murmurs become distinct appeals and fearful imprecations.

“What is that?” asked Fouquet.

“That is your Marchiali,” said the governor; “this is the way these madmen scream.”

And he accompanied that reply with a glance more pregnant with injurious allusion, as far as Fouquet was concerned, than politeness. The latter trembled; he had just recognized in one cry more terrible than any that had preceded it, the king’s voice. He paused on the staircase, snatching the bunch of keys from Baisemeaux, who thought this new madman was going to dash out his brains with one of them.

“Ah!” he cried, “M. d’Herblay did not say a word about that.”