"No, I assure you," said Lord Wentworth, warmly, "you are entirely at liberty to accept this lodging at Pierre Peuquoy's. He is a rich bourgeois, energetic and skilful at his trade, and the honestest fellow imaginable. I know him well, for I have often bought arms of him; and he has a very pretty creature at his house too,--his daughter or his wife, I am not very clear which." "His sister, my Lord," said Jean Peuquoy,--"my cousin Babette. Oh, yes, she is very comely; and if only I were not so old! But the Peuquoys won't die out after all; Pierre has lost his wife, but she left him two sturdy boys, who will amuse you, Monsieur le Vicomte, if you choose to accept my cousin's very cordial hospitality." "I not only authorize you to accept it, but engage that you will do so," added Lord Wentworth. Indeed, Gabriel began to think, and not unreasonably, that the handsome and courtly governor of Calais was very willing to disencumber himself, for private reasons, of a companion who would be always in his house, and who, by virtue of the very freedom that he allowed him, might interfere with his own. In fact, Lord Wentworth did reason thus; for as Lord Grey had expressed it elegantly to Arnauld, he preferred female prisoners to male. Gabriel no longer had any scruples, and said, turning to Jean Peuquoy with a smile,-- "Since Lord Wentworth permits me, my friend, I will stay at your cousin's." Jean Peuquoy almost leaped for joy. "Upon my word, I really think that you do very wisely," said Lord Wentworth. "Not that I should not have been delighted to entertain you as best I could; but in a house guarded night and day by soldiers, and where my tedious authority requires me to maintain strict rules, you might not have found yourself always at your ease, as you will with the brave armorer. And a young man has need to be at his ease, we all know." "You seem to know it, at all events," said Gabriel, laughing; "and I can see that you know the full value of independence." "Yes, indeed I do!" rejoined Lord Wentworth, in the same playful tone; "I am not yet old enough to despise liberty." Then, turning to Jean Peuquoy,-- "Do you rely upon your cousin's purse, Master Peuquoy," said he, "in your own behalf, as you rely upon his house when Monsieur d'Exmès's welfare is in question? Lord Grey told me that you expected to borrow the hundred crowns agreed upon for your ransom." "Whatever Pierre owns belongs to Jean," was the burgher's sententious reply; "it is always so with the Peuquoys. I was so sure beforehand that my cousin's house was mine that I have already sent Monsieur d'Exmès's wounded squire there; and I am so sure too that his purse is as open to me as his door that I beg you to send one of your people with me to bring back the sum agreed upon."