n her, giving her a meaner opinion
of me than that which I had for a while hoped she entertained, or that
she began, now it was too late, to regret her flight and resent my
part in it, I scarcely know; but from daybreak onwards she assumed an
attitude of cold suspicion towards me, which was only less unpleasant
than the scornful distance of her manner when she deigned, which was
seldom, to address me.

Not once did she allow me to forget that I was in her eyes a needy
adventurer, paid by her friends to escort her to a place of safety, but
without any claim to the smallest privilege of intimacy or equality.
When I would have adjusted her saddle, she bade her woman come and hold
up her skirt, that my hands might not touch its hem even by accident.
And when I would have brought wine to her at Melle, where we stayed for
twenty minutes, she called Fanchette to hand it to her. She rode for
the most part in her mask; and with her woman. One good effect only her
pride and reserve had; they impressed our men with a strong sense of
her importance, and the danger to which any interference with her might
expose them.

The two men whom Fresnoy had enlisted I directed to ride a score of
paces in advance. Luke and John I placed in the rear. In this manner
I thought to keep them somewhat apart. For myself, I proposed to ride
abreast of mademoiselle, but she made it so clear that my neighbourhood
displeased her that I fell back, leaving her to ride with Fanchette; and
contented myself with plodding at their heels, and striving to attach
the later evangelists to my interests.

We were so fortunate, despite my fears, as to find the road nearly
deserted--as, alas, was much of the country on either side--and to meet
none but small parties travelling along it; who were glad enough, seeing
the villainous looks of our outriders, to give us a wide berth, and be
quit of us for the fright. We skirted Lusignan, shunning the streets,
but passing near enough for me to point out to mademoiselle the site of
the famous tower built, according to tradition, by the fairy Melusina,
and rased thirteen years back by the Leaguers. She received my
information so frigidly, however, that I offered no more, but fell back
shrugging my shoulders, and rode in silence, until, some two hours after
noon, the city of Poitiers came into sight, lying within its circle of
walls and towers on a low hill in the middle of a country clothed in
summer with rich vineyards, bu