on the
way. They were rowed ashore in the little boat the craft carried,
and landed among some sand hills; among which they at once struck
off, and walked briskly for a mile inland, so as to avoid any
questionings, from persons they might meet, as to where they had
come from.

Jacques and his brother carried bags slung over their shoulders,
and in these was a store of food with which the merchant had
provided them, and two or three flasks of good wine; so that they
might make a day's journey, at least, without having to stop to
purchase food.

It was two o'clock when they landed, and they had therefore some
five hours of daylight; and before this had faded they had passed
Royan, situated on the Gironde. They did not approach the town but,
keeping behind it, came down upon the road running along the shore,
three miles beyond it; and walked along it until about ten o'clock,
by which time all were thoroughly tired with their unaccustomed
exercise. Leaving the road, they found a sheltered spot among the
sand hills, ate a hearty meal, and then lay down to sleep.

They were afoot again, at daylight. The country was sparsely
populated. They passed through a few small villages, but no place
of any importance until, late in the afternoon, they approached
Blaye, after a long day's tramp. As they thought that here they
might learn something, of the movements of the large body of
Catholic troops Philip had heard of as guarding the passages of the
Dordogne, they determined to enter the town.

They passed through the gates, half an hour before they were
closed, and entered a small cabaret. Here, calling for some bread
and common wine, they sat down in a corner, and listened to the
talk of the men who were drinking there. It was all about the
movements of troops, and the scraps of news that had come in from
all quarters.

"I don't know who they can be all arming against," one said. "The
Queen of Navarre has no troops and, even if a few hundreds of
Huguenots joined her, what could she do? As to Conde and the
Admiral, they have been hunted all over France, ever since they
left Noyers. They say they hadn't fifty men with them. It seems to
me they are making a great fuss about nothing."

"I have just heard a report," a man who had, two or three minutes
before, entered the room said, "to the effect that they arrived
four days since at La Rochelle, with some five or six hundred men,
who joined them on the way."

An exclamation o