He stepped back, and, descending to the floor, uncovered the lanthorn and set it on the table.

His thoughts travelled back to the preparations he had made the night before with a view to securing Mademoiselle's person, and he considered, with a grim smile, how little he had foreseen that within twenty-four hours he would himself be a prisoner.

Presently, finding his mask oppressive, he removed it, and, laying it on the table before him, sat scowling at the light.
Biron had jockeyed him cleverly.

Well, the worse for Armand de Gontaut de Biron if after this adventure the luck went against him! But in the mean time?
In the mean time his fate was sealed if harm befell Biron.
And what the King's real mind in Biron's case was, and what the Queen- Mother's, he could not say; just as it was impossible to predict how far, when they had the Grand Master at their mercy, they would resist the temptation to add him to the victims.

If Biron placed himself at once in Marshal Tavannes' hands, all might be well.