Let us head
for the St. Antoine gate."

The jewel made their way easy, for through that gate Henry of Guise
himself had passed in the small hours. "Half an hour ago," the
lieutenant of the watch told them, "I opened to another party which bore
the Duke's credentials. They were for Amiens to spread the good news."

"Had they a priest with them?"

"Ay, a Jacobin monk, who cried on them to hasten and not spare their
horses. He said there was much to do in the north."

"I think the holy man spoke truth," said Gaspard, and they rode into
open country.

They broke their fast on black bread and a cup of wine at the first inn,
where a crowd of frightened countrymen were looking in the direction of
Paris. It was now about seven o'clock, and a faint haze, which promised
heat, cloaked the ground. From it rose the towers and high-peaked roofs
of the city, insubstantial as a dream.

"Eaucourt by the waters!" sighed Gaspard. "That the same land should
hold that treasure and this foul city!"

Their horses, rested and fed, carried them well on the north road,
but by ten o'clock they had overtaken no travellers, save a couple of
servants, on sorry nags, who wore the Vidame of Amiens' livery. They
were well beyond Oise ere they saw in the bottom of a grassy vale a
little knot of men.

"I make out six," said Champernoun, who had a falcon's eye. "Two priests
and four men-at-arms. Reasonable odds, such as I love. Faith, that monk
travels fast!"

"I do not think there will be much fighting," said Gaspard.

Twenty minutes later they rode abreast of the party, which at first had
wheeled round on guard, and then had resumed its course at the sight
of the white armlets. It was as Champernoun had said. Four lusty
arquebusiers escorted the Jacobin. But the sixth man was no priest. He
was a Huguenot minister whom Gaspard remembered with Conde's army, an
elderly frail man bound with cruel thongs to a horse's back and his legs
tethered beneath its belly.

Recognition awoke in the Jacobin's eye. "Ah, my lords of Spain! What
brings you northward?"

Gaspard was by his side, while Champernoun a pace behind was abreast the
minister.

"To see the completion of the good work begun this morning."

"You have come the right road. I go to kindle the north to a holy
emulation. That heretic dog behind is a Picard, and I bring him to
Amiens that he may perish there as a warning to his countrymen."

"So?" said Gaspard, and at the word the Huguen