The courier was accordingly admitted to the Prince's
bedchamber, and proved to be one Francis Guion, as he called himself.
This man had, early in the spring, claimed and received the protection
of Orange, on the ground of being the son of a Protestant at Besancon
who had suffered death for his religion and of his own ardent attachment
to the reformed faith. A pious, psalm-singing, thoroughly Calvinistic
youth he seemed to be, having a Bible or a hymn-book under his arm
whenever he walked the street, and most exemplary in his attendance at
sermon and lecture. For the rest, a singularly unobtrusive personage,
twenty-seven years of age, low of stature, meagre, mean-visaged,
muddy-complexioned, and altogether a man of no account--quite
insignificant in the eyes of all who looked upon him. If there were one
opinion, in which the few who had taken the trouble to think of the
puny, somewhat shambling stranger from Burgundy at all, coincided, it
was that he was inoffensive, but quite incapable of any important
business. He seemed well educated, claimed to be of respectable
parentage, and had considerable facility of speech when any person could
be found who thought it worth while to listen to him; but on the whole
he attracted little attention.
Nevertheless this insignificant frame locked up a desperate and daring
character; this mild and inoffensive nature had gone pregnant seven
years with a terrible crime, whose birth could not much longer be
retarded.
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