is Mayenne. Can we storm the
Hotel de Lorraine? No one can drink up the sea."

"One could if he wanted to as much as I want mademoiselle," my lord
declared.

But Vigo shook his head.

"Monsieur," he said gravely, "monsieur, you have a great chance. You
have a sword and a good cause to draw it in. What more should a man ask
in the world than that? Your father has been without it these three
years, and for want of it he has eaten his heart out. You have been
without it, and you have got yourself into all sorts of mischief. But
now all that is coming straight. King Henry is turning Catholic, so that
a man may follow him without offence to God. He is a good fellow and a
first-rate general. He's just out there, at St. Denis. There's your
place, M. Etienne."

"Not to-day, Vigo."

"Yes, M. Etienne, to-day. Be advised, monsieur," Vigo said with his
steady persistence. "There is nothing to gain by staying here to drink
up the sea. Mayenne will no more give your lady to you now than he would
give her to Felix. And you can no more carry her off than could Felix.
Mayenne will have you killed and flung into the Seine, as easy as eat
breakfast."

"And you bid me grudge my life? Strange counsel from you, Vigo."

"No, monsieur, but I bid you not throw it away. We all hope to die
afield, but we have a preference how and where. If you fell fighting for
Navarre, I should be sorry; Monsieur would grieve deep. But we should
say it was well; we grudged not your life to the country and the king.
While, if you fall in this fool affair--"

"I fall for my lady," M. Etienne finished. "The bravest captain of them
all does no better than that."

"M. Etienne, she is no wife for you. You cannot get her. And if you
could 'twere pity. She is a Ligueuse, and you from now on are a staunch
Kingsman. Give her up, monsieur. You have had this maggot in your brain
this four years. Once for all, get it out. Go to St. Denis; take your
troop among Biron's horse. That is the place for you. You will marry a
maid of honour and die a marshal of France."

M. Etienne laid his arm around Vigo's shoulder with a smile.

"Good old Vigo! Vigo, tell me this; if you saw a marshal's baton waiting
you in the field, and at home your dearest friend were alone and in
peril, would you go off after glory?"

"Aye, if 'twas a hopeless business to stay, certes I would go."

"Oh, tell that in Bedlam!" M. Etienne cried. "You would do nothing of
the sort. Was it to win g