nd tell Marie and Croisette of the ally I had secured. They
were much pleased, as was natural; so that we took the road in
excellent spirits intending to reach the city in the afternoon. But
Marie's horse cast a shoe, and it was some time before we could find a
smith. Then at Etampes, where we stopped to lunch, we were kept an
unconscionable time waiting for it. And so we approached Paris for the
first time at sunset. A ruddy glow was at the moment warming the
eastern heights, and picking out with flame the twin towers of Notre
Dame, and the one tall tower of St. Jacques la Boucherie. A dozen
roofs higher than their neighbours shone hotly; and a great bank of
cloud, which lay north and south, and looked like a man's hand
stretched over the city, changed gradually from blood-red to violet,
and from violet to black, as evening fell.

Passing within the gates and across first one bridge and then another,
we were astonished and utterly confused by the noise and hubbub through
which we rode. Hundreds seemed to be moving this way and that in the
narrow streets. Women screamed to one another from window to window.
The bells of half-a-dozen churches rang the curfew. Our country ears
were deafened. Still our eyes had leisure to take in the tall houses
with their high-pitched roofs, and here and there a tower built into
the wall; the quaint churches, and the groups of townsfolk--sullen
fellows some of them with a fierce gleam in their eyes--who, standing
in the mouths of reeking alleys, watched us go by.

But presently we had to stop. A crowd had gathered to watch a little
cavalcade of six gentlemen pass across our path. They were riding two
and two, lounging in their saddles and chattering to one another,
disdainfully unconscious of the people about them, or the remarks they
excited. Their graceful bearing and the richness of their dress and
equipment surpassed anything I had ever seen. A dozen pages and
lackeys were attending them on foot, and the sound of their jests and
laughter came to us over the heads of the crowd.

While I was gazing at them, some movement of the throng drove back
Bure's horse against mine. Bure himself uttered a savage oath;
uncalled for so far as I could see. But my attention was arrested the
next moment by Croisette, who tapped my arm with his riding whip.
"Look!" he cried in some excitement, "is not that he?"

I followed the direction of the lad's finger--as well as I could for
th