"More than an hour," was the reply; "but he may certainly be found with the advance guard at the _Pré aux Clercs_." Without farther question, and somewhat mortified at the loss of time, De Sancy and St. Real turned their horses' heads, and at some risk galloped down the steep descent; nor pulled a bridle rein till they reached the large open plain called the _Pré aux Clercs_, which at this time offered a singular and not unpicturesque exhibition. From the spot where the road which they followed entered the plain, the country lay flat and unvaried to the very suburbs of the city of Paris, which rose behind, forming a dense back-ground of grey buildings, towering up one beyond another in the misty light of a summer's day. The open ground between was not exactly covered with multitudes, but was living with a hundred groups of gay and glittering cavaliers; while two strong bodies of infantry, and a squadron of horse, covered the several roads which led from that part of Paris to Meudon and St. Cloud. The groups of horsemen of which we have spoken, armed at all points, and, in general, bearing the old knightly lance--some decorated with the colours of the League, some displaying those of the Catholic Royalists, and some carrying the white scarfs and sword-knots of the Huguenots--were seen, now wheeling about the plain, endeavouring to gain the vantage ground of a party of opponents; now standing still, waiting in firm ranks the attack of a body of the enemy; now hurled in impetuous charge against the foe, and mingling in brief but desperate struggle; with the armour, and the pennons, and the scarfs, and the rich caparisons, glancing in and out of the clouds of dust that covered them. Every now and then, also, when any of the Leaguers advanced too near, the arquebusiers, who covered the roads, would keep up upon them a rolling fire from their levelled pieces; and occasionally some of the batteries erected for the defence of the suburbs would pour forth flame and thunder upon the position of the Huguenot infantry, though with but little effect.