CHAPTER XXIXMaster Giles Bonhomme waked with the dawn, or perhaps somewhat before. The common talk that St. Elmo must fall in the next hours had not avoided his ears, and he saw that he must be prepared for his own part, if there should be word of La Cerda’s death, which (for all he knew) might have been before now. For who could expect to endure under that pall of smoke that was like a halo of hell, through which the gun shots stabbed inward from every side?
Well, if his lord died, he had his own plans to pursue, and certain profits to make, which were not large, for his position was not of a first importance in La Cerda’s household (except only in Malta), but they were important to him and, being mostly of an illicit kind, they would be enough to engage his mind. When he thought of Vene
