The Second G.A. Henty

by G. A. Henty

  “Of late you have drawn but slightly upon me for, as you say, you have few expenses save the pay of your five men, when staying at Laville; but do not stint money, should there be an occasion.”

  Upon rejoining the camp, Philip found the time hang somewhat heavily upon his hands. Francois was necessarily much with the prince. Captain Montpace looked after the troop, and the Count de la Noue was in captivity. A few days after he rejoined, however, one of the Admiral’s pages came to his tent, and requested him to call upon Coligny.

  “The camp will break up tomorrow, Chevalier Fletcher,” the latter said. “We are going down to join the Viscounts, and then march to effect a junction with the Duc de Deux-Ponts, who we hear has now fairly set out on his forward march. I wish to send a despatch to him, and I know no one to whom I could better intrust it than yourself. It is a mission of honour, but of danger. However, you have already exhibited such tact and discretion, as well as bravery, that I believe if anyone can reach the duke, through the two royal armies that are trying to intercept him, you can do so. Will you undertake the mission?”

  “I am greatly honoured by your intrusting me with it, sir, and will assuredly do my best.”

  “I do not propose that you should travel in disguise,” the Admiral said, “for disguise means slow motion, and there is need for despatch. Therefore, I should say, take a small body of well-mounted men with you, and ride as speedily as you can. How many to take, I leave to your discretion. The despatches will be ready for you, by ten o’clock tonight.”

  “I shall be ready to start at that hour, sir,” and Philip returned to his tent.

  After sitting thinking for a few minutes he called to Pierre, who was sitting outside.

  “Pierre, I want your advice. I am about to start on a journey to the east of France. I do not go this time in disguise, but ride straight through. What think you? How many men shall I take with me—one, or fifty?”

  “Not fifty, certainly,” Pierre said promptly. “There is mighty trouble in feeding fifty men. Besides, you may have to pass as a Royalist, and who can answer for the discretion of so many? Besides, if we have to turn and double, there is no hiding fifty men. If you ride through the smallest village at midnight, the noise would wake the inhabitants; and when the enemy came up, they would get news of your passage.

  “I do not see that you can do better than take Eustace and Roger and myself. Henri will not be fit to ride for weeks, yet; and although Jacques is recovering from the loss of his bridle arm, you settled that he was to go to Laville, where the countess would take him into her service. Jarnac lessened your force by half; but I think that two will be as good as four, on a journey like this. Such a party can pass unnoticed. It is but a gentleman, with two retainers behind him, from a neighbouring chateau.”

  “That is what I concluded myself, Pierre; but I thought I would ask your opinion about it, for you have shown yourself a shrewd fellow.

  “All your horses are in good condition, and it is well that I exchanged those you rode before, for some of the best of the three hundred we captured from the assailants of the chateau. Of course, you will ride one of my horses; changing the saddle every day, as your weight is so much less than mine.

  “I shall not take armour with me. The extra weight tells heavily, on a long journey; and besides, a knight in full armour would attract more attention than one riding, as it would seem, for pleasure.

  “Let Eustace and Roger pick the two best horses.”

  “When do we start, sir?”

  “We must be saddled, and ready to start, by ten tonight. See that a bottle of wine, a cold fowl, and a portion of bread for each are brought along with us. We shall have a long night’s ride.

  “We will carry no valises. They add to the weight, and look like travelling. Let each man make a small canvas bag, and place in it a change of linen. It can be rolled up in the cloak, and strapped behind the saddle. A dozen charges, for each pistol, will be more than we shall be likely to require. Tell them to take no more. They must take their breast pieces and steel caps, of course. They can leave the back pieces behind them.

  “I will go round to the hospital, and say goodbye to Henri and Jacques. They will feel being left behind, sorely.”

  After visiting his wounded followers, he went to the house occupied by the Prince of Navarre, where Francois also was lodged.

  “So I hear you are off again, Philip,” the latter said; as his cousin entered the salon where two or three of the prince’s companions were sitting. “I should feel envious of you, were it not that we also are on the point of starting.”

  “How did you know I was going off, Francois?”

  “The prince told me, half an hour since. He heard it from the Admiral. He told me he wished he was going with you, instead of with the army. He is always thirsting after adventure. He bade me bring you in to him, if you came. I said you would be sure to do so. It was useless my going out to look for you, as I could not tell what you might have to do before starting.”

  The young prince threw aside the book he was reading, when they entered.

  “Ah, monsieur the Englishman,” he said; “so you are off again, like a veritable knight-errant of romance, in search of fresh adventure.”

  “No, sir, my search will be to avoid adventure.”

  “Ah, well, you are sure to find some, whether or not. Sapristie, but it is annoying to be born a prince.”

  “It has its advantages also, sir,” Philip said, smiling.

  The prince laughed merrily.

