Transcriber's Notes:

1. Page scan source:

http://www.archive.org/details/maninblackillust00weymuoft
(University of Toronto)

THE MAN IN BLACK

"'IF YOU WANT ME TO--DRAW HER HOROSCOPE,' THE
ASTROLOGER REPLIED" (p. 89).

The

Man in Black

BY

STANLEY J. WEYMAN

Author of "A Gentleman of France" "The Story
of Francis Cludde" etc.

Illustrated by

WAL PAGET AND H. M. PAGET

SIXTH THOUSAND

CASSELL AND COMPANY Limited

London Paris & Melbourne

1894

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

CONTENTS.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

"'If you want me to draw her horoscope,' the astrologer replied." Frontispiece

"The showman was counting his gains into his pouch."

"Jehan went trembling and found the hole."

"The astrologer rose slowly from his seat."

"Jehan leapt back with a shriek of pain."

"For a second the man in black stood breathless."

"'Madame! Madame de Vidoche, if you please!'"

"He watched her every motion."

"In a moment he was down, writhing on the floor."

"'Who stole him? Where has he been?'"

"They were carrying him."

"A man, half-naked, ... crawled on to the highroad."

THE MAN IN BLACK.

CHAPTER I.

The Fair At Fécamp.

"I am Jehan de Bault, Seigneur of--I know not where, and Lord of seventeen lordships in the County of---I forget the name, of a most noble and puissant family, possessing the High Justice, the Middle, and the Low. In my veins runs the blood of Roland, and of my forefathers were three marshals of France. I stand here, the----"

It was the eve of All Saints, and the famous autumn horse-fair was in progress at Fécamp--Fécamp on the Normandy coast, the town between the cliffs, which Boisrosé, in the year '93, snatched for the Great King by a feat of audacity unparalleled in war. This only by the way, however; and that a worthy deed may not die. For at the date of this fair of which we write, the last day of October, 1637, stout Captain Boisrosé, whom Sully made for his daring Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance, had long ceased to ruffle it; the Great King had lain in his grave a score of years or more; and though Sully, duke and peer and marshal, still lived, an aged, formal man, in his château of Villebon by Chartres, all France, crouching under the iron hand of the Cardinal, looked other ways.

The great