Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1897-09-30
T i THE HOUSE .
OF THE WOLF.
L1H SlI9s = = = x
eSLSD BY STANLef ! wEYMAN
BY STANLsf ! WEYMaN.

CHAPTER II.
THE vIDAME's THREAT

THE NIDAMES THREAT.
Croisette used TO tell a story, of the
facts of which have no remembrance
save as bad dream. He would have it
that | left my pallet that night had
one to myself in the summer, aaJetnR
the eldest, while he and Ma1aeslept in
another in the same room-end came
to him and awoke him, sobbing and
shaking and clutching him; and beg
giRg him in fit of terror not TO let me
go. = And that so I slept in his arms
until morning. But as have said, I do
not remember anything of this, only
that I had an ugly dream that night,
and that when 1 awoke I was lying
with him and Marie; so l cannot say
whether it really happened
At any rate, if had any feeling of
the kind it did not last long; on the con-
trary-it would be idle to DENY i'll
was battered by the sudden respect Gil
and the servants showed me. What
Catherine thought of the matter L
could not tell. She had the letter and
apparently found it satisfactory. At
any rate we saw nothing of her Mime.
Claude was busy boiling simples, and
tending the messengers hurts. And
it seemed natural that I should take
command.
There could be no doubt-at any
rate we had none-that the assault
on the courier had taken place at the
vidame's instance. The only wonder
was that he had not simply cut his
throat and taken the letter. But look
ing back now it seems to me that grown
men mingled some childishness with
their cruelty in those days-days when
the religious wars had aroused our
worst passions. It was not enough TO
ldll an enemy. It pleased people to
make-l speak Hterslly-a football Of
his head. TO throw his heart to the dogs.
And no doubt It had fallen in with the
vidame's grim humor that the bearer
of PHrannes' first love letter should
enter his mistress presence, bleeding
and plastered with mud. And that the
rifraf about our own gates should
have part in the insult.
Beers wrath would be little abated
" the issue of the affair, or the justice
had done on one of his men. So we
ooked well to bolts and bars and win
lows, although the castle Is weu-nigh
impregnable, the smooth rock falling
20 feet at least on every side from the
bnse of the walls. The gatehouse,
Pavannes had shown us, might be
blown up with gunpowder, indeed,
but we prepared to close the iron graf
ing which barred the way halfway up
the ramp This done, even if the enc
my should succeed in forcing an
entrance he would only find himself
caught in trap-in q steep, narrow
-ay exposed to a fire from the top of
lie fanking walls, as well as from the
front. We had couple of culverines,
which the vicomte had got 90 years be-
fore, at the time of the battle of St.
Quentin. We fixed one of these at the
head of the ramp, and placed the other
on the terrace, where by moving it a
g few PAGES forward we could train it on
Beers house, which thus lay at our
mercy.
Not that we really expected an at
tack But we did not know what to
expect or what TO fear. We had not ten
servants, the vicomte having taken IL
score Of the sturdiest lacbeys and keep
ers to attend him at Bayonne. And VIC
felt immensely responsible. Our main