independent spirit, as many of those Norman townsmen are, was
inclined at first to treat me with more familiarity than respect; the
fact of my nag, for which he would have chaffered, excelling my coat
in quality, leading him to set me down as a steward or intendant. The
pursuit of his trade, however, had brought him into connection with all
classes of men and he quickly perceived his mistake; and as he knew the
provinces between the Seine and Loire to perfection, and made it part of
his business to foresee the chances of peace and war, I obtained a great
amount of information from him, and indeed conceived no little liking
for him. He believed that the assassination of M. de Guise would
alienate so much of France from the king that his majesty would have
little left save the towns on the Loire, and some other places lying
within easy reach of his court at Blois.

'But,' I said,'things seem quiet now. Here, for instance.'

'It is the calm before the storm,' he answered. 'There is a monk in
there. Have you heard him?'

I nodded.

'He is only one among a hundred--a thousand,' the horsedealer continued,
looking at me and nodding with meaning. He was a brown-haired man with
shrewd grey eyes, such as many Normans have. 'They will get their way
too, you will see,' he went on. 'Well, horses will go up, so I have no
cause to grumble; but, if I were on my way to Blois with women or gear
of that kind, I should not choose this time for picking posies on the
road. I should see the inside of the gates as soon as possible.'

I thought there was much in what he said; and when he went on to
maintain that the king would find himself between the hammer and the
anvil--between the League holding all the north and the Huguenots
holding all the south--and must needs in time come to terms with the
latter seeing that the former would rest content with nothing short of
his deposition, I began to agree with him that we should shortly see
great changes and very stirring times.

'Still if they depose the king,' I said, 'the King of Navarre must
succeed him. He is the heir of France.'

'Bah!' my companion replied somewhat contemptuously. 'The League will
see to that. He goes with the other.'

'Then the kings are in one cry, and you are right,' I said with
conviction. 'They must unite.'

'So they will. It is only a question of time,' he said.

In the morning, having only one man with him, and, as I guessed, a
considerable sum of money, he