ed his horse forward to the leader so that the animals'
heads touched.

"So be it," exclaimed the other, and, turning his head to those
behind, the two comrades heard him say: "The bait takes. Fall on."

In an instant the _melee_ had begun--in another St. Georges knew what
he had from the first suspected. It was his life and the life of his
child that was aimed at!

All hurled their horses against him--except the sixth man, he who had
tracked them all day, and who now, masked and with his sword drawn,
sat his horse outside of the fray, looking on at what was being done
by the others.

The leader dealt blow after blow at St. Georges without effect, owing
to the latter's skilful swordsmanship; the remaining four directed
theirs at the arm which bore and shielded the child, and which, had
Armand Boussac not been by, would have been pierced through and
through. But the adroit swordsman perceived the intention of these
murderers--the would-be murderers of a little child!--and foiled them
again and again, beating off their weapons with his own, and at the
same time losing no opportunity of attacking them. And so far was he
successful that already he had put two _hors de combat_. One was by
now off his horse, lying across a snow-covered grave which was rapidly
becoming red from the blood that poured from his lungs, through which
the mousquetaire's sword had passed two minutes before; the other,
lying forward on his horse's neck, was urging the animal out of the
press of the fight.

And now the odds were but three to two--for still the man who took no
part in the attack sat on his animal's back, and, indeed, from the
glances he cast round him appeared to be meditating flight.

Yet withal they were unequal odds, especially since their three
antagonists were skilful swordsmen, the leader in particular wielding
his weapon with remarkable craft. Moreover, by his possession of the
burganet he wore, the odds were still greater in his favour--it had
saved his life more than once already, from the blows dealt at his
head by St. Georges.

Yet now those odds were soon further diminished--the chances became at
last equal. As one of the two followers thrust at the arm of the
_chevau-leger_, meaning to strike the burden he carried beneath,
Boussac with a quick parry turned his weapon off, and thus gliding it
along his own blade, brought its hilt with a clash against his own.
Then in a moment the mousquetaire had seized the sword ar