"Well, well," cried Pierrot, joyfully, "I will run fortune with you! Only don't send me away, and don't fire at me any more, unless you see me drunk,--when it will be natural. But now tell me, Master Ned, where are you going now?" "Into the lion's den, Pierrot," replied Edward, with a somewhat rueful smile: "I am going straight to the Cardinal de Richelieu." "In the name of Heaven!" exclaimed Pierrot, with a look of astonishment, "do you know he is now besieging Rochelle with a powerful army? The king has fallen sick and gone back to Paris. The cardinal has tucked up his gown and turned soldier; and our poor friends in the city are already, they say, so badly off for food that they will soon have to eat each other. The cardinal will not let a mouse stir out, and if any one ventures beyond the walls they send a shot at him and drive him in again." Edward mused without reply for some moments; and, while he was still silent, Jacques Beaupré came back to the little _salle-à-manger_ and stood by the young gentleman's side. "Poor Clement Tournon!" cried Edward, still musing. "Ay, poor Clement Tournon!" said Jacques Beaupré, in a sad tone: "he is a good man, sir, and took care of me from my boyhood." "I would give the world to save him," answered Edward. "Come, let us ride." They were soon upon their horses. Edward mounted first and Pierrot last, having stopped to answer some questions of the host. "What did he ask you?" said Edward, as they rode on. "He asked where your lordship was going," answered Pierrot, "and I told him straight to the cardinal." "Right," said Edward. "And did he call me lordship, Pierrot? My lordship is a very small one." "Ay, sir, but you have got quite a grand air now, though your doublet is somewhat soiled by dust and wet. You cannot think how you are changed since we left Nantes. What between riding, and getting stuck, and being in prison, you have grown broad and brown, and your mustache is an inch long. Those who saw you before would never know you." "I hope they will," answered Edward, with a smile followed by a sigh; "and, as for my doublet, I must get a new one, whenever I can afford to stop without danger. All my baggage I left with the discreet Monsieur de Bourbonne. But, if I am not mistaken, Pierrot, I will make him pay all he owes me before I have done." "At the pistol's point?" asked Pierrot, with a grim smile. "No, no," replied Edward,--"in another way, and by other hands. But let us ride on fast; for I have a great notion the news you left with the aubergist will sharpen the spurs of any who may be pursuing us." The whole party accordingly rode forward more quickly, but not at so headlong a pace as to risk any damage to their horses; and before night all fear of pursuit was ended by their entrance into another province, where, at a small walled town, which they reached just after sunset, Edward was obliged to produce his safe-conduct before the soldiers at the gates would give them admission.