But it was otherwise—­far otherwise.  Never had my heart beat higher or more proudly than as I now hurried through the streets, avoiding such groups as were abroad in them, and intent only on observing the proper turnings.  Never in any moment of triumph in after days, in love or war, did anything like the exhilaration, the energy, the spirit, of those minutes come back to me.  I had a woman’s badge in my cap—­for the first time—­the music of her voice in my ears.  I had a magic ring on my finger:  a talisman on my arm.  My sword was at my side again.  All round me lay a misty city of adventures, of danger and romance, full of the richest and most beautiful possibilities; a city of real witchery, such as I had read of in stories, through which those fairy gifts and my right hand should guide me safely.  I did not even regret my brothers, or our separation.  I was the eldest.  It was fitting that the cream of the enterprise should be reserved for me, Anne de Caylus.  And to what might it not lead?  In fancy I saw myself already a duke and peer of France—­already I held the baton.

Yet while I exulted boyishly, I did not forget what I was about.  I kept my eyes open, and soon remarked that the number of people passing to and fro in the dark streets had much increased within the last half hour.  The silence in which in groups or singly these figures stole by me was very striking.  I heard no brawling, fighting or singing; yet if it were too late for these things, why were so many people up and about?  I began to count presently, and found that at least half of those I met wore badges in their hats and on their arms, similar to mine, and that they all moved with a businesslike air, as if bound for some rendezvous.

I was not a fool, though I was young, and in some matters less quick than Croisette.  The hints which had been dropped by so many had not been lost on me.  “There is more afoot to-night than you know of!” Madame d’O had said.  And having eyes as well as ears I fully believed it.  Something was afoot.  Something was going to happen in Paris before morning.  But what, I wondered.  Could it be that a rebellion was about to break out?  If so I was on the king’s service, and all was well.  I might even be going—­ and only eighteen—­to make history!  Or was it only a brawl on a great scale between two parties of nobles?  I had heard of such things happening in Paris.  Then—­well I did not see how I could act in that case.  I must be guided by events.

I did not imagine anything else which it could be.  That is the truth, though it may need explanation.  I was accustomed only to the milder religious differences, the more evenly balanced parties of Quercy, where the peace between the Catholics and Huguenots had been welcome to all save a very few.  I could not gauge therefore the fanaticism of the Parisian populace, and lost count of the factor, which made possible that which was going to happen—­was