It did not say he had drowned his fiancée--that he was a murderer. With the book in my hand I fell asleep, lulled by the drowsy warmth of the room, and the softness of the cushions of the window-seat. When I awoke the light had changed, and, looking at my watch, I found it to be nearly six o'clock. I rose, put the book on the table, and came downstairs. The workmen had gone, and they had locked the door! Not for a few moments did my position realise itself to me. Every door I knew to be barred and locked; every window was also barred on the ground floor, except those that were too narrow for a man's entry or exit. No one would come till the morning. Madame Ancelot would think I had returned to Paris by train, and send the carriage back. I was trapped in the château of Saluce; and at seven o'clock to-morrow I had to meet Von Lichtenberg, or be dishonoured for life! A nice situation, truly! I laughed out loud from pure rage and vexation, and the echo above returned my laughter mockingly. In my despair I tried all the doors, uselessly; they were solid as the doors of the Bastille. Then I remembered a window that was not barred--the stained-glass window of the banqueting-room. It was fifteen feet from the ground, but had it been more I would have risked it. I went to the banqueting-room, and stood before the window, my only way to freedom and honour. It was a lovely creation of stained glass. The arms of the Saluces and the arms of the noble families with whom they were connected stood there, the Lichtenbergs amidst the rest. The evening light, shining through the stained glass, repeated the colours vaguely upon the polished parquet of the floor. The light, shining through the tender colours of the glass, brought with it an indefinable sadness. To break this thing would be like striking the dead, dishonouring the past. An act of vandalism beyond name. This window was more than a window: it was a barrier between me and my fate. The arms of the Lichtenbergs, the Saluces, the Montmorencies, had drawn themselves up before me; it was as if they would stand between me and the encounter of the morrow, but only as a menace. They could offer no real opposition to my physical acts; they could only say, "Take warning!"