tely filled up; and the gates were now closed,
and the walls manned; the countess herself, accompanied by her son
and Philip, taking her place on the tower by the gateway. The party
halted, three or four hundred yards from the gate, and then two
gentlemen rode forward.

"The party look to me more like Huguenots than Catholics, mother,"
Francois had said. "I see no banners; but their dresses look sombre
and dark, and I think that I can see women among them."

A minute later, Philip exclaimed:

"Surely, Francois, those gentlemen who are approaching are Conde
and the Admiral!"

"Impossible!" the countess said. "They are in Burgundy, full three
hundred miles away."

"Philip is right, mother," Francois said eagerly. "I recognize them
now. They are, beyond doubt, the prince and Admiral Coligny.

"Lower the drawbridge, and open the gates," he called down to the
warders.

The countess hastened down the stairs to the courtyard, followed by
Francois and Philip, and received her two unexpected visitors as
they rode across the drawbridge.

"Madame," Conde said, as he doffed his cap courteously, "we are
fugitives, who come to ask for a night's shelter. I have my wife
and children with me, and the Admiral has also his family. We have
ridden across France, from Noyers, by devious roads and with many
turnings and windings; have been hunted like rabid beasts, and are
sorely in need of rest."

"You are welcome, indeed, prince," the countess said. "I esteem it
a high honour to entertain such guests as yourself and Admiral
Coligny. Pray enter at once. My son will ride out to welcome the
princess, and the rest of your party."

Francois at once leapt on to a horse and galloped off, and in a few
minutes the party arrived. Their numbers had been considerably
increased since they left Noyers, as they had been joined by many
Huguenot gentlemen on the way, and they now numbered nearly four
hundred men.

"We have grown like a snowball, since we started," the prince said;
"and I am ashamed to invade your chateau with such an army."

"It is a great honour, prince. We had heard a rumour that an
attempt had been made to seize you; and that you had disappeared,
no one knew whither, and men thought that you were directing your
course towards Germany; but little did we dream of seeing you here,
in the west."

It was not until evening that the tale of the journey across
France, with its many hazards and adventures, was told; for the
co