  “So I suppose; but for my part, I have not discovered them, as yet. I must hope for the future; but it appears to me, now, that it can never be pleasant. One is obliged to do this, that, and the other because one is a prince. One always has to have one’s head full of politics, to listen gravely to stupidities, to put up with tiresome people, and never to have one’s own way in anything. However, I suppose my turn will come; but at present, I would rather be hunting the wild goats in Navarre than pretending to be general-in-chief of an army, when everyone knows that I am not even as free to go my own way as a common soldier.

  “I shall look to see you again, Chevalier Philip; and shall expect you to have some more good stories to tell me.”

  Having handed him his despatches, the Admiral pointed out to him the position, as far as he knew by recent report, of the forces under the Dukes of Aumale and Nemours.

  “Possibly there will be other enemies,” the Admiral said; “for our friends in Paris have sent me word that the Spanish ambassador has, at the king’s request, written to beg the Duke of Alva, and Mansfeld, governor of Luxembourg, to send troops to aid in barring the way to the Duc de Deux-Ponts. I hope Alva has his hands full with his own troubles, in the Netherlands; and although Spain is always lavish of promises, it gives but little real aid to the king.

  “Then again, on the road you may meet with bands of German mercenaries, sent by the Catholic princes to join the royal forces. As you see, the despatches are written small and, at your first halt, it will be well if you sew them in the lining of your boot. They will escape observation there, however closely you may be searched; for they are but of little bulk, and I have written them on the softest paper I could obtain, so that it will not crackle to the touch.

  “I leave it to yourself to choose the route; but I think that you could not do better than take that one you before followed, when you and Laville joined me at Chatillon. Thence keep well south through Lorraine. The royal forces are at Metz. I can give you no farther instructions; for I cannot say how rapidly Deux-Ponts may move, or what route he may be obliged to take, to avoid the royal forces.

  “And now farewell, lad. Remember that it is an important service you are rendering to our cause, and that much depends on your reaching Deux-Ponts; for the despatches tell him the route by which I intend to move, indicate that which he had best follow in order that he may effect a junction, and give him many details as to roads, fords, and bridges, that may be of vital importance to
him.”

  Philip rode forty miles that night; and put up, just as daylight was breaking, at the village of Auverge. There they rested for six hours, and then rode on to Laville; where he was received with great joy by his aunt, for whom he bore a letter from Francois. After halting here for a few hours, they continued their journey.

  So far they had been riding through a friendly country, but had now to travel with due precautions; journeying fast, and yet taking care that the horses should not be overworked, as sudden occasion might arise for speed or endurance; and as the journey was some eight hundred miles long, it behoved him to carefully husband the strength of the animals.

  After riding another fifteen miles, they stopped for the night at a village, as Philip intended to journey by day; for his arrival at inns, early in the morning, would excite comment. The three men had been carefully instructed in the story they were to tell, at the inns where they halted. Their master was Monsieur de Vibourg, whose estate lay near the place at which they halted on the preceding night; and who was going for a short visit, to friends, at the next town at which they would arrive. If questioned as to his politics, they were to say that he held aloof from the matter, for he considered that undue violence was exercised towards the Huguenots; who, he believed, if permitted to worship in their own way, would be good and harmless citizens.

  So day by day they journeyed along, avoiding all large towns, and riding quietly through small ones, where their appearance attracted no attention whatever. On the fourth day when, as usual, they had halted to dine and give their horses a couple of hours’ rest, Philip heard the trampling of horses outside the inn. Going to the window he saw two gentlemen, with eight armed retainers, dismounting at the door. The gentlemen wore the Royalist colours. At the same moment, Pierre came into the room.

  “I have told Eustace and Roger to finish their meal quickly, and then to get the horses saddled; to mount, and take ours quietly to the end of the village, and wait for us there, sir; so that if there should be trouble, we have but to leap through the casement, and make a short run of it.”

  “That is very well done, Pierre,” Philip said; reseating himself at the table, while Pierre took his place behind his chair, as if waiting upon him.

  The door opened, and the two gentlemen entered. They did not, as usual, remove their hats; but seated themselves at a table, and began talking noisily. Presently one made a remark in a low tone to the other, who turned round in his chair, and stared offensively at Philip. The latter continued his meal, without paying any attention to him.

  “And who may you be, young sir?” the man said, rising and walking across the room.

  “I am not in the habit of answering questions addressed to me by strangers,” Philip said quietly.

  “Parbleu, custom or no custom, you have to answer them, now. This is not a time when men can go about unquestioned. You do not wear the Royalist colours, and I demand to know who you are.”

  “I would wear the Royalist colours, if I were on the way to join the Royalist army,” Philip replied calmly; “as at present I am not doing so, but am simply travelling as a private gentleman, I see no occasion for putting on badges.”

  “You have not answered my question. Who are you?”

  “I do not intend to answer the question. My name is a matter which concerns myself only.”

  “You insolent young knave,” the man said angrily, “I will crop your ears for you.”

  Philip rose from the table; and the other was, for a moment, surprised at the height and proportions of one whom he had taken for a mere lad.

  “I desire to have no words with you,” Philip said. “Eat your dinner in peace, and let me eat mine; for if it comes to cutting off ears, you may find that you had better have left the matter alone.”

