Such, then, were my resolutions, and my means of accomplishing them, as far as the government of myself was concerned: but there were many other things, of course, to be thought of; with whom I was to take service; how I was to shape my course to join the army; how I was to obtain the necessary arms and equipments; for, following the determination I had before made, not to take anything from the castle but that which absolutely belonged to myself, I had left behind both the horses which had been given to me for my use, and the arms in which I had exercised myself since I was a boy, with the exception of the sword and dagger that I usually wore, and a rich knife, with a hilt and a sheath of gold, inlaid with jewels, which my father had brought from the East when warring against the Turks in former days. On the first point, how I was to join the army, many difficulties existed. The short peace which had been granted to the Protestants had now been some months at an end, and the third war of religion had already began. The principal forces of the Huguenots were assembled in the neighbourhood of La Rochelle, and a considerable distance remained to be traversed before I could hope to fall in with the army. While I was considering all these things, the eastern sky became somewhat brighter, and the faint pink of the morning air afforded sufficient light to see all the objects distinctly. I had taken my way towards Bordeaux, as the first great town where I could hope to obtain any information, and had walked on rapidly, while the boy, carrying on his shoulder the valise with which I had charged him, trudged on in perfect silence by my side, without making the slightest inquiry as to the end or object of my journey, or where he himself was going. I had chosen him, indeed, from the rest of the servants, when I was permitted to select two of them to attend upon me, principally because he had always shown both respect and attachment towards me, but scarcely less because there was a degree of similarity between his fate and my own; his father having been killed at the battle of St. Denis, and he left an orphan to the care of strangers. He was now a stout, active youth of about nineteen, somewhat variable it his mood, occasionally loquacious, but more frequently quite the reverse; replying with a sharp, quick word, observing keenly all that passed, and having much shrewd sense under a somewhat dull and boorish exterior. On the present occasion, however, his taciturnity had been even more marked than usual. When I had roused him, at first he had looked at me with some wonder, but he had not said a word since, doing exactly as I bade him in profound silence.