of being under a glance that seemed to search out everybody and
everything at once.

'More friends!' and the tone again recalled a flood of recollections. 'I
thank and welcome you. What! You have met the enemy--where is he?'

'My servant is not wounded. Sire,' said Berenger, removing his hat and
bending low. 'This is the effect of long captivity. We have but just
escaped.'

'Then we are the same case! Pardon me, sir, I have seen you before, but
for once I am at fault.'

'When I call myself De Ribaumont, your Grace will not wonder.'

'The dead alive! If I mistake not, it was in the Inferno itself that we
last met! But we have broken through the gates at last! I remember poor
King Charles was delighted to hear that you lived! But where have you
been a captive?'

'At Nid-de-Merle, Sire; my kinsmen accused me of treason in order to
hinder my search for my wife. We escaped even now during the funeral of
the Chevalier.'

'By favour of which we are making our way to Parthenay unsuspected,
though, by my faith, we gather so like a snowball, that we could be a
match for a few hundreds of Guisards. Who is with you, M. de Ribaumont?'

'Let me present to your Majesty my English brother, Philip Thistlewood,'
said Berenger, drawing the lad forward, making due obeisance, though
entirely ignorant who was the plainly-dressed, travel-soiled stranger,
so evidently a born lord of men.

'An Englishman is ever welcome,' was his gracious reception.

'And,' added Berenger, 'let me also present the young De Selinville, to
whom I owe my escape. Where is he, Philip?'

He seemed to be busy with the horses, and Berenger could not catch his
eye.

'Selinville! I thought that good Huguenot house was extinct.'

'This is a relation of the late Count de Selinville, my cousin's
husband, Sire. He arranged my evasion, and would be in danger at
Nid-de-Merle. Call him, Philip.'

Before this was done, however, the King's attention was otherwise
claimed, and turning to one of his gentlemen he said, 'Here, d'Augigne,
I present to you an acquaintance made in Tartarus. See to his
entertainment ere we start for Parthenay.'

Agrippa d'Aubigne, still young, but grave and serious-looking greeted
M. de Ribaumont as men meet in hours when common interests make rapid
friendships; and from him Berenger learnt, in a few words, that the King
of Navarre's eyes had been opened at last to the treachery of the court,
and his own dishonourable bondage. During