"Then would you be as well contented to fight against the League under a Huguenot sovereign," demanded De Sancy, "as under the Catholic monarch, who has just met with such a fitting reward for his love of priests and friars?" "A thousand times better," replied St. Real, "if that sovereign be Henry of Navarre, my father's friend and my own--honest and noble, if ever man was, and loving his country and his people better than himself." "If such, then, be your opinions, Monsieur de St. Real," replied De Sancy, laying his hand familiarly on his shoulder--"if such be your opinions, without a word more let us mount our horses, and ride over together to Meudon, to bear to the Bearnois, as they call him, the first tidings of all that has happened here, and to promise him our unbought support in case of need. I bring with me nearly three thousand sturdy Swiss; and you, I hear, near a thousand hardy Frenchmen. What say you? shall we go?" Great emergencies make short oratory. "With all my heart," replied St. Real, who, however brief had been the explanation, understood De Sancy's views and objects as well as if he had spoken a volume; "with all my heart!" he replied, "and we will ride quick." Their horses were beckoned up; each cavalier sprang into the saddle; and, after a few words of direction and command to some of their attendants on either part, they galloped off towards Meudon as fast as they could go. CHAPTER XVI. Neither St. Real nor his companion spoke much as they advanced towards Meudon. The rapid pace at which they proceeded, and the still more rapid thoughts that were passing in the mind of each, left little room for conversation. Each, however, seemed so instinctively to appreciate the character of the other, that the few words which did occasionally pass between them conveyed far more than much longer communication might have accomplished between persons whose ideas flowed in a less direct and straightforward channel. So rapidly did their horses bear them forward indeed, that but a few minutes elapsed ere they beheld the pleasant little upland supporting the village in which the witty but licentious Rabelais poured forth the biting and sarcastic torrent of satire that, however ill understood by after ages, has rendered his name immortal; and in which also he exercised all those clerical functions that were far less adapted to the character of his mind. Coming from the side of St. Cloud, and bearing about his person those conventional signs which were understood to indicate an officer of the royalist party, Monsieur de Sancy, accompanied by his young companion, was permitted to go forward, with scarcely any interruption almost to the gates of the old chateau in which Henry of Navarre had fixed his head-quarters. Here, however, they were challenged by the sentinels; but, giving the word, they passed on, and meeting with an inferior officer attached to the prince, inquired if he had yet gone forth.