"This woman is plainly mad," he said; "put her out."
He waved his hand to a member of the court, who shoved the countess toward the door of safety.
"Innocent," he called out; "let her go out."
They who had the weapons ready parted before Andrea, lowered them unto this image of mourning. But, after having gone ten paces, and while Gilbert, clinging to the window bars, saw her going forth, she stopped.
"God save the king!" she cried. "Long live the queen, and shame on the tenth of August!"
Gilbert uttered a shriek and darted out into the yard. For he had seen a sword glitter, and swift as a lightning flash, the blade disappeared in Andrea's bosom. He arrived in time to catch her in his arms, and as she turned on him her dying gaze she recognized him.
"I told you that I would die in spite of you," she muttered. "Love Sebastian for both of us," she added, in a barely intelligible voice, and still more faintly continued: "You will have me laid to rest by him—next my George, my husband, for time everlasting?"
And she expired.
Gilbert raised her up in his arms, while fifty blood-smeared hands menaced him all at once.
But Maillard appeared behind him and said, as he spread his hands over his head: