t. I must find my way there at once."

"Patience, a moment," said my father. "Your chain is locked, I see:--but
no matter,--I can loosen it so that you can wriggle through." By having
cut the cords, around which the chain had been passed, he had relieved
the tautness, and was now able to do what he promised. He then took off
my boots, and, grasping me under the arms, drew me backward out of the
loosened coils as I moved them downward with my hands. At last I stood a
free man. I put on my boots, took the Captain's sword, and accompanied
my father down into the court-yard.

The fight was now over there. Of the royal guardsmen, all in steel caps
and corselets, like the small party of them I had seen the previous
evening, some were wiping their faces and swords, and others were caring
for the hurts of comrades. Some of the robbers lay dead, several were
wounded, and the rest, having yielded their weapons, were looking after
their own disabled, under the direction of guardsmen. I recognized a
number of the rascals as men I had seen at the Chateau de Lavardin. The
commander of the troop of guards, he whom I had met before and whose
vigorous voice I had recognized, greeted my father with a look of
congratulation, and showed surprise at seeing me.

"Tis a day of events," said my father. "I have killed the Count's
accomplice, and found my son.--Nay, there was no hope of that Captain's
surrendering."

"My faith!--then your two quests are accomplished at the same moment,"
said the leader of the guardsmen. "And, for another wonder, your son
turns out to be a person I have already met. But your friend, Monsieur?"
This inquiry was to me, and made with sudden solicitude.

"Locked in the tower of Morlon, waiting for me to come with
food,--perhaps dying or dead.--Monsieur, I was brought here blindfold:
but I must find the way back to the tower of Morlon without delay,--it
is somewhere in this forest."

"No doubt some of these gentry know the way," said the guardsman,
indicating the robbers. "We'll make it a condition of his life for one
of them to guide us."

"You make me your life-long debtor, Monsieur," I cried. "And one of them
has the key: I think it is he lying yonder. As for food and wine--"

"We are not without those," said the guardsman. "Our horses and supplies
are near at hand."

I went among the dead and wounded to find the man who had taken
possession of my keys. Him I found, but the keys were not upon him.
Suppos