"I loved him more than I can say, Adamas! not so much for any relations we had together after he grew to manhood, for then we followed different banners, and met very seldom, just long enough to embrace and to tell each other that we were friends and brothers in spite of everything; but for his sweet, charming ways in his childhood, when, as I have told you, I had occasion to take care of him and watch over him during one of my father's absences which lasted about a year. His second wife was dead and the province very unsettled. I knew that the Calvinists detested my father, and I thought it my duty to protect that poor child, whom I did not know, and who grew to love me as if he realized our father's injustice to me. He was as gentle and beautiful as this little Mario. He had neither kindred nor friends about him, for in those days some died of the plague and others of fright. He would have died, too, for lack of care and cheer, had not I become so attached to him that I played with him for whole days at a time. It was I who brought him these toys, and I have good reason to remember them, now I think about it, for they came within an ace of costing me very dear." "Tell me about it, monsieur; it will divert your thoughts." "I will gladly do so, Adamas. It was in fifteen hundred--never mind the date!" "Of course not, of course not, monsieur, the date is of no importance." "My dear little Florimond was tired of having to stay in the house, but I dared not take him out-of-doors, because parties of troops of all factions were constantly passing, who killed everybody and recognized no friends. I happened to think of a diversion which had tempted me sorely in my own childhood. At the château of Sarzay I had seen many of those stuffed animals and other toys with which the young Barbançois used to play. The lords of Barbançois, who held that fief of Sarzay, from father to son, for many years, were among the fiercest enemies of the poor Calvinists, and at that time they were at Issoudun, hanging and burning as many as they could. In their absence the manor of Sarzay was not very carefully guarded. The country roundabout being absolutely devoted to the Catholics and to Monsieur de la Châtre, they had no suspicion of poor me, for I was too entirely alone and too poor to undertake anything. "It occurred to me to go thither on some pretext, and to lay violent hands on the toys, unless some servant would sell them to me, for it was useless to try to find any elsewhere. They were luxuries, and were not sold in out of the way places.