ARMES! ARMES!
Claude did not know all that he had done, or the narrow margin of time
by which he had succeeded. But he did know that he had saved the gate;
that gate on the outer side of which four thousand of the picked troops
of Savoy were waiting the word to enter. He knew that he had done it
with death at his elbow and with the cries of his panic-stricken comrade
in his ears. And in the moment of success he rose above the common
level. He felt himself master of fear, lord of death; in the exultation
of his triumph he thought nothing too hard or too dangerous for him.
It was well perhaps that he had this feeling, for he had not a moment to
waste if he would save himself. As the portcullis struck the ground with
a thunderous crash and rebounded, and he turned from the winch to
