Free The Chevalier De Maison Rouge by Alexandre Dumas Page B

the master tanner, who spoke to me in the Old Rue St. Jacques, and
    who went away laughing because I was unable to tell him
    the name of my friend. "But how the devil can it be to his interest to assassinate me ?"
    Looking round about him, Maurice perceived an iron
    stake with a handle of ash-tree wood.
    " In any case/' said he, " before they assassinate me, I will kill more than one of them."
    And he sprang to secure this harmless instrument,
    which, in his hand, was to become a formidable weapon.
    He then retired behind the door, and so placed himself
    that he could see without being seen. His heart beat so
    tumultuously that in the deep silence its palpitations
    might be heard. Suddenly Maurice shuddered from head
    to foot. A voice had said :
    " If you act according to my advice, you will break a
    window, and through the bars kill him with a shot from
    a carbine."
    ' Oh, no, no ! not an explosion," said another voice ; that might betray us. Besides, Dixmer, there is your
    wife."
    ' I have just looked at her through the blind ; she sus-
    pects nothing she is reading."
    ' Dixmer, you shall decide for us. Do you advocate a
    shot from the carbine, or a stroke from the poniard ? "
    ' Avoid firearms as far as it is possible the poniard."
    " Then let it be the poniard. Allans ! "
    " Allans!" repeated five or six voices together.
    Maurice was a child of the Revolution with a heart of
    flint, and in mind, like many others at that epoch, an
    atheist. But at the word " Allans ! " pronounced behind the door, which alone separated him from death, he re-60 THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE.
    membered the sign of the cross, which his mother had
    taught him when an infant he repeated his prayers at
    her knee.
    Steps approached, stopped ; then the key turned in the
    lock, and the door slowly opened.
    During this fleeting moment, Maurice had said to him-
    self :
    "If I lose this opportunity to strike the first blow I am a dead man. If I throw myself upon the assassins, I
    take them unawares gain first the garden, then the
    street, and am saved ! "
    Immediately, with the spring of a lion, and uttering a
    savage cry, which savored more of menace than terror, he
    threw down the first two men, who, believing him bound
    and blindfolded, were quite unprepared for such an as-
    sault, scattered the others, took a tremendous leap over
    over them, thanks to his iron muscles, saw at the end
    of the corridor a door leading into the garden wide open,
    rushed toward it, cleared at a bound six steps, and found
    himself in the garden, debating if it were best to en-
    deavor to run and gain the gate. This gate was secured
    by a lock arid a couple of bolts. Maurice drew back the
    bolts, tried to open the lock, but it had no key.
    In the meantime, his pursuers, who had reached the
    steps, perceived him.
    " There he is ! " cried they ; " fire upon him, Dixmer, fire! Kill him kill him!"
    Maurice tittered a groan ; he was enclosed in the gar-
    den ; he measured the walls with his eye they were ten
    feet in height.
    All this passed in a moment. The assassins rushed for-
    ward in pursuit of him.
    Maurice was about thirty feet in advance, or nearly so ;
    he looked round about him with the air of a condemned
    man who seeks concealment as the means of saving him-
    self from the reality. He perceived the turret the
    blind and behind the blind the light burning.
    He made but one bound a bound of six feet seized
    the blind, tore it down, passed through the window,
    THE CHEVALIER DE MAISON ROUGE. (ft
    smashing it, and alighted in a chamber where a female
    sat reading.
    The female rose, terrified, calling for assistance.
    " Stand aside, Genevieve stand aside ! " cried the voice of Dixmer ; " stand aside,that I may kill him I"
    And Maurice saw the carbine leveled at him. But
    scarcely had the woman looked at him, than she uttered
    a frightful cry, and instead of standing aside, as desired
    by her husband, rushed between him and the barrel of
    the gun.
    This movement