if ever there had been a doubt of the scoundrel's treacherous purpose there was none now and, the beasts being at last fed, and he gone, it was with a humbled heart i slipped from my hiding-place. my god! what a secret to hold! truly those who net in king's waters sometimes land strange fish. for a moment my purpose staggered. jan meert was the king's tool. let me but hold my peace for two days, and the hand and brain which set that tool working would pass to judgment by as red a road as had dead babette. i owed the king no loyalty, no gratitude, no love. love! who in all france or out of it owed louis love? mademoiselle? no, hate rather; for in some way which i did not understand, louis stood to her for ruin and the wreck of all she held most dear.

again my purpose staggered. once already i have said i was not in love with mademoiselle, but she had stirred my sympathy, and except martin, and perhaps, no, not perhaps, certainly—brigitta and the dead babette, no one had touched me so nearly as that since my mother died.

but that mood passed. i have always believed that the finger of god is closer to the lives of men than some think. you are blind and do not see it, hardened and do not feel it, self-guided and so misunderstand its directings, but whose fault is it that we fail to read the signs, or are unconscious of the pressure of spirit on spirit? by silence i could secure my private vengeance, but at what a cost?

if louis died, died murdered in such a fashion, war would surely follow. a picture of the four nations let loose on france: of burgundy and spain, rome and the empire, dividing her mangled body, not in type, but in truth, with all the crowded horrors of siege and sack rose before me; cities laid waste, a helpless peasantry ravaged, innocence flung to feed the passions of human wolves; these were mine to permit or prevent; who knew but that god almighty had brought me to plessis for this very thing?

"who are you, to question whys and wherefores in the king's business?" monsieur de commines had said, and i had allowed the justice of the demand. here was the hand of the king of kings himself, and who was i to question his whys and wherefores? or to his command. do this for me! answer, i will not! no! monsieur de commines must hear and must act.

he listened without comment, almost without emotion, till i had ended. then—

"you know our flanders proverb? flood, and a high wind, do not go a journey for nothing! no! nor does an angevin swear flemish in plessis at his neck's risk for nothing either!"

"then i was only a catspaw? when you bade me seek, you knew what i would find?"

"i guessed, but the affair was too small for me to touch. besides, you have now your claim upon the king, though i think we shall finish the affair ourselves before informing his majesty. trifles at all times vex great natures; think how a grit of sand in the eye galls you."

"trifles? a grit of sand?" i repeated, nettled that he should make so little of my discovery. "do you call a plot to kill the king a trifle? do you call the four nations trifles? no man who saw these slavering brutes pounding themselves frantic against the half-filed bars could call them trifles!"

"that is just it; you have seen, but i have not, and so, perhaps, i make too little of it. to-morrow monsieur jehan feeds them as usual? good! i shall be there. i think i see my way to do substantial justice, and yet not give monsieur jehan the undeserved dignity of a state trial. there again it would be making too much of trifles; or"—he added, shaking a finger in the air—"some one may be behind monsieur jehan whom it would not be convenient to unmask."

though my belief is that next day jehan flemalle anticipated his usual time, it seemed to me he lagged in the coming. even to me, a patient, almost a phlegmatic man, as you must have discovered, the waiting in the half-gloom set my nerves all a-creep. i say half-gloom, because by an alteration in the position of the boards monsieur de commines blocked up the space which gave access to our hiding-place.

"it would never do," he whispered, "for monsieur de rochfort to catch the prince de talmont slinking to cover like a thief behind arras. his laughter would kill as surely as—as—the jaws of the four nations."

but even with this safeguard against observation he seemed ill at ease, muttering to himself and shifting restlessly from place to place, so that to us both it was a relief when a louder howl rose from the cage facing us. the wolves scented blood and cried for it.

but their hunger had to wait jehan flemalle's pleasure, and as the procedure of the previous day was repeated, here a loaf and there a bone with the cage of the four nations passed ostentatiously by, i touched monseigneur on the shoulder. it was the vindication of the truth of my story, which it seemed to me, he had more than half-doubted. but he shook me off with an inconsiderate petulance.

