himself in a posture of defence, and said, jestingly, "Ah! ah! daddy Mercandon, don't you know me ?"

"Wretch !" cried the old huguenot, "I know you well; you are engaged against me-me, the friend and companion of your father!"

"And his creditor, are you not ?" "Yes, his creditor, as you say."

"Well, then," said Coconnas, "I have come to settle the account.'

"Seize him, bind him!" said Mercandon to the young men who accompanied him, and who at his bidding rushed towards the Piedmontese.

"One moment! one moment!" said Coconnas, laughing, "to seize a man you must have a writ, and you have forgotten that.'

And with these words, he crossed his sword with the young man nearest to him, and at the first blow cut his wrist to the bone.

The wounded man retreated, with a shriek of agony. "That will do for one !" said Coconnas.

At the same moment, the window under which Coconnas had sought shelter, opened. He sprang on one side, fearing an attack from behind; but, instead of an enemy, it was a woman he beheld; instead of the enemy's weapon he was prepared to encounter, it was a nosegay that fell at his feet.

"Ah!" he said, " a woman!" He saluted the lady with his sword, and stooped to pick up the bouquet.

"Be on your guard, brave catholic !-be on your guard !" cried the lady.

Coconnas rose, but not before the dagger of the second nephew had pierced his cloak, and wounded his other shoulder.

The lady uttered a piercing shriek.

Coconnas thanked her, assured her by a gesture, and then made a pass at the nephew, which he parried; but at the second thrust, his foot slipped in the blood, and Coconnas springing at him like a tiger-cat, drove his sword through his breast.

"Good! good! brave cavalier!" exclaimed the lady of the Hotel de Guise-"good! I will send you succour."

"Do not give yourself any trouble about that, madame, was Coconnas' reply; "rather look on to the end, if interests you, and see how the comte Annibal de Coconnas settles the huguenots."

At this moment, the son of old Mercandon placed a pistol almost close to Coconnas, and fired. The count fell on his knee. The lady at the window shrieked again; but Coconnas rose instantly: he had only knelt to avoid the ball, which struck the wall about two feet beneath where the lady was standing.

Almost at the same moment there issued a cry of rage from the window of Mercandon's house, and an old woman who recognised Coconnas as a catholic, from his white scarf and cross, threw a flower-pot at him, which struck him above the knee.

"Bravo!" said Coconnas; 66 one throws me flowers, and the other flower-pots."

"Thanks, mother-thanks!" said the young man.

"Go on wife, go on," said old Mercandon; "but take care of yourself."

"Ah!" said Coconnas, "the women are in arms, then, some for me, and others against me! Mordi! let us end this."

The scene, in fact, was much changed; and evidently drew near its close. Coconnas was wounded in the face, it is true, but in all the vigour of four-and-twenty, used to arms, and irritated rather than weakened by the three or four scratches he had received; whilst on the other side there remained only Mercandon and his son, an old man of sixty or seventy years, and a stripling of sixteen or eighteen, pale, fair, and weak, and who, having discharged his pistol, which was consequently useless, was brandishing a sword half the length of that of the Piedmontese. The father, armed only with a dagger and a discharged arquebuse, was calling for help. An old woman, looking out of the window, held a piece of marble in her hand, which she was preparing to hurl down. Coconnas, excited on the one hand by menaces, and on the other by encouragements, proud of his twofold victory, drunken with powder and blood, lighted by the reflection of a house in flames, warmed by the idea that he was fighting under the eyes of a female whose beauty was

as superior as he felt assured she was of high rankCoconnas, like the last of the Horatii, felt his strength redouble, and seeing the young man falter, rushed on him and crossed his small weapon with his terrible and bloody rapier. Two blows sufficed to drive it out of his hands. Then Mercandon tried to drive Coconnas back, so that the projectiles thrown from the window might be sure to strike him, but Coconnas, to paralyze the double attack of the old man, who tried to stab him with his dagger, and the mother of the young man, who was endeavouring to break his scull with the stone she was ready to throw, seized his adversary by the body, presenting him against all the blows, as a buckler, and well nigh strangling him in his herculean grasp. 'Help! help!" cried the young man, "he is breaking my breast-bone-help! help!" and his voice grew faint in a low and choking groan.

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Then Mercandon ceased to attack, and began to entreat. "Mercy, mercy! monsieur de Coconnas, mercy!-he is my only child !"

