The House of the Wolf: A RomanceWeyman, Stanley John
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The House of the Wolf: A Romance
Weyman, Stanley John
Saint Bartholomew's Day, Massacre of, France, 1572 -- Fiction
The varied sights and sounds however of the road--many of them new to
us--kept us from dwelling over much on this. Our eyes were young, and
whether it was a pretty girl lingering behind a troop of gipsies, or a
pair of strollers from Valencia--JONGLEURS they still called
themselves--singing in the old dialect of Provence, or a Norman
horse-dealer with his string of cattle tied head and tail, or the Puy
de Dome to the eastward over the Auvergne hills, or a tattered old
soldier wounded in the wars--fighting for either side, according as
their lordships inclined--we were pleased with all.
Yet we never forgot our errand. We never I think rose in the
morning--too often stiff and sore--without thinking "To-day or
to-morrow or the next day--" as the case might be--"we shall make all
right for Kit!" For Kit! Perhaps it was the purest enthusiasm we were
ever to feel, the least selfish aim we were ever to pursue. For Kit!
Meanwhile we met few travellers of rank on the road. Half the nobility
of France were still in Paris enjoying the festivities which were being
held to mark the royal marriage. We obtained horses where we needed
them without difficulty. And though we had heard much of the dangers
of the way, infested as it was said to be by disbanded troopers, we
were not once stopped or annoyed.
But it is not my intention to chronicle all the events of this my first
journey, though I dwell on them with pleasure; or to say what I thought
of the towns, all new and strange to me, through which we passed.
Enough that we went by way of Limoges, Chateauroux and Orleans, and
that at Chateauroux we learned the failure of one hope we had formed.
We had thought that Bezers when joined there by his troopers would not
be able to get relays; and that on this account we might by travelling
post overtake him; and possibly slip by him between that place and
Paris. But we learned at Chateauroux that his troop had received fresh
orders to go to Orleans and await him there; the result being that he
was able to push forward with relays so far. He was evidently in hot
haste. For leaving there with his horses fresh he passed through
Angerville, forty miles short of Paris, at noon, whereas we reached it
on the evening of the same day--the sixth after leaving Caylus.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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