, however, changed horses before the
anxious functionary and his attendants could arrive to interpose their
authority; but despite the darkness of the night, which prevented them
from obtaining even a glimpse of those whom they were endeavouring to
overtake, they persevered with confidence, being aware that before the
close of the second stage a ferry must be passed, which would
necessarily detain the travellers.

The event proved the accuracy of their calculation, the lateness of the
hour compelling L'Hote and his companion to rouse the reluctant ferryman
from his rest, a process which involved considerable delay; and they
were consequently scarcely half way across the river when they heard
the clatter of horses' hoofs upon the bank, and the voice of the
Marechal hoarsely shouting to their conductor instantly to return, or he
should be hanged for his disobedience.

The fugitives at once felt that they were lost should they permit him to
comply; and accordingly the Spaniard drew his sword, threatening to bury
it in the heart of the affrighted ferryman should he retreat an inch;
while L'Hote, as craven as he was traitor, could only urge the boat
forward by the rope, groaning at intervals: "I am a dead man! I am a
dead man!"

On gaining the opposite shore neither of the two attempted to remount;
but, abandoning their horses, they set off at their best speed on foot;
while the postilion by whom they had been accompanied had great
difficulty, during the return of the boat, in securing the three animals
who were thus suddenly committed to his sole charge.

L'Hote, terrified and bewildered by the voices of the Prevot and his
men, who had, in their turn, passed the ferry, and unable in the
darkness to discern any path by which he might secure his escape, parted
from his companion, and continued his course along the river bank;
until, attracted by some sallows which he supposed to be an island in
the middle of the stream, he threw himself into the water in order to
reach it; but soon getting beyond his depth, and being unable to regain
the shore, as well as alarmed by the rapid approach of his pursuers, he
perished miserably; and was found on the following morning not twenty
yards from the spot where he had abandoned the land.

The Spanish steward, who was captured on the morrow in a hayloft about
two leagues from the river, was conducted to Paris with the corpse,
which was consigned to the prison of the Chatelet, where it