nd I morosely kept to myself, envying the
lot of Adam, who was the only man who never had a rival, torturing
myself, as is the custom with lovers, with a thousand suspicions, and
cursing myself for a fool in having undertaken this task.
Nevertheless, I am sure, such is the frailty of man, that were it to be
all over again I would do in this matter all I had done before.

In fact, I was grasping the truth of what I had often laughed at--that
there is none so skilled in making dragons out of beetles as the man
who is in love and knows not if he is winning or losing.

We kept to the left bank of the Clain, taking a track that led over a
sad and barren plain, once the garden of France. Except immediately
around the city and the few hamlets we passed there was scarce a crop
to be seen, and but for an abandoned vineyard, or here and there a
solitary tree, brooding like a mourner over the dead, all was a dreary
waste. There was little or no sign of life on this sullen and
melancholy landscape. Occasionally we met a peasant making his way to
some half-ruined hamlet, and driving before him a flock of geese with
the aid of a long stick, to one end of which he had tied a plume of
rags. At sight of us he, as a rule, left his birds to take care of
themselves, and vanished like a rabbit into one of the ravines that
cross and recross the plain in a network. And this was the King's
peace in Poitou!

My troopers rode stolidly on, taking turns with the led horse, and now
and again exchanging a word with each other. Pierrebon followed behind
them, whistling the "Rappel d'Aunis." I kept to myself, as I have
said, full of sombre thoughts, but watching mademoiselle as she rode
about twenty paces or so in front of me. She never turned her head,
but I observed that she was scanning the country on either side
carefully.

Beyond Chasseneuil is a wide plain, and the track here meets the road
to Thouars. I was looking at the slender spire of Miribeau, which
stood out against the rising ground that stretched towards Lencloitre
and beyond, when I was startled by the sudden galloping of a horse. It
was mademoiselle, who had turned sharply to the left, and was urging
her horse at full speed towards Miribeau. We reined up amidst
exclamations from the men; and the fugitive, who had got a fair
distance off by this, looked back and laughed at us. It was a brave
attempt at escape, and she evidently felt sure of her horse; but I had
a mind