th the desire which
Durward had to obtain information concerning the two routes which he had
heard mentioned by the Bohemian in his conversation with the lanzknecht.
The friar, entrusted upon many occasions with the business of the
convent abroad, was the person in the fraternity best qualified to
afford him the information he requested, but observed that, as true
pilgrims, it became the duty of the ladies whom Quentin escorted, to
take the road on the right side of the Maes, by the Cross of the Kings,
where the blessed relics of Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar (as the
Catholic Church has named the eastern Magi who came to Bethlehem with
their offerings) had rested as they were transported to Cologne, and on
which spot they had wrought many miracles.

Quentin replied that the ladies were determined to observe all the holy
stations with the utmost punctuality, and would certainly visit that
of the Cross, either in going to or from Cologne, but they had heard
reports that the road by the right side of the river was at present
rendered unsafe by the soldiers of the ferocious William de la Marck.

"Now may Heaven forbid," said Father Francis, "that the Wild Boar of
Ardennes should again make his lair so near us!--Nevertheless, the broad
Maes will be a good barrier betwixt us, even should it so chance."

"But it will be no barrier between my ladies and the marauder, should we
cross the river, and travel on the right," answered the Scot.

"Heaven will protect its own, young man," said the friar, "for it were
hard to think that the Kings of yonder blessed city of Cologne, who will
not endure that a Jew or infidel should even enter within the walls
of their town, could be oblivious enough to permit their worshippers,
coming to their shrine as true pilgrims, to be plundered and misused by
such a miscreant dog as this Boar of Ardennes, who is worse than a whole
desert of Saracen heathens, and all the ten tribes of Israel to boot."

Whatever reliance Quentin, as a sincere Catholic, was bound to rest upon
the special protection of Melchior, Caspar, and Balthasar, he could not
but recollect that the pilgrim habits of the ladies being assumed out
of mere earthly policy, he and his charge could scarcely expect their
countenance on the present occasion, and therefore resolved, as far
as possible, to avoid placing the ladies in any predicament where
miraculous interposition might be necessary, whilst, in the simplicity
of his good f