The Escape

"You are hard to please!"

"I shall kill him!"

"That were to fall still lower!" the minister answered, gravely regarding
him. "I would, M. de Tignonville, you remembered that you are not yet
out of jeopardy. Such a frame of mind as yours is no good preparation
for death, let me tell you!"

"He will not kill us!" Tignonville cried. "He knows better than most men
how to avenge himself!"

"Then he is above most!" La Tribe retorted. "For my part I wish I were
sure of the fact, and I should sit here more at ease."

"If we could escape, now, of ourselves!" Tignonville cried. "Then we
should save not only life, but honour! Man, think of it! If we could
escape, not by his leave, but against it! Are you sure that this is
Angers?"

"As sure as a man can be who has only seen the Black Town once or twice!"
La Tribe answered, moving to the casement--which was not glazed--and
peering through the rough wooden lattice. "But if we could escape we are
strangers here. We know not which way to go, nor where to find shelter.
And for the matter of that," he continued, turning from the window with a
shrug of resignation, "'tis no use to talk of it while yonder foot goes
up and down the passage, and its owner bears the key in his pocket."

"If we could get out of his power as we came into it!" Tignonville cried.

"Ay, if! But it is not every floor has a trap!"