"They are on foot again, are they?" he said, after thinking over the whole for a few minutes. "They must have got information that De Pile is moving up from Guyenne with our re-enforcements, and wish to cut him off. Yet what can be done? The orders we have received to-night are distinct, to march upon the Loire; and if we do not do so, and do so quickly, we shall never be able to effect our junction with the Germans and the Duc de Deux Ponts, or Zweibrucken, as his own people call him, and that were worse than missing be Pile. However, the only thing that can be done is what you propose yourself, to gain any intelligence that we can, to show these gentlemen that they are discovered, and to send instant information to the prince and the admiral. But, to make your reconnoissance anything at all effectual, you must have more men, De Cerons. What will you have?" Of course I was glad to take as large a force as could easily be managed in the darkness of the night; and as the arquebusiers had proved of great use to me on my former expedition, I required their presence, together with some ten more spears, which Montgomery readily granted. From him I gained a more thorough knowledge, too, than I had hitherto acquired, of all the existing plans and circumstances of the Protestant leaders. Their forces had been so greatly weakened by the sickness which prevailed in Loudun, that re-enforcements were absolutely necessary for them to keep the field against the Catholics. De Pile had been sent some time before to gather together all the troops that he could in Gascony, and a large body of reiters, under the Duke of Dupont, was marching rapidly towards the Loire, in order to join the Protestant army. In the mean time, the Catholics had been re-enforced by bodies of troops from every part of France, and were eager to fight the Protestants before either De Pile or the duke could come up. The task, therefore, of the Protestant leaders was a difficult one, namely, to avoid a battle in the presence of a superior army; to guard the line of the Charente, where all the bridges were in their own hands; and to aid the junction of the Gascon forces from the south, at the same time that they extended their line of operations to facilitate the junction of the Germans. "I trust," said Montgomery, "That the princes will decide upon maintaining the Charente in preference to anything else. De Pile is not one to suffer himself easily to be outwitted, and Stuart, who is with him, will cut his way through a wall of solid iron, if need be. Once having joined the Gascons, we shall be able to detach troops to the Loire, without losing our command of the rivers, and, when the Germans have joined, we can fight the enemy with the advantage of a just cause, and no great disadvantage in point of numbers."