Louvre to-night; his majesty is in bed."

The marshal carried this news to his daughter.




CHAPTER II.

HOW IT IS NOT ALWAYS HE WHO OPENS THE DOOR, WHO ENTERS THE HOUSE.

The Porte St. Antoine was a kind of vault in stone, similar to
our present Porte St. Denis, only it was attached by its left
side to buildings adjacent to the Bastile. The space at the right,
between the gate and the Hotel des Tournelles, was large and
dark, little frequented by day, and quite solitary at night,
for all passers-by took the side next to the fortress, so as
to be in some degree under the protection of the sentinel. Of
course, winter nights were still more feared than summer ones.

That on which the events which we have recounted, and are about
to recount took place, was cold and black. Before the gate on
the side of the city, was no house, but only high walls, those
of the church of St. Paul, and of the Hotel des Tournelles. At
the end of this wall was the niche of which St. Luc had spoken
to Bussy. No lamps lighted this part of Paris at that epoch.
In the nights when the moon charged herself with the lighting
of the earth, the Bastile rose somber and majestic against the
starry blue of the skies, but on dark nights, there seemed only a
thickening of the shadows where it stood. On the night in question,