'And to be truthful too,' I said with ungovernable fury, while unsheathing my sword; but it was barely out of the scabbard, when the rough hands of a crowd of armed men were laid upon me, and in a moment, I was denuded of my belt, with its poniard and pistols, my sword and purse of fifty crowns, with all my papers, while I was held so tightly on every side that I could scarcely breathe. My despatches were valueless to me, compared to the farewell note of Marie Louise. 'M. le Comte,' exclaimed a bloated young subaltern of Swiss, who was looking over my papers; 'here is a letter from mademoiselle--' 'De l'Orme--yes!' interrupted De Bitche, abruptly, closing the sentence to mislead his followers, and snatching the letter of Louise from the startled discoverer thereof; 'and on peril of your life,' he added, 'speak no more of it.' 'But, M. le Comte,' said Schreckhorn, 'here is a protection from Monseigneur le Duc, dated at Nanci, yesterday. This, at least, must be respected.' 'A vile forgery--put it in the fire; every spy has papers.' The protection given to me by Vaudemont was then consigned to the flames. 'And here is a despatch sealed with the royal arms of France, and addressed to M. le Chevalier Hepburn, marshal and general of the Scots with the army of the Rhine.' 'Bon--diable! give me that!' shouted De Bitche, making a snatch at the envelope, which contained the brave Hepburn's diploma of Marshal of France; 'and now away with the moucharde to the turret above the river; but, off with his buff coat first. Aha, messieurs! 'tis laced, and of the true Parisian cut. Off with it, for by the favourite corn of St. Nicolas, he will never need it more!' My buff coat was rudely torn off me by some half-drunken Swiss and Germans, among whom it formed an object of furious contention. I was then dragged through the hall, along a dark passage, and up a narrow stone stair, to a little arched door, through which I was thrust into an apartment lighted only by fitful gleams of the moon, across which the stormy clouds were hurrying in black masses; and there left to my own anxious and alarming thoughts. CHAPTER LV. THE TURRET.