And presently the men
went back whispering, the noise in the guard-room which had been
partially hushed broke forth anew, and perplexed but relieved she
breathed again. Surely he had escaped by this time. Surely by this time
he was far away, in the Arsenal, or in some place of refuge! And she
might take courage, and feel that for this day the peril was overpast.
"Mademoiselle will have the lights now?" one of the women ventured.
"No! no!" she answered feverishly, and she continued to crouch where she
was on the stairs, bathing herself and her burning face in the darkness
and coolness of the stairway. The air entered freely through a window at
her elbow, and the place was fresher, were that all, than the room she
had left. Javette began to whimper, but she paid no heed to her; a man
came and went along the passage below, and she heard the outer door
unbarred, and the jarring tread of three or four men who passed through
it. But all without disturbance; and afterwards the house was quiet
again. And as on this Monday evening the prime virulence of the massacre
had begun to abate--though it held after a fashion to the end of the
week--Paris without was quiet also. The sounds which had chilled her
heart at intervals during two days were no longer heard.
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