ets were common, and everywhere wolves and foxes and all
kinds of game abounded. But that which roused my ire to the hottest was
the state of the bridges, which in this country, where the fords are in
winter impassable, had been allowed to fall into utter decay. On all
sides I found the peasants oppressed, disheartened, and primed with
tales of the King's severity, which those who had just cause to dread
him had instilled into them. Bands of robbers committed daily
excesses, and, in a word, no one thing was wanting to give the lie to
the rose-coloured reports with which Bareilles, the Governor of Gueret,
had amused the Council.

I confess that, at sight and thought of these things--of this country
so devoured, the King's authority so contemned, all evils laid at his
door, all his profits diverted--my anger burned within me, and I said
more to Parabere than was perhaps prudent, telling him, in particular,
what I designed against Bareilles, of whose double-dealing I needed no
further proof; by what means I proposed to lull his suspicions for the
moment, since we must lie at Gueret, and how I would afterwards, on the
first occasion, have him seized and punished.

I forgot, while I avowed these things, that one weakness of Parabere's
character which rendered him unable to believe evil of anyone. Even of
Bareilles, though the two were the merest acquaintances, he could only
think indulgently, because, forsooth, he too was a Protestant. He
began to defend him therefore, and, seeing how the ground lay, after a
time I let the matter drop.

Still I did not think that he had been serious in his plea, and that
which happened on the following morning took me completely by surprise.
We had left Crozant an hour, and I was considering whether, the road
being bad, we should even now reach Gueret before night, when Parabere,
who had made some excuse to ride forward, returned, to me with signs of
embarrassment in his manner.

"My friend," he said, "here is a message from Bareilles."

"How?" I exclaimed. "A message? For whom?"

"For you," he said; "the man is here."

"But how did Bareilles know that I was coming?" I asked.

Parabere's confusion furnished me with the answer before he spoke. "Do
not be angry, my friend," he said. "I wanted to do Bareilles a good
turn. I saw that you were enraged with him, and I thought that I could
not help him better than by suggesting to him to come and meet you in a
proper spirit, and