e name of my favourite horse,
at home.

"I see you have got some stout animals in the other stalls, though
of course they are of a very different quality to your own."

"Yes; many of them are new purchases. We have taken on thirty
men-at-arms; stout fellows, old soldiers all, whom my mother will
send into the field if we come to blows. Besides these there will
be some twenty of our tenants. We could have raised the whole
number among them, had we chosen; for if we called up the full
strength of the estate, and put all bound to service in the field
in war time, we could turn out fully three hundred; but of these
well-nigh a third are Catholics, and could not in any way be relied
on, nor would it be just to call upon them to fight against their
co-religionists. Again, it would not do to call out all our
Huguenot tenants; for this would leave their wives and families and
homes and property, to say nothing of the chateau, at the mercy of
the Catholics while they were away. I do not think that our
Catholic tenants would interfere with them, still less with the
chateau; for our family have ever been good masters, and my mother
is loved by men of both parties. Still, bands might come from other
districts, or from the towns, to pillage or slay were the estate
left without fighting men. Therefore, we have taken these
men-at-arms into our service, with twenty of our own tenants, all
young men belonging to large families; while the rest will remain
behind, as a guard for the estate and chateau; and as in all they
could muster some two hundred and fifty strong, and would be joined
by the other Huguenots of the district, they would not likely be
molested, unless one of the Catholic armies happened to come in
this direction.

"Directly I start with the troop, the younger sons of the tenants
will be called in to form a garrison here. We have five-and-thirty
names down, and there are twenty men capable of bearing arms among
the household, many of whom have seen service. Jacques Parold, our
seneschal, has been a valiant soldier in his time, and would make
the best of them; and my mother would assuredly keep our flag
flying till the last.

"I shall go away in comfort for, unless the Guises march this way,
there is little fear of trouble in our absence. We are fortunate in
this province. The parties are pretty evenly divided, and have a
mutual respect for each other. In districts where we are greatly
outnumbered, it is hard for fig