t
it is! Are you not tempted, Francis? For my part, my spurs are burning my
heels."

Francis made no answer. He turned red and pale alternately, and appeared
to be straining his hearing to catch some sound of the chase.

"The news from Poland have produced their effect," said Henry to himself,
"and my good brother-in-law has a plan of his own. He would like to see me
escape, but I shall not go alone."

He had scarcely made the reflection, when several of the recently
converted Huguenots, who within the last two or three months had returned
to the court and the Romish church, came up at a canter, and saluted the
two princes with a most engaging smile. The Duke of Alencon, already urged
on by Henry's overtures, had but to utter a word or make a sign, and it
was evident that his flight would be favoured by the thirty or forty
cavaliers who had collected around him, as if to oppose themselves to the
followers of the Duke of Guise. But that word he did not utter. He turned
away his head, and, putting his horn to his mouth, sounded the rally.

Nevertheless the new-comers, as if they thought that D'Alencon's
hesitation was occasioned by the vicinity of the Guisards, had gradually
placed themselves between the latter and the two princes, arraying
themselves in _echelon_ with a sort of strategic skill, which implied a
habit of military manoeuvres. Guise and his followers would have had to
ride over them to get at the Duke of Alencon and the King of Navarre;
whilst, on the other side, a long and unobstructed road lay open before
the brothers-in-law.

Suddenly, between the trees, at ten paces from the King of Navarre, there
appeared another horseman, whom the princes had not yet seen. Henry was
trying to guess who this person was, when the gentleman raised his hat and
disclosed the features of the Viscount of Turenne, one of the chiefs of
the Protestant party, and who was supposed to be then in Poitou. The
viscount even risked a sign, which meant to say--"Are you coming?" But
Henry, after consulting the inexpressive countenance and dull eyes of the
Duke of Alencon, turned his head two or three times upon his shoulders, as
if something in the collar of his doublet inconvenienced him. It as a
reply in the negative. The viscount understood it, gave his horse the
spur, and disappeared amongst the trees. At the same moment the pack was
heard approaching; then, at the end of the alley, the boar was seen to
pass, followed at a short