"dame!" he muttered impatiently, "have i not eyes of my own?"

my faith! but he had, and used them well. with his face pressed against the boards he stared through a crack like a truant child at a peepshow, his teeth clenched and bared, his eyes narrowed, his breath coming in little short gasps. a faint grin was on his face, a spasm of excited emotion rather than of merriment. i have since seen the same look on gamesters' faces when a fortune hung on the fall of the dice and to lose was ruin. but at that time it was new to me, and i stood back a little, watching him curiously.

here a loaf, there a bone, and back to the cage of the four nations came jehan flemalle. nothing remained except the wolves' meat, and straddling his legs a yard or two from the den, he jeered their hunger.

"hey! burgundy! hey! spain!" he cried, snapping his fat fingers on either side his head while the starving brutes raced howling up and down the cage, pressing their lean flanks against the bars. "yap and yowl, my sons, yap and yowl! dine to-day like fed lords, and to-morrow go a-hunting for yourselves, my little ones! an open door, and france in your jaws. france, do you hear?" and he clicked his tongue "france! france! may you find him sweet!"

("you hear for yourself," said i, touching monseigneur a second time, "are you satisfied, now?" "peace, fool," answered monseigneur, "how can i hear if you chatter like a daw?")

"all france by the throat to tear and nuzzle; god! i would i were a wolf and one of you, if only for an hour! but yapping and yowling are not enough, my children, you must jump for your dinner, jump at the throat of the man who gibes your hunger, and pin him with your fangs. up he'll come, dragging his lame foot in the dust, dragging it thus, thus, thus, up he'll come, smirking and jeering, ay, jeering, and the devil waiting for him behind the jowl of the four nations. ah ha! he'll say, fret and fume, curs! you'd tear france, would you? bah! france is not afraid! and he'll snap his fingers as i do. and you, my sons, what will you do? so! so! that is your answer is it? you'll jump for his throat, will you? good, burgundy, good! down on your belly, boy; flatter, flatter, and get the grip of your claws home for the spring; now, one, two, three——christus!"

in the half-gloom monseigneur's hand caught mine, and drew me forward imperiously. above 7the grumbling mumble of the feeding brutes had risen the howling of the wolves, sinking at last to a sharp, yap, yap, yap, broken by a dog-like, complaining whine. then, as jehan flemalle marked time at the last there was an instant's silence, and a rasping crash followed by a deep-chested, hoarse baying like that of hounds on a trail.

"my god!" i cried, "they are loose!"

"i hope so," answered monseigneur huskily; "they ought to be, for i filed the bars myself last night."

"but there will be murder done?"

"justice, not murder. am i a man to do things by halves? be quiet, and let me look, for this is very curious, much more curious than if tristan had hanged him. hanging is common, but i never saw a man die in this way before."

no, nor can many have seen the like, for which god be thanked; it was an awful end. jan flemael lay on his back, his limp arms flung out in a cross. burgundy had rolled aside with the force of the leap, and was picking himself up, cowed by the fall and silent. behind him spain had crept, had caught jan flemael by the throat, had given one whimpering worrying wrench, had—but that is enough, it was an awful end. rome and the empire sniffed and growled uneasily inside the cage, but made no effort to escape.

in three minutes all was over and monseigneur shook himself with a sigh. his face had gone grey and haggard, and in ten breaths he had aged as many years, so drawn was his mouth, so webbed the corners of his eyes.

"a great sight," he said, shaking himself again, "and one with a moral for more than us in plessis. death on the threshold, knocking, knocking, knocking, and a man within call who has no ears to hear."

"with these brutes loose," answered i, as the worrying growl rose afresh, "there will be knocking at many doors, and an answer to be given whether we like or not."

but monseigneur had already recovered his sang froid.

"i say again, am i a fool to do thing by halves? see!" and he pushed aside the boards blocking the entrance.

little by little a line of men were pushing forward strong nets hung from poles and braced beneath; little by little the four nations would be again trapped. truly, as he said, monsieur de commines did nothing by halves.

"my men," he added laconically.

"but this was to be kept from the king's ears, and now—"

"i tell you they are my men," he answered testily, "and what if they do talk? bars are already prepared to fit the sockets. the old bars will be destroyed, and if men do whisper, filed! there are so many lies believed in plessis that a little truth may well be discredited. if necessary we shall say he tampered with the door and a lamentable accident resulted! faugh! look at the carrion! jump for your dinners! said he; saints! how they have jumped, and how they have dined! he told more truth than he knew!'"

beyond that i never heard that jehan flemalle had any epitaph.