CHAPTER XXIX
IN THE HALL OF AUDIENCE
SOME three or four hours after the rioting in the market-place, Pascal and Lucette, who had been hurried to the Castle from Babillon's house, were led to the Great Hall of Audience and placed in the midst of the large crowd of townsfolk who had been taken prisoners by the troops.
They were all herded together in a space about mid-*way down the southern side of the Great Hall, in a space set apart by strong barriers and guarded by a ring of soldiers. Two other companies of soldiers were present, each about fifty in number, and they were drawn up one on each side of the daïs at the eastern end, where stood the Governor's seat of audience and judgment.
Nearly all the prisoners had been injured in the conflict, and carried some grim evidences of the strife. Those whose wounds were serious wore such blood-*stained bandages, dressings and slings as they had been able to improvise; but for the most part the wounds were undressed, and the men appeared just as they had been taken, with hair and faces grimed with blood and dirt, and clothes torn and jagged by the soldiers' weapons, making a gruesome sight, which moved Lucette alternately to shrinking repulsion and tender pity.
"There must have been terrible fighting," she said to Pascal, for they knew nothing of what had passed, and had been told merely that they were to be tried immediately, with the rest of the prisoners, for their
