work will be light, for the stream will bear us on.

"Yes," he said, after a pause, "if we are pursued and the boat is missed
they will think that we have taken the easier way. No, boy, ours is no
time for ease; hard work and safety must be our motto now. Push off and
row with me slowly and steadily onward against the stream."

Saint Simon bore heavily upon his oar and with a thrust sent the boat's
head outward; and directly after, dipping as lightly as they could, they
pulled together with a wonderful regularity for such unpractised hands
out towards the middle, till a scattered light or two appeared from
beyond the trees, showing where the castle lay.

And then onward in silence for a few hundred yards along between the
dimly seen silent banks of the black river, for the clouds seemed to
have lowered and there was not a star.

All at once a movement on the part of the King took Leoni's attention,
and he drew in his oar, to bend forward and then rise in the boat, for
Francis had sunk slowly sideways, fast asleep; while, with the action of
a careful mother bending over her child, the strange subtle doctor
carefully readjusted his cloak to guard him from the night air, before
resuming his seat with a sigh, and taking up his oar.

"A trifle, Saint Simon," he said playfully. "There are times when we
have to protect our master with our swords, but we must not forget such
little things as this."

"Ah!" ejaculated Saint Simon, with a groan.

"Why, what's the matter, boy? You don't resent having to row the night
through like some poor slave?"

"No, no. I was thinking about poor Denis. Doctor, don't think me weak.
I loved that boy."

"Say love," cried Leoni warmly. "Bah, man! Henry may be a tyrant, but
he could not be so base as to hurt a boy like that. Row for our lives
while I prophesy what I believe in spite of bitter despairing thoughts.
We shall live to see our brave young companion safe again."

"Bravo, doctor! Your medicine has given me heart. Row? Yes. I can do
it now till my arms refuse to stir." And on the boat glided, kept
closer to the shore where the eddies played and the full force of the
stream was missed.

And then on and on hour after hour, with a few intervals of rest where
the waters whispered and they made fast to some overhanging bough and
spent the minutes thinking that horsemen might be near, scouring the
country where they could approach the banks on either side to cut off
the