamped my foot and called them forth in so
imperious a manner that they came at once.

They would be safer in the chapel, and thither I led them,
placing them at the end which was farthest from the magazine. As
the three nuns took their places before the altar my heart
bounded with joy and pride within me, for I felt that the last
obstacle had been lifted from my path.

And yet how often have I not found that that is the very moment
of danger? I took a last glance at the Mother Superior, and to
my dismay I saw that her piercing dark eyes were fixed, with an
expression in which surprise was deepening into suspicion, upon
my right hand. There were two points which might well have
attracted her attention. One was that it was red with the blood
of the sentinel whom I had stabbed in the tree. That alone might
count for little, as the knife was as familiar as the breviary to
the monks of Saragossa.

But on my forefinger I wore a heavy gold ring --the gift of a
certain German baroness whose name I may not mention. It shone