o be done."

"Yes, the Admiral said that. He said that, while many a youth would
be most gratified at being selected to be my companion, he was sure
that you would far rather ride with your cousin, Monsieur De
Laville; and that it would be a pity to keep one, who bids fair to
be a great soldier, acting the part of nurse to me. It was not
quite civil of the Admiral; for I don't want a nurse of that kind,
and would a thousand times rather ride as an esquire to you, and
take share in your adventures. But the Admiral is always plain
spoken; still, as I know well that he is good and wise, and the
greatest soldier in France, I do not mind what he says."

Angouleme and Saintes were both captured without much difficulty;
and then, moving south from Angouleme, the army captured Pons and
Blaye, and thus possessed themselves of a complete semicircle of
towns round La Rochelle.

A short time afterwards, they were joined by a strong force of
Huguenots from Languedoc and Provence. These had marched north,
without meeting with any enemy strong enough to give them battle;
and when they joined the force under the Admiral, they raised its
strength to a total of three thousand cavalry, and twenty thousand
infantry.

By this time the royal army of the Prince d'Anjou, having united
with that raised by the Guises, had advanced to Poitiers. The
season was now far advanced. Indeed, winter had already set in.
Both armies were anxious to fight; but the royalist leaders,
bearing in mind the desperate valour that the Huguenots had
displayed at Saint Denis, were unwilling to give battle, unless in
a position that afforded them every advantage for the movements of
their cavalry, in which they were greatly superior in strength to
the Huguenots.

The Admiral was equally determined not to throw away the advantage
he possessed in his large force of infantry; and after being in
sight of each other for some time, and several skirmishes having
taken place, both armies fell back into winter quarters--the
severity of the weather being too great to keep the soldiers,
without tents or other shelter, in the field.

During these operations Philip and his cousin had again ridden with
Francois de la Noue, who had rejoined the army after a most
perilous march, in which he and the small body of troops he had
brought from Brittany had succeeded in making their way through the
hostile country, and in crossing the fords of the intervening
rivers, after hard f