>From the mob in the yard there came a sudden outcry. Men sprang to
the door of the Chateau and shouted to those within.

"Aux Armes," was the cry. "A nous, d nous!"

And in response to it the assailants turned tail, and dashed down
the stairs, overleaping the dead bodies that were piled upon them,
and many a man slipping in that shambles and ending the descent on
his back. Out into the courtyard they swept: leaving that handful
of gentlemen, their fine clothes disordered, splashed with blood
and grimed with powder, to question one another touching this
portent, this miracle that seemed wrought by Heaven for their
salvation.





CHAPTER VI

THE CITIZEN COMMISSIONER


It was, after all, no miracle, unless the very timely arrival upon
the scene of a regiment of the line might be accepted in the light
of Heaven-directed. As a matter of fact, a rumour of the assault
that was to be made that night upon the Chateau de Bellecour had
travelled as far as Amiens, and there, that evening, it had reached
the ears of a certain Commissioner of the National Convention, who