sees huddled
about the feet of great castles. A drawbridge, which I could see between
the gate towers, indicated that the chateau and its immediate grounds
were surrounded by a moat. The messenger did not approach the gates, nor
did he follow the road to its turning. He disappeared down a lane to the
right.

When I got to the lane, he had already passed out of it at the other
end. I hastened through, and caught sight of him in the open fields that
lay along the side wall of the chateau. Near the outer edge of the moat,
grew tangled bushes, and I noticed that he kept close to these, as if to
be out of sight from the chateau. At a distance ahead, skirting the rear
of the chateau enclosure, stretched the green profile of what appeared
to be a deep forest. It was this which my unconscious guide was
approaching. I soon reached the bushes by the fosse, and used them for
my own concealment in following him. When he came to the edge of the
forest, at a place near a corner of the wall environing the chateau
grounds, what did he do but stop before the first tree--a fine oak--and
proceed to climb up it? I crouched among the bushes, and looked on.

When he gained the boughs he worked his way out on one that extended
toward the moat. From that height he could see across the wall. He took
a slender pole that had been concealed among the branches, tied a
handkerchief thereto, and ran it out so that the bit of white could be
seen against the leaves.

"Oho! a signal!" said I to myself.

Keeping the handkerchief in its position, he waited. I know not just
what part of an hour went by. I listened to the birds and sometimes to
the soft sound of a gentle breeze among the tree tops of the forest.

At last the handkerchief suddenly disappeared, and my man came quickly
down the tree. Watching the chateau beyond the walls, he had evidently
seen the person approach for whom he had hung out his signal. He now
stood waiting under the tree. My heart beat fast.

I heard a creaking sound, and saw a little postern open in the wall,
near the tree. A girl appeared, ran nimbly across a plank that spanned
the moat, and into the arms of my young man.

Could this, then, be the woman whose life and honour was in peril? No,
for though she had some beauty, I could see at a glance that she was a
dependent. Moreover, her face shone gaily at sight of the messenger, and
she gave herself to his embrace with smothered laughter. But a moment
later, she atten