"It is my desire to shelter and conceal you in my own château, and not in a village or a farm-house," Guillaume replied. "And yet I fear you will be sadly bored in such seclusion, and, upon reflection, I have thought of a better plan. Eat and drink; then I will myself escort you to the abode of a kinsman and friend of my own who lives not more than an hour's ride from here. There you will be as pleasantly entertained and in as perfect security as possible in our province of Lower Berry. In four or five days I will come and take you away again." D'Alvimar would have preferred to remain alone, but, as Guillaume insisted, courtesy compelled him to assent. He refused to eat or drink, and, remounting at once, he followed Guillaume d'Ars, who took with him his retinue all equipped for travelling, as the road they were to take deviated very slightly from the Bourges road. [Footnote 1: Picard the shoemaker, a sergeant in the bourgeois train-bands, where he possessed great influence. Concini, having undertaken to disregard an order which Picard compelled him to obey, caused the sergeant to be cudgelled. The popular wrath was so fierce that Concini deemed his life in danger and left Paris. Two valets who had acted for him were hanged.] [Footnote 2: Of Louis XIII. to Anne of Austria, and of Elisabeth, the young king's sister.] [Footnote 3: Who became the great Condé.] II They left the château by way of the warren, rode through a by-path to the Bourges highroad, from which they soon turned to the right, and then through other by-paths to the Château Meillant road, leaving on their right the baronial town of La Châtre, and finally, leaving the last-mentioned road, they descended across the fields to the château and village of Briantes, which was the goal of their journey. As the country was really peaceful, the two gentlemen had ridden on ahead of their little escort, in order that they might converse without restraint; and this is how young D'Ars enlightened D'Alvimar: "The friend upon whom I propose to quarter you," he said, "is the most extraordinary personage in Christendom. You must keep a close watch upon yourself in order to stifle a wild desire to laugh when you are with him; but you will be well rewarded for such tolerance as you may display of his mental peculiarities by the great kindness of heart he will manifest to everybody he meets. He is so kind-hearted that, if you should happen to forget his name and ask the first passer-by, noble or serf, where the _kind gentleman_ lives, he will direct you, and never make a mistake as to the person you mean. But this requires an explanation, and, as your horse has no great desire to hurry, and as it is only nine o'clock at the latest, I propose to entertain you with your host's story. Listen, I begin! _Story of the kind Monsieur de Bois-Doré_!