w--the count, her husband, having fallen at the battle of
Dreux, at the end of the year 1562--but being an active and capable
woman, she had taken into her hands the entire management of the
estates, and was one of the most influential among the Huguenot
nobles of that part of the country.

From their last halting place, Marie Vaillant sent on a letter by
one of the men to her sister, announcing their coming. She had
written on her landing at La Rochelle, and they had been met on
their way by a messenger from the countess, expressing her delight
that her sister had at last carried out her promise to visit her,
and saying that Francois was looking eagerly for the coming of his
cousin.

The chateau was a semi-fortified building, capable of making a
stout resistance against any sudden attack. It stood on the slope
of a hill, and Philip felt a little awed at its stately aspect as
they approached it. When they were still a mile away, a party of
horsemen rode out from the gateway, and in a few minutes their
leader reined up his horse in front of them and, springing from it,
advanced towards Philip, who also alighted and helped his aunt to
dismount.

"My dear aunt," the young fellow said, doffing his cap, "I am come
in the name of my mother to greet you, and to tell you how joyful
she is that you have, at last, come back to us.

"This is my Cousin Philip, of course; though you are not what I
expected to see. My mother told me that you were two years' my
junior, and I had looked to find you still a boy; but, by my faith,
you seem to be as old as I am. Why, you are taller by two inches,
and broader and stronger too, I should say. Can it be true that you
are but sixteen?"

"That is my age, Cousin Francois; and I am, as you expected, but a
boy yet and, I can assure you, no taller or broader than many of my
English schoolfellows of the same age."

"But we must not delay, aunt," Francois said, turning again to her.
"My mother's commands were urgent, that I was not to delay a moment
in private talk with you, but to bring you speedily on to her;
therefore I pray you to mount again and ride on with me, for
doubtless she is watching impatiently now, and will chide me
rarely, if we linger."

Accordingly the party remounted at once, and rode forward to the
chateau. A dozen men-at-arms were drawn up at the gate and, on the
steps of the entrance from the courtyard into the chateau itself,
the countess was standing. Francois leapt