" she suggested,
calmly.

"Do you draw back to the castle!" he returned, quickly, his brow
overcast.

"And miss the hunt? Not I, Monsieur Spoil-Sport."

"But if they find you with me?"

She only tossed her head wilfully and did not answer.

Nearer came the hue and cry of the chase. A heavy-horned buck sprang
into the road and vanished like a flash into the timber on the other
side. Shortly afterward, in a compact bunch, with heads downbent and
stiffened tails, the pack, a howling, discordant mass, swept across the
narrow, open space.

"Quick!" exclaimed the jester, and they turned their horses into the
underbrush.

Scarcely had they done so when, closely following the dogs, appeared
the first of the hunters, mounted on a splendid charger, with housings
of rose-velvet.

"_Pardieu!_" muttered the _plaisant_, "I owe the king no thanks, but he
rides well. Do you not think so, Jacqueline?"

Her answering gaze was puzzling. After Francis rode many lords and
ladies, a stream of color crossing the road; riding habits faced with
gold; satin doublets covered with _rivieres_ of diamonds; torsades
wherein gold became the foil to precious stones. So near was the
gorgeous cavalcade--the grand falconer, whippers-in, and the bearers of
hooded birds mingling with the courtiers immediately behind the
king--the escaped prisoner and the jestress could hear the panting of
horses. Fleeting, transient, it passed; fainter sounded the din of
hounds and horn; now it almost died away in the distance. The last
couple had scarcely vanished before the fool and his companion left
their ambush.

"You ride farther, Jacqueline?" he said.

"A little farther."

"It will be far to return," he protested.

"I have no fear," she answered, tranquilly.

Again he let her have her way, as one would yield to a wilful child.
On and on they sped; past the place where the deer-run crossed the
broader path; through an ever-varying forest; now on one side, a rocky
basin overrun with trees and shrubs; again, on the other hand, a great
gorge, in whose depths flowed a whispering stream. Yonder appeared the
gray walls of an ancient monastery, one part only of which was
habitable; a turn in the road swallowed it up as though abruptly to
complete the demolition time was slowly to bring about. On and on,
until the way became wilder and the wood more overgrown with bushes and
tangled shrubbery, when she suddenly stopped her horse.

He understood