tanding had
been arrived at between the Colonel and his friend Mr Chadderton,
whereby the latter was to remit the Colonel's rents under colour of
keeping the estates for himself. Secondly, he was more convinced than
ever that Will Jackson had played the traitor, and that it was through
him the Parliament had been made aware of the Colonel's service to the
King's cause, whatever it might be.

Dover was reached in safety, and the party embarked on board the
_Adventure_ for Calais. It took them twenty hours to cross; and before
ten of them were over, Robin Featherstone would have been thankful to be
set down on the most uninhabited island in the Pacific Ocean, with no
prospect of ever seeing Paris or anything else, might he but have been
safe upon dry land. It was in a very limp, unstarched condition of mind
and body that he landed on the Calais quay. Colonel Lane, an old
traveller, and an excellent sailor, was rather disposed to make merry at
poor Robin's expense; for toothache and sea-sickness are maladies for
which a man rarely meets with much sympathy.

They slept the last night at Saint Denis, where the Colonel encountered
an old acquaintance, an English gentleman who was just starting for
Paris, and who assured the Colonel that he should communicate the news
of his approach to the King.

"Truly, I am weary of horse-riding as I may well be," said Mrs Jane, as
she mounted the next morning, to traverse the eight miles which lie
between Saint Denis and Paris. "Poor little Jenny Lavender! 'tis well I
brought her not withal; she would have been dog-weary ere we had won
thus far."

For this short distance Mrs Jane rode by herself, the Colonel mounting
another horse beside her. Featherstone followed, and a French youth
came last, conducting the baggage-horse. Rather more than half the
distance to the capital had been traversed, when a large cavalcade was
seen approaching. It consisted of a number of gentlemen on horseback,
preceding one of the large cumbrous coaches then in common use, in which
sat two ladies and a little girl. The coach was drawn by six heavy
Flanders mares, which went at so leisurely a pace that they could easily
be accompanied by a crowd of French sight-seers who ran before, behind,
and all around them.

As soon as the two parties came within sight of each other, one of the
gentlemen who preceded the coach rode forward and met the travellers,
pulling off his hat as he came up to them. Feat