obsequies; and Berenger, walking with swift strides, supporting Osbert
on his horse, continued to cheer him with promises of rest and relief
there, and listened to no entreaties from Philip or Humfrey to take one
of their horses. Had not Osbert borne him on his shoulders through the
butchery at Paris, and endured three years of dungeon for his sake?

As for Philip, the slow pace of their ride was all insufficient for his
glee. He made his horse caracole at every level space, till Berenger
reminded him that they might have far to ride that night, and even then
he was constantly breaking into attempts at shouting and whistling as
often repressed, and springing up in his stirrups to look over the high
hedges.

The Grange was so well concealed in its wooded ravine, that only when
close upon the gate the party became aware that this farm-yard, usually
so solitary, formed an exception to the general desertion of the
country. There was a jingle and a stamp of horses in the court, which
could hardly be daylight echoes of the Templars. Berenger feared that
the Guisards might have descended Rotrou, and was stepping forward to
reconnoiter, while young De Selinville, trembling, besought him not to
run into danger, but to turn and hasten to La Rochelle. By this time,
however, the party had been espied by two soldiers stationed at the
gate, but not before Berenger had had time to remark that they did not
wear either the gold _fleur-de-lys_ like his late guards, or the white
cross of Lorraine; nor had they the strange air of gay ferocity usual
with the King's mercenaries. And almost by instincts, at a venture, he
made the old Huguenot sign he had learnt form his father, and answered,
'For God and the Religion.'

The countersign was returned. 'Bearn and Bourbon is the word to-day,
comrade,' replied the sentinel. '_Eh quoi_! have you had an encounter,
that you bring a wounded man?'

'Not wounded, but nearly dead in a Guisard prison,' said Berenger, with
an unspeakable sense of relief and security, as the sentries admitted
them into the large walled court, where horses were eating hay, being
watered and rubbed down; soldiers snatching a hasty meal in corners;
gentlemen in clanking breastplates coming in and out of the house,
evidently taking orders from a young man in a gray and silver suit,
whose brown eagle face, thin cheeks, arched nose, and black eyes of
keenest fire, struck Berenger at once with a sense of recognition as
well as