ant relative, by whose means he had
gained admission to the palace, and had been able to enjoy the interview
with his cousin, Mary Seton.

"How fared it with you, Nigel, among the gay ladies of the court?" asked
the captain, one of those careless characters, who receive their pay and
fight accordingly, very little troubled as to the justice of the cause
they support.

"I had a talk with my cousin, and had the honour of paying my _devoirs_
to the queen," answered Nigel, cautiously. "Having now no longer any
business in Paris, I am about to set out on a visit to Admiral Coligny.
Can you direct me to my hostelry, at the sign of the Angel, and tell me
where I can find a steed to carry me on my journey? for, albeit it would
best suit my purse to trudge on foot, I would wish to present myself to
the admiral in a way suitable to the character of a Scottish gentleman."

"As I am off guard I will accompany you, my good kinsman, and will
assist you in procuring a horse," was the answer.

Nigel gladly accepted Leslie's offer, and the two Scotchmen set forth
together. Nigel, being totally ignorant of the city, had no notion in
what direction they were going. They were passing through the Rue Saint
Antoine, when they saw before them a large crowd thronging round a party
of troopers and a body of men-at-arms, who were escorting between them
several persons, their hands bound behind their backs, and mostly
without hats, the soldiers urging them on with the points of their
swords or pikes; Nigel also observed among them three or four women, who
were treated with the same barbarous indignity as the men.

"Who are those unhappy people?" he asked.

"Heretics on their way to prison, to be burnt, probably, in a few days
for the amusement of the king, who, ambitious of surpassing his sister
sovereign, Queen Mary of England, and to exhibit his love for religion,
manages to put to death ten times as many as she ventures to send to the
stake, unless they recant, when they will have the honour of being
strangled or hung instead," answered Leslie, in a nonchalant tone. "He
and his counsellors are determined to extirpate heresy; but as the
Protestants are numbered by hundreds of thousands, and as there are a
good many men of high rank and wealth among them, his Majesty has
undertaken a difficult task."

"I pray that he may alter his mind, or fail in the attempt," exclaimed
Nigel, indignantly.

"I may whisper amen; although, as the foo