. "Hark!"

He loosed his hold, stepped lightly as a cat to the window, and peered
through a tiny opening in the partly fastened window-shutter, to make
out dimly a little crowd of horses and men in the cloudy night.

But his ears made up for the want of penetration of his eyes, for just
then a sharp order rang out and the horses, which had been taking their
turns to lower their muzzles to the water in the long trough in front of
the inn, raised them, dripping, and a couple of minutes later the troop
was in motion again, with the hoofs of the chargers rattling and
gradually dying out upon the road.

Denis was in the act of drawing a long deep breath of relief, hardly
believing that they had escaped, when their host appeared at the door.

"The King's men, gentlemen," he said, "from Windsor; but it was only to
give their horses water," he added sadly. "They would not come in to
drink, and I expect," he continued dolefully, "when I go to look I shall
find the trough empty, and an hour's work before me to fill it from the
well. But they are the King's men, gentlemen; any other travellers
would have paid, as you do, gentlemen, generously and well."

"Let me pay, then, for this," cried Denis, light-hearted as he was at
the thoughts of their escape, and he slipped a broad piece of silver
into the man's hand, sending him on his way rejoicing.

That night Denis dropped into a deep but at the same time a thoroughly
uneasy sleep, in which at times it seemed to him that he was being
pursued, at others that he was the pursuer, while people were constantly
getting into his way, shouting out lustily, "You cannot pass!" He was
in terrible anxiety too about his master, who was just ahead, urging on
his horse, not apparently along an ordinary respectable country road,
but through what seemed to be absolutely interminable galleries of a
palace. He wanted to tell him to turn either to the right or to the
left, and by that means escape from what appeared to be a labyrinth; but
unluckily he could not get his horse abreast of that of his master, and
the wind was blowing so hard that his voice would not carry. He was
just about to shout "France! France!" when he woke up, with the
perspiration standing on his brow and the conviction full upon him as he
reached for his cloak and sword that real danger did threaten his lord,
when Leoni seized his arm.

"Come, boy," he said, and he led him into the room where Francis and
Saint Simon w