CHAPTER VI

THE RAT MORT

I

The guide had stepped out of the house into the street, Yvonne following closely on his heels. The night was very dark and the narrow little Carrefour de la Poissonnerie very sparsely lighted. Somewhere overhead on the right, something groaned and creaked persistently in the wind. A little further on a street lanthorn was swinging aloft, throwing a small circle of dim, yellowish light on the unpaved street below. By its fitful glimmer Yvonne could vaguely perceive the tall figure of her guide as he stepped out with noiseless yet firm tread, his shoulder brushing against the side of the nearest house as he kept closely within the shadow of its high wall. The sight of his broad back thrilled her. She had fallen to imagining whether this was not perchance that gallant and all-powerful Scarlet Pimpernel himself: the mysterious friend of whom her dear milor so often spoke with an admiration that was akin to worship. He too was probably tall and broad--for English gentlemen were usually built that way; and Yvonne's over-excited mind went galloping on the wings of fancy, and in her heart she felt that she was glad that she had suffered so much, and then lived through such a glorious moment as this.

Now from the narrow unpaved yard in front of the house the guide turned sharply to the right. Yvonne could only distinguish outlines. The streets of Nantes were familiar to her, and she knew pretty well where she was. The lanthorn inside the clock tower of Le Bouffay guided her--it was now on her right--the house wherein she had been kept a prisoner these past three days was built against the walls of the great prison house. She knew that she was in the Carrefour de la Poissonnerie.

Answer the following questions:
1. Who left the house?
2. Who came after?
3. What was the name of the area they were in?
4. Was it day time?
5. Was there any source of light?
6. What was the source of illumination?
7. Was the guide short?
8. Who did the woman imagine he might be?
9. Who spoke of this person frequently?
10. Was the woman happy?
11. What direction did they head?
12. What city were they in?
13. What landmark did the woman use to guide her?
14. Had she been held captive?

Numbered answers:
1. The guide
2. Yvonne f
3. Carrefour de la Poissonnerie
4. no
5. yes
6. a street lanthorn
7. no
8. Scarlet Pimpernel
9. her milor
10. yes
11. right
12. Nantes
13. the clock tower of Le Bouffay
14. yes