Suddenly there was a
silence; then, in response to a signal, the sharp ringing of a
hundred bayonets as they were drawn and fastened to the muskets,
and I could see them gleaming in the feeble torchlight. Presently,
out of the stillness, the Governor's voice was heard condemning me
to death by hanging, thirty days hence, at sunrise. Silence fell
again instantly, and then a thing occurred which sent a thrill
through us all. From the dark balcony above us came a voice, weird,
high, and wailing:
"Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! He is guilty, and shall die! Francois
Bigot shall die!"
The voice was Mathilde's, and I saw Doltaire shrug a shoulder
and look with malicious amusement at the Intendant. Bigot himself
sat pale and furious. "Discover the intruder," he said to Gabord,
who was standing near, "and have--him--jailed."
But the Governor interfered. "It is some drunken creature," he
urged quietly. "Take no account of it."
X
AN OFFICER OF MARINES
What was my dismay to know that I was to be taken back again to
my dungeon, and not lodged in the common jail, as I had hoped and
Alixe had hinted! When I saw whither my footsteps were directed I
said nothing, nor did Gabord speak at all.
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