ring on a religious tumult. I have many correspondents at La Rochelle,
and will write to one asking him to select four stout fellows, who showed
their courage in the last war, and can be relied on for good and faithful
service. I will also get him to buy horses, and make all arrangements
for the journey.

"Marie will write to her sister. Lucie, perhaps, had better write
under the same cover; for although she can remember but little of
Emilie, seeing that she was fully six years her junior, it would be
natural that she should take the opportunity to correspond with
her.

"In one respect, Phil," he went on, turning to his nephew, "you
will find yourself at some disadvantage, perhaps, among young
Frenchmen. You can ride well, and I think can sit a horse with any
of them; but of the menage, that is to say, the purely ornamental
management of a horse, in which they are most carefully instructed,
you know nothing. It is one of the tricks of fashion, of which
plain men like myself know but little; and though I have often made
inquiries, I have found no one who could instruct you. However,
these delicacies are rather for courtly displays than for the rough
work of war; though it must be owned that, in single combat between
two swordsmen, he who has the most perfect control over his horse,
and can make the animal wheel or turn, press upon his opponent, or
give way by a mere touch of his leg or hand, possesses a
considerable advantage over the man who is unversed in such
matters. I hope you will not feel the want of it, and at any rate,
it has not been my fault that you have had no opportunity of
acquiring the art.

"The tendency is more and more to fight on foot. The duel has taken
the place of the combat in the lists, and the pikeman counts for as
much in the winning of a battle as the mounted man. You taught us
that at Cressy and Agincourt; but we have been slow to learn the
lesson, which was brought home to you in your battles with the
Scots, and in your own civil struggles. It is the bow and the pike
that have made the English soldier famous; while in France, where
the feudal system still prevails, horsemen still form a large
proportion of our armies; and the jousting lists, and the exercise
of the menage, still occupy a large share in the training and
amusements of the young men of noble families."

Six weeks later, Philip Fletcher landed at La Rochelle, with his
aunt and her French serving maid When the ship came i