I battled with the rabble about me.

I forced my way through them tooth and nail after Pavannes, intent only on escaping, only on getting away from there.

And so we neither halted nor looked back until we were clear of the crowd and had left the blaze of light and the work doing by it some way behind us.
We found ourselves then in the mouth of an obscure alley which my companion whispered would bring us to his house; and here we paused to take breath and look back.

The sky was red behind us, the air full of the clash and din of the tocsin, and the flood of sounds which poured from every tower and steeple.

From the eastward came the rattle of drums and random shots, and shrieks of "A BAS COLIGNY!" "A BAS LES HUGUENOTS!" Meanwhile the city was rising as one man, pale at this dread awakening.