  The gentleman put his hand to the hilt of his sword, and was in the act of drawing it when Philip, making a step forward, struck him full in the face with all his strength, knocking him backwards to the ground. His companion leapt from his seat, drawing a pistol from his belt as he did so; when Pierre sent a plate skimming across the room with great force. It struck the man in the mouth, cutting his lips and knocking out some of his front teeth. The pistol exploded harmlessly in the air, while the sudden shock and pain staggered and silenced him; and before he could recover sufficiently to draw his sword or to shout, Philip and Pierre leaped through the open casement, and ran down the street.

  Chapter 16

  A Huguenot Prayer Meeting

  “That was a good shot, Pierre,” Philip said, as they ran; “and has probably saved my life.”

  “I am accustomed to throw straight, sir. My dinner has frequently depended on my knocking down a bird with a stone, and it was not often that I had to go without it.

  “They are making a rare hubbub, back at the inn.”

  Loud shouts were heard behind them.

  “We have plenty of time,” Philip said, as he moderated the pace at which they had started. “The men will be confused at first, knowing nothing of what it all means. Then they will have to get the horses out of the stables.”

  “And then they will have trouble,” Pierre added.

  “What trouble, Pierre?”

  “I gave a hint to Eustace,” Pierre said with a laugh, “that it would be just as well, before he mounted, to cut off all the bridles at the rings. A nice way they will be in, when they go to mount!”

  “Did you cut their bridles for them, Eustace?” he asked, as they came up to the others.

  “Ay, and their stirrup leathers, too, Pierre.”

  “Good, indeed!” Philip exclaimed. “Without bridles or stirrup leathers, they can scarce make a start; and it will take them some minutes to patch them up. We will ride hard for a bit. That will put us far enough ahead to be able to take any byroad, and throw them off our traces. I have no fear of their catching us by straight riding. The masters’ horses may be as good as ours, but those of the men can hardly be so. Still, they might come up to us wherever we halted for the night.”

  They looked back, when they were some two miles from the village, and along the long straight road could make out some figures that they doubted not were horsemen, just starting in pursuit.

  “They waited to mend their leathers,” Pierre remarked.

  “They were right, there,” Philip said; “for a man can fight but poorly, without bridle or stirrups. The horses will not have been fed, so we have an advantage there. I do not think we need trouble ourselves much more about them.”

  “There is one thing, sir. They won’t mind foundering their horses, and we have to be careful of ours.”

  “That is so, Pierre; and besides, at the first place they come to, they may send others on in pursuit with fresh horses. No, we must throw them off our track as soon as we can. There is a wood, a mile or so ahead; we will leave the road there.”

  They were riding on the margin of turf, bordering the road on either side, so as to avoid the dust that lay thick and white upon it; and they held on at an easy canter, till they reached the trees. Then, at Philip’s order, they scattered and went at a walk; so as to avoid leaving marks that could be seen, at once, by anyone following them. A couple of hundred yards farther, they came upon a stream running through a wood. It was but a few inches deep.

  “This will do for us,” Philip said. “Now, follow me in single file, and see that your horses step always in the water.”

  He led them across the road, and on for half a mile. Then they left the stream and, soon afterwards, emerged from the wood and struck across the country.

  “I should think they will have had pretty well enough of it, by the time they get to the wood,” Philip said; “and at any rate, will lose a lot of time there. They will trace our tracks to the edge of the stream, and will naturally suppose that we will follow it up, as we struck it on the other side of the road. It is like enough they will be half an hour searching, before they find where we left the stream; and will know well enough, then, it will be hopeless tryi
ng to catch us.”

  “They saw we had good horses,” Eustace said; “for as we led them out, one of them made the remark that they were as good looking a lot of horses as you would often see together. No doubt, at first, their leaders were so furious that they thought of nothing but mending the leathers and getting off; but when they get a check, in the wood, it is probable that someone will venture to tell them how well we are mounted, and that pursuit will be hopeless.”

  “Nevertheless, I think they will pursue, Monsieur Philip,” Pierre said. “They did not look like men who would swallow an injury, and think no more of it. As long as there remains a single chance of discovering you, they will not give up pursuit. Of course, they have no reason for suspicion that you are anything but what you seem to be, a gentleman of the neighbourhood; and will consider that, at one or other of the towns or villages ahead of us, they are sure to hear of our passing through, and perhaps to learn who you are and where you reside. Doubtless they asked at the inn, before starting, whether you were known; and as soon as they find they are not likely to catch us by hard riding, they will make straight forward, dividing into several parties at the next place they come to, and scattering in order to obtain news of us.”

  “Which they will not get,” Philip said, “as we will take good care to avoid passing through villages. For tonight we will sleep in the woods, as the weather is warm and pleasant.”

  After riding another fifteen miles, they halted in a wood. They always carried some food and wine with them, as circumstances might at any time arise that would render it imprudent for them to put up at an inn; and each also carried a feed of corn for his horse.