companion as a pretty fellow, of whom something might be made, and
more than hinted to him that would he but resign his situation in the
Archer Guard of France, he would undertake to have him enrolled in the
household of the Duke of Burgundy in an honourable condition, and
would himself take care of his advancement. And although Quentin, with
suitable expressions of gratitude, declined this favour at present,
until he should find out how far he had to complain of his original
patron, King Louis, he, nevertheless, continued to remain on good
terms with the Count of Crevecoeur, and, while his enthusiastic mode of
thinking, and his foreign and idiomatical manner of expressing himself,
often excited a smile on the grave cheek of the Count, that smile had
lost all that it had of sarcastic and bitter, and did not exceed the
limits of good humour and good manners.

Thus travelling on with much more harmony than on the preceding day, the
little party came at last within two miles of the famous and strong town
of Peronne, near which the Duke of Burgundy's army lay encamped, ready,
as was supposed, to invade France, and, in opposition to which, Louis XI
had himself assembled a strong force near Saint Maxence, for the purpose
of bringing to reason his over powerful vassal.

Perrone, situated upon a deep river, in a flat country, and surrounded
by strong bulwarks and profound moats, was accounted in ancient as in
modern times, one of the strongest fortresses in France. [Indeed, though
lying on an exposed and warlike frontier, it was never taken by an
enemy, but preserved the proud name of Peronne la Pucelle, until the
Duke of Wellington, a great destroyer of that sort of reputation, took
the place in the memorable advance upon Paris in 1815. S.] The Count of
Crevecoeur, his retinue, and his prisoner, were approaching the fortress
about the third hour after noon, when riding through the pleasant glades
of a large forest, which then covered the approach to the town on the
east side, they were met by two men of rank, as appeared from the number
of their attendants, dressed in the habits worn in time of peace, and
who, to judge from the falcons which they carried on their wrists,
and the number of spaniels and greyhounds led by their followers, were
engaged in the amusement of hawking. But on perceiving Crevecoeur, with
whose appearance and liveries they were sufficiently intimate, they
quitted the search which they were making for a h