ongly watched, I think that it will be much wiser for you to go
in disguise, either with or without a companion. Certainty is of
more importance than speed. I found a communication here, sent by
the queen before she started to the authorities of the town, saying
that she should try to make her way to them; and she knew that the
prince and myself would also come here, if we found our personal
safety menaced in Burgundy. She foresaw that her difficulties would
be great; and requested that, if we arrived here, we would send her
word as to our movements, in order that she might accommodate hers
to them.

"I have chosen you for several reasons, one being, as I have told
you, that I see you are quick at forming a judgment, and cool in
danger. The second is that you will not be known to any of the
enemy whom you may meet on your way. Most of the Huguenots here
come from the neighbouring provinces, and would almost certainly be
recognized, by Catholics from the same neighbourhood. Of course you
understand that, if suspicion should fall upon you of being a
messenger from this place, you will have but a short shrift."

"I am quite ready to do my best, sir, to carry out your mission.
Personally I would rather ride fast, with half a dozen men-at-arms;
but doubtless, as you say, the other would be the surest way. I
will take with me my servant, who is shrewd and full of resources
and, being a native of these parts, could pass as a countryman
anywhere. My horses and my four men I will leave here, until my
return. The troop will, of course, start in the morning for
Laville."

"We have another destination for them," the prince said. "A
messenger rode yesterday to Laville, to bid the young count start,
the day after tomorrow, with every man he can raise, to join me
before Niort; for which place I set out, tomorrow at midday. Of
course we had no idea that he had already come to blows with that
city; but we resolved to make its capture our first enterprise,
seeing that it blocks the principal road from Paris hither, and is
indeed a natural outpost of La Rochelle. Niort taken, we shall push
on and capture Parthenay, which still further blocks the road, and
whose possession will keep a door open for our friends from
Brittany, Normandy, and the north. When those places are secured
and garrisoned, we can then set about clearing out the Catholics
from the towns to the south."

"Very well, sir. Then I will give orders to them that they ar