ve you free
to do what may seem best to you, warning you only against
undertaking any desperate enterprise.

"Philip will, of course, ride with you."

"Shall we ring the alarm bell, mother?"

"No; it is better not to disturb the tenantry, unless on very grave
occasion. Take the fifty men-at-arms, your own men, and Philip's.
Sixty will be ample for dispersing disorderly mobs; while a hundred
would be of no use to you, against the armed forces of the town and
the garrison of two hundred men."

In a quarter of an hour, the troop started. All knew the errand on
which they were bent, and the journey was performed at the highest
speed of which the horses were capable.

"They can have a good, long rest when they get there," Francois
said to Philip; "and half an hour, earlier or later, may mean the
saving or losing of fifty lives. The mob will have been feasting,
and exulting over the slaying of so many Huguenots, until late last
night; and will not be astir early, this morning. Probably, too,
they will, before they think of sallying out, attend the churches;
where the priests will stir them up to fury, before they lead them
out on a crusade into the country.

"I would that we knew where they are likely to begin. There are a
dozen villages, round the town."

"What do you say to dividing our force, Francois? As we near the
town, you with one party could ride round to the left, I with the
other to the right and, searching each village as we go, could join
forces again on the other side of the town. If Montpace had been
with us, of course he would have taken the command of one of the
parties. It is unfortunate that he is laid up with that wound he
got, at Saint Denis."

"I am afraid he will never be fit for active service again, Philip.
But I am not sorry that he is not here. He might have objected to
our dividing the troop; and besides, I am glad that you should
command, putting aside everything else. We understand each other.

"You will, of course, cut down the ruffians from the towns without
mercy, if you find them engaged in massacre. If not, you will warn
the Huguenots of the villages, as you pass through, to leave their
homes at once and make for Laville; giving a sharp intimation to
the village maires that, if the Protestants are interfered with in
any way, or hindered from taking their goods and setting out; we
will, on our return, burn the village about their ears, and hang up
any who have interfered with our