ity, which seems to breathe hatred
to all of our name and race. Paul, we had better linger here no
longer. Let us away the route we came, so shall we soonest reach
the coast; and we will pass together to the French court, and you
shall see the reception which will await us there from my mother
and my sweet betrothed.

"Ah, I would the day had come! I long to see kindly faces once
again. And they will love you ever for the love you have borne to
me."

The lad's face flushed with excitement at the bare thought, and the
prospect was welcome enough to Paul, who was sick at heart, and
weary with the strain of continual watchfulness; but he lowered his
voice to a mere whisper as he said:

"Hist, sweet prince! speak not so loud. There may be spies without
the very door. We will indeed make shift to start the very first
moment we may. I shall not draw another easy breath till we are far
away from here. But think you it will be wise to go the way we
came? May not those roads be watched more closely there than
elsewhere?"

"I think not so. I think they will guess that we shall make for one
of the southern ports, by which France can be the more easily
reached. If these wild robbers have left their former haunts to
pursue us, we may well be safest nearest to their lair. And we know
not the country to the south, whilst this great forest seems like a
friend to us; and we have sturdy friends within its sheltering
aisles if we are hard pressed. We can quicker reach the coast, too,
that way than any other. And the good brothers you have spoken of
at Leighs Priory will give us shelter tomorrow night, if we cannot
make shift to push on to the coast in one day."

There seemed sound sense in the counsel thus offered by the prince,
and Paul was ever ready to obey his wishes, if he saw no objection
to them. They appeared to be menaced by peril on all sides, and he
would have been thankful if the prince would have thrown himself
into the keeping of his kingly sire; but as he had declined to do
this, and was not of the stuff to be balked of his will, the next
best thing was to slip off in silence and secrecy, and Paul thought
it quite probable that the route least watched and guarded might
well be the one which led back through the forest again.

But it would not do to appear as if suspicious; and leaving Edward
locked up in the attic chamber--hoping that no one had observed his
entrance into the inn--he went down into the common room,