child, and the horse, he had gone on and on
unstopping, or only stopping to shoot once a wolf that, maddened with
hunger, had sprung out at him and endeavoured to leap to his saddle;
and once to cut down two footpads--perhaps poor wretches, also
maddened with hunger--who had striven to stop his way.

On and on and on through the unceasing snow he had gone with the child
still held fast to his bosom, resting the first night at Poligny,
since the snow was so heavy on the ground that his horse could go no
further, and another at Dole for the same reason, until now he drew
near to Dijon.

"A short distance to travel in three days," he muttered to himself,
as, afar off, his eye caught the gleam of a great beacon flaring
surlily through the snow-laden air--the beacon on the southern
watchtower of the city walls--"a short distance. Yet I have done my
best. Have obeyed orders. Now let me see for further instructions."

There was still sufficient light left in the wintry gloom to read by,
whereon, shifting the child a little as he drew rein--it needed not
much drawing, since the good horse beneath him could hardly progress
beyond the slowest walk, owing to the accumulated snow--he took from
his holster a letter, and, passing over the beginning of it, turned to
the last leaf and read:

"At Dijon you will stay at the chateau of my good friend and
subject the Marquis Phelypeaux, avoiding all inns; at
Troyes, at the manoir of Madame la Marquise de Roquemaure;
at Melun, if you have to halt there, at the chateau of
Monsieur de Riverac. Between these, if forced to rest, you
are to select the auberges which offer; but at these three
towns you are to repose yourself as stated. Above all, fail
not to present yourself at the manoir of Roquemaure. The
marquise will deliver to your keeping a message for me.
Therefore, be sure you travel by the route indicated, and
not by that which passes by Semur, Tonnerre, and Sens. On
this, I pray God to have you, M. Georges St. Georges, in his
holy keeping. Written at Paris, the 9th of December, 1687.

"_Signe_, LOUIS.

_Soussigne_, LOUVOIS."

"So," said M. Georges St. Georges to himself, as he replaced the
letter in his holster, "it is to the Marquis Phelypeaux that I am to
go. So be it. It may be better for the child than at an inn. And I
cannot gossip, or, if I do, only to my host, wh