friend of ours who had just arrived from Paris should go to him and make
the offer, which he would at once accept all the more readily because it
came from the hearts which were deeply devoted to him. They set out, but
to my great surprise returned the same day. They brought us word that
Marshal Brune had been assassinated at Avignon.

"At first we could not believe the dreadful news, and took it for one of
those ghastly rumours which circulate with such rapidity during periods
of civil strife; but we were not left long in uncertainty, for the
details of the catastrophe arrived all too soon."




CHAPTER VIII

For some days Avignon had its assassins, as Marseilles had had them, and
as Nimes was about to have them; for some days all Avignon shuddered at
the names of five men--Pointu, Farges, Roquefort, Naudaud, and Magnan.

Pointu was a perfect type of the men of the South, olive-skinned and
eagle-eyed, with a hook nose, and teeth of ivory. Although he was hardly
above middle height, and his back was bent from bearing heavy burdens,
his legs bowed by the pressure of the enormous masses which he daily
carried, he was yet possessed of extraordinary strength and dexterity.
He could throw over the Loulle gate a 48-pound cannon ball as easily as a
child could throw its ball. He could fling a stone from one bank of the
Rhone to the other where it was two hundred yards wide. And lastly, he
could throw a knife backwards while running at full speed with such
strength and precision of aim that this new kind of Parthian arrow would