Suddenly the low murmur of voices was broken by a new sound, the hurried clang of hoofs, not departing but arriving. There was something in the noise which made the Captain prick his ears, and secured for the messenger a speedy passage through the crowd. Even at the last the man did not spare his horse, but spurring to the Captain's side, then and then only sprang to the ground. His face was pale, his eyes were bloodshot. His right arm was bound up in blood-stained cloths. With an oath of amazement, the Captain recognised the officer whom he had left in charge of Créance, and thundered out, "What is it?" "They have got Créance!" the man gasped, reeling as he spoke. "They have got Créance!" "Who?" the Captain shrieked, his face purple with rage. "The little man of Béarn! He assaulted it five hundred strong an hour after you left, and had the gate down before we could fire a dozen shots. We did what we could, but we were but one to seven. I swear, Captain, we did all we could. Look at this!" Almost black in the face, the Captain swore another frightful oath. It was not only that he saw governorship and honours vanish like Will-o'-the-wisps, but that he saw even more quickly that he had made himself the laughing-stock of a kingdom! And he had. To this day, among the stories which the southern French love to tell of the prowess and astuteness of the great Henry, there is none more frequently told, or more frequently laughed over, than that of the famous exchange of Créance for Lusigny. [Illustration] _Portraits of Celebrities at different times of their Lives._ [Illustration: _From a Painting by_ +AGE 37.+ _R. Lehmann._] [Illustration: _From a Photo. by_ +PRESENT DAY.+ _Messrs. Elliott & Fry._] EARL GRANVILLE. +Born 1815.+ At the age of thirty-seven, as our first portrait shows him, Earl Granville, who had succeeded to the peerage six years earlier, and who had already been for four years Vice-President of the Board of Trade, had just obtained a seat in the Cabinet, and succeeded Lord Palmerston at the Foreign Office. Since that time Lord Granville has filled almost every office of importance in successive Liberal Governments. He was moreover, as everybody knows, one of Her Majesty's most confidential friends and counsellors. No Royal ceremony, whether a marriage, a christening, or a funeral, was complete without his well-known dignified, yet genial presence; and he probably attended more ceremonies of this kind, at different Courts of Europe, than any other person of his time. Earl Granville's recent lamented death gives the above portraits a melancholy interest. [Illustration: _From a Painting_ +AGE 17.+ _by G. F. Watts._] [Illustration: _From a_ +AGE 21.+ _Painting._] [Illustration: _From a Photo. by_ +AGE 47.+ _Mrs. Cameron._] [Illustration: _From a Photo. by_ +AGE 68.+ _Messrs. Cameron & Smith._] G. F. WATTS, R.A. +Born 1820.+