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"He is my son, my son!" cried the mother-" the hope of our old age ! Do not kill him, sir-do not kill him !" 'Really," cried Coconnas, bursting into laughter—“ not kill him! What did he mean, then, to do with me, with his sword and pistol?"

"Sir," said Mercandon, clasping his hands, "I have at home your father's undertaking, I will return it to you-I have ten thousand crowns of gold, I will give them to youI have the jewels of our family, they shall be yours; but do not kill him !-do not kill him!"

"And I have my love," said the lady in the Hotel de Guise, in a low tone," and I promise it you."

Coconnas reflected a moment, and said suddenly

"Are you a huguenot?"

"Yes," murmured the youth.

"Then you must die!" replied Coconnas, frowning, and putting to his adversary's breast his keen and glittering dagger.

"Die!" cried the old man- 66 my poor child die!"

And the shriek of the mother resounded so piercingly and loud, that for a moment it shook the firm resolution of the Piedmontese.

"Oh, madame la duchesse !" cried the father, turning towards the lady at the Hotel de Guise, "intercede for us, and every morning and evening you shall be remembered in our prayers."

"Then let him be a convert," said the lady.

"I am a protestant," said the boy.

"Then die!" exclaimed Coconnas, lifting his dagger—" die! since you will not accept the life which that lovely mouth offers to you."

Mercandon and his wife saw the blade of that deadly weapon gleam like lightning above the head of their son.

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My son Olivier," shrieked his mother, "abjure, abjure!" "Abjure, my dear boy!" cried Mercandon, going on his knees to Coconnas; "do not leave us alone on the earth!' "Abjure all together," said Coconnas; "for one Credo, three souls and one life."

"I will!" said the youth.

"We will!" cried Mercandon and his wife.

66 On your knees then," said Coconnas, "and let your son repeat after me, word for word, the prayer I shall say." The father obeyed first.

"I am ready," said the son, also kneeling.

Coconnas then began to repeat in Latin the words of the Credo. But whether from chance or calculation, young Olivier knelt close to where his sword had fallen. Scarcely did he see this weapon within his reach, than, not ceasing to repeat the words which Coconnas dictated, he stretched out his hand to take it up. Coconnas watched the movement, although he pretended not to see it; but at the moment when the young man touched the handle of the sword with his fingers, he rushed on him, knocked him over, and plunged his dagger in his throat, exclaiming

"Traitor!"

The youth uttered one cry, raised himself convulsively on his knee, and fell dead.

"Ah, ruffian!" shrieked Mercandon, "you slay us to rob us of the hundred rose nobles you owe us.'

"Ma foi! no," said Coconnas, "and here's the proof;" and so saying, he threw at the old man's feet the purse which his father had given him before his departure, to pay his creditor.

"And here's your death!" cried the old woman, from the window.

"Take care, M. de Coconnas-take care!" called out the lady at the Hotel de Guise.

But before Coconnas could turn his head to comply with this advice, or get out of the way of the threat, a heavy mass came hissing through the air, falling on the hat of the Piedmontese, breaking his sword, and prostrating him on the pavement: he was overcome, crushed, so that he did not hear the double cry of joy and distress which came from the right and left.

Mercandon instantly rushed dagger in hand on Coconnas, bereft of sense; but at this moment the door of the Hotel de Guise opened, and the old man, seeing swords and partisans gleaming, fled, whilst the lady he had called the duchess, whose beauty seemed terrible by the light of the flames, all dazzling as she was with gems and diamonds, leaned half out of the window, in order to direct the new comers, her arm extended towards Coconnas.

"There! there! in front of me-a gentleman in a red doublet. There!-that is he-yes, that is he!

CHAPTER X.

DEATH, MASS, OR THE BASTILLE.

MARGUERITE, as we have said, had shut the door, and returned to her chamber. But as she entered, all breathless, she saw Gillonne, who, terror-struck, was leaning against the door of the cabinet, gazing on the traces of blood on the bed, the furniture, and the carpet.

"Oh, madame," she exclaimed, "is he then dead?"

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Silence, Gillonne!" and Gillonne was silent.

Marguerite then took from her gypsire a small gold key, opened the door of the cabinet, and pointed to the young

man.

La Mole had succeeded in raising himself, and going