Eugenie de Menancourt needed no admonitions to haste. Her dress was soon resumed, her shoes tried on and found to fit tolerably, her hair re-arranged so as to conceal its length; and once more taking Beatrice's arm, she proceeded down the narrow staircase to the door of the house, where, stretched upon some benches in the passage, lay two or three men in different costumes, who instantly started upon their feet as the two maskers approached. "Do not come out," said Beatrice, stopping to speak with them, "but look forth from the side window where you can see the gate. If I hold up my handkerchief, run up to help us; and, good faith, you must even risk a hard blow or two, should need be; but if you see Andrew join us, or if I do not hold up my handkerchief, be sure that all is safe, and return home with the women." The men bowed and made way; and Eugenie, accompanying her companion through the doorway, found herself once more in the street in the cool, clear light of the early morning. During the former part of her flight, she had thought the very darkness increased her terror; but now as she walked on, with faltering steps, in an unwonted garb, and fancying that every passing eye must penetrate her disguise, she would have given worlds for night once more to afford her the covering of its dull obscurity. The gate lay at the distance of not more than a hundred yards before them; and Beatrice whispering, "Do not be surprised or alarmed at anything you see or hear, for I expect a confederate here," led the way with a quick step. Not to be alarmed, however, was out of Eugenie's power; for even the great interests she had at stake, though they prompted to exertion, were without effect in giving birth to courage: nor was the sight of the gate at that moment calculated to remove her fears, for although the siege was, as Beatrice said, absolutely at an end, and the royal army already many leagues from Paris, yet sentinels were to be seen in every direction, and a number of the fierce-looking soldiers of the League still hung about the gates, some examining the market carts as they entered the city, some jesting with the countrywomen who accompanied them. Beatrice advanced boldly, however, her confidence and presence of mind appearing to increase as the dangers became more imminent, and gliding between two carts which stood in the archway, she was leading Eugenie on, when the _lanceprisade_ of the guard darted out of the gate-house, and caught her by the arm. "Ha, ha! my young truant," he exclaimed, "whither away so fast? none passes here without question: this is not the door of a church, young man!"