His first instinct was to charge the crowd
before him, to force the way, even by the sword, and to bring the Queen
and her ladies safely back; but a moment's thought showed him how
utterly futile any such attempt must be, and that even if the whole
throng had felt as he felt himself, and had wished to make way for any
one, it would have had no power to do so. There was but one chance of
saving the women, and that evidently lay in leading off the crowd by
some excitement counter to its present fear.
The instant the difficulty and the danger flashed upon him Gilbert
began to look about him for some means of safety for those in peril,
and in his distress of mind every lost minute was monstrously
lengthened as it passed. Beside him, his man Dunstan stood in silence,
apparently indifferent to all that was taking place, his quiet dark
face a trifle more drawn and keen than usual; and though a very slight
contraction of the curved nostrils expressed some inward excitement, it
was scarcely perceptible. Gilbert knew that his own face showed his
extreme anxiety, and as he in vain attempted to find some expedient,
the man's excessive coolness began to irritate him.
"You stand there," said Gilbert, rather coldly, "as if you did not care
that three hundred ladies of France are being crushed to death and that
we Englishmen can do nothing to help them."
Dunstan raised his lids and looked up at his master without lifting his
head.
"I am not so indifferent as the King, sir," he answered, barely raising
a finger in the direction of the knot of courtiers, in the midst of
whom, some fifty yards away, the cold, pale face of the King was just
then distinctly visible.
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