nnived at her youthful subjects seeking the bubble reputation
in the mouths of Valois cannon; and so little did Henry III. seem
to Berenger to be his king, that he never thought of the question of
allegiance,--nay, if the royal officers were truly concerned in his
arrest, he was already an outlaw. This was no moment for decision
between Catholic and Calvinist; all he wanted was to recover his wife
and forestall her enemies.

Henry of Navarre gave his full consent to the detachment being placed
under charge of M. de Ribaumont. He asked somewhat significantly what
had become of the young gentleman who had attended M. de Ribaumont, and
Philip blushed crimson to the ears, while Berenger replied, with greater
coolness than he had given himself credit for, that the youth had
been nearly drowned on the Sable d'Olonne, and had been left at Dom
Colombeau's to recover. The sharp-witted King looked for a moment rather
as Sir Hugh the Heron did when Marmion accounted for his page's absence,
but was far too courteous and too INSOUCIANT to press the matter
further, though Berenger saw quite enough of is expression to feel that
he had been delivered from his companion only just in time.

Berenger set forth as soon as his impatience could prevail to get the
men into their saddles. He would fain have ridden day and night, and
grudged every halt for refreshment, so as almost to run the risk of
making the men mutinous. Evening was coming on, and his troop had
dismounted at a cabaret, in front of which he paced up and down with
Philip, trying to devise some pretext for hastening them on another
stage before night, when a weary, travel-stained trooper rode up to the
door and was at once hailed as a comrade by the other men, and asked,
'What cheer at Pont de Dronne?'

'Bad enough,' he answered, 'unless you can make the more speed there!'
then making obeisance to Berenger he continued his report, saying that
Captain Falconnet was sending him to M. le Duc with information that
the Guisards were astir, and that five hundred _gens d'armes_, under
the black Nid de Merle, as it was said, were on their way intending
to surprise Pont de Dronne, and thus cut the King of Navarre off from
Guyenne and his kingdom beyond it. After this Berenger had no more
difficulty with his men, who were most of them Quinet vassals, with
homes south of the Dronne, and the messenger only halted for a hasty
meal, hastening on to the Duke, that a more considerable succo