"
"Then"--to Badelon--"saddle! You have five minutes. Saddle as you never
saddled before," he continued in a low tone, "or--" His tongue did not
finish the threat, but his hand waved the man away. "For you"--he held
Tignonville an instant with his lowering eye--"and the preaching fool
with you, get arms and mount! You have never played aught but the woman
yet; but play me false now, or look aside but a foot from the path I bid
you take, and you thwart me no more, Monsieur! And you, Madame," he
continued, turning to the Countess, who stood bewildered at one of the
doors, the Provost's daughter clinging and weeping about her, "you have
three minutes to get your women to horse! See you, if you please, that
they take no longer!"
She found her voice with difficulty. "And this child?" she said. "She
is in my care."
"Bring her," he muttered with a scowl of impatience. And then, raising
his voice as he turned on the terrified gang of hostlers and inn servants
who stood gaping round him, "Go help!" he thundered. "Go help! And
quickly!" he added, his face growing a shade darker as a second bell
began to toll from a neighbouring tower, and the confused babel in the
Place Ste.-Croix settled into a dull roar of "_Sacrilege_!
_sacrilege_."--"Hasten!"
Fortunately it had been his first intention to go to the Council attended
by the whole of his troop; and eight horses stood saddled in the stalls.
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