ve eaten no food the last two days.
You walk about at night, instead of sleeping; and I have been
expecting, every hour, that you would say to me, 'Pierre, we must
go to Paris.'"

"Will you go with me, Pierre?"

"How can you ask such a question?" Pierre said, indignantly. "Of
course, if you go I go, too. There is not much danger in the
affair; and if there were, what then? We have gone through plenty
of it, together. It will not be, now, as when we made our escape.
Then they were hunting down the Huguenots like mad dogs. Now they
think they have exterminated them in Paris, and will no longer be
on the lookout for them. It will be easy enough to come and go,
without being observed; and if we find Monsieur Francois, we will
bring him out with us.

"The young count is not like you, monsieur. He is brave, and a
gallant gentleman, but he is not one to invent plans of escape; and
he will not get away, unless we go for him."

"That is what I think, Pierre. We will start at once, but we must
not let the countess know what we are going for. I will get the
chief of the council, openly, to charge me with a mission to the
south; while telling them, privately, where I am really going, and
with what object. I am known to most of them, and I doubt not they
will fall in with my plans.

"We will ride my two best horses, and lead a spare one. We will
leave them a few miles outside Paris, and then go in disguised as
countrymen. At any rate, we shall soon be able to learn if my
cousin is among those who fell. If not, he must be in hiding
somewhere. It will not be easy to discover him, but I trust to you
to find him."

Accordingly, the next day, the countess heard that Philip had been
requested by the council to proceed on a mission to the south,
where the Huguenots were everywhere in arms.

Chapter 22: Reunited.

Philip took clothes with him, in his saddlebags, of gayer colours
than those worn by the Huguenots; and as soon as they were beyond
the district where the Protestants were in the ascendant, he put
these on instead of those in which he had started. They rode fast
and, on the fifth day after leaving La Rochelle, they entered
Versailles. No questions had been asked them by the way, and they
rode into the courtyard of the principal inn, and there stabled
their horses.

"Your animals look as if they needed rest, sir," the landlord said,
as they dismounted.

"Yes, we have come from the south, and have pressed them