ill in the
stalls."

They mounted and rode rapidly through the streets to the northern gate,
which was immediately, upon Hector's handing the guard the cardinal's
pass, opened to them. To the surprise of the men, he turned off after
riding a few miles.

"Are you not going to make for Calais, master?"

"No, I am bound for Poitou. We will cross the Seine by the bridge of
boats at Nantes, ride down through Dreux and Le Mans. There we will
separate. I shall follow the Sarthe, strike the Loire at Angers, and
then go on to Nantes. You will cross the Loire at Tours, and then make
for la Villar. I shall take you, Macpherson and Hunter, with me. Paolo
will ride with the other two, and will be the bearer of letters from
me."

Daylight was breaking when they crossed the bridge of boats. Hector
halted a mile from the river, keeping Paolo with him, and telling the
others to pass at intervals of a quarter of an hour apart.

"You will go first, Macpherson. You will ride south for an hour, and
then wait till the rest of us join you. It is like enough that as
soon as they find out that we have left they will send men off in all
directions to find out which way we followed, though doubtless the chief
pursuit will be directed towards Calais. I am afraid that it will not
be very long before they find we have left the hotel, for the landlord,
however well he may wish us, will not dare mislead any person of
consequence that Beaufort may send."

They had, however, a much longer start than Hector expected, for early
the next morning ten of the cardinal's guards appeared at the hotel. The
officer in command of them told the innkeeper that, in consequence
of the tumult before his doors, in which, as he heard, some of those
lodging there had been concerned, he had orders to post his men round
the house, and to allow no one to enter or leave under any pretence
whatever until the cardinal himself had examined into the affair. These
orders were delivered in a loud voice before the servants of the inn,
but the officer privately assured the innkeeper afterwards that he would
be well paid for his loss of custom, and that it was probable that the
guard would be removed in a day or two. Thus Beaufort's emissaries were
not able to obtain news of what was passing within, and did nothing
until past noon, when it occurred to them that the cardinal had taken
this strange step of closing the inn in order to prevent its being known
that Hector and his f