"Boy, you are blind!" he rejoined impatiently, for now he saw
all and I nothing. "Yonder was the Duke of Anjou's captain--
Monsieur's officer, the follower of France's brother, mark you!
And HE--he obeyed the Duke's ring! The Duke has a free hand to-
night, and he hates us. And the river. Why are we not to cross
the river? The King indeed! The King has undone us. He has
sold us to his brother and the Guises. VA CHASSER L'IDOLE" for
the second time I heard the quaint phrase, which I learned
afterwards was an anagram of the King's name, Charles de Valois,
used by the Protestants as a password--"VA CHASSER L'IDOLE has
betrayed us! I remember the very words he used to the Admiral,
'Now we have got you here we shall not let you go so easily!'
Oh, the traitor! The wretched traitor!"

He leaned against the wall overcome by the horror of the
conviction which had burst upon him, and unnerved by the
imminence of the peril. At all times he was an unready man, I
fancy, more fit, courage apart, for the college than the field;
and now he gave way to despair. Perhaps the thought of his wife
unmanned him. Perhaps the excitement through which he had
already gone tended to stupefy him, or the suddenness of the
discovery.

At any rate, I was the first to gather my wits together, and my
earliest impulse was to tear into two parts a white handkerchief
I had in my pouch, and fasten one to his sleeve, the other in his
hat, in rough imitation of the badges I wore myself.

It will appear from this that I no longer trusted Madame d'O. I
was not convinced, it is true, of her conscious guilt, still I