Hastening on with all speed from Rennes to Vannes, the boy nearly accomplished the distance of more than twenty leagues in one day; but he arrived at night, and was forced to remain till morning at a small inn in the suburb, on the right bank of the river Marle. He there gathered intelligence, however, of some importance. A strong body of archers, he learned, had entered Vannes the day before, and the earl of Richmond, with many of his chief friends and followers, had sought hospitality at the fine old abbey of St. Gildas, situated on a little peninsula in the neighbourhood. Thither then, on the following morning, he took his way; but he did not arrive in the court of the abbey till the earl and his companions were just mounting their horses to set out upon some early expedition. The boy's shrewd eyes instantly detected, amongst those present, several who were not Englishmen; and, with the keen good sense for which he had been selected for that mission, he determined at once upon his course. The earl of Richmond he had never seen; but, perceiving that to one particular person there present, a spare but somewhat forbidding-looking man, all the others paid much reverence, he walked up to him with a letter in his hand, and asked if he were the Marquis Dorset. "No," answered Richmond, who had his foot in the stirrup, to mount. "Yonder he stands. Is that letter for him?" "Yes, my lord," replied the boy; "but I have several others from England." "Have you any for me, the earl of Richmond?" asked the other; and, dropping his voice to a low tone, the boy replied: "I have a word for the earl of Richmond's private ear." "Deliver your letters, and then come back to me," said Richmond, in the same low tone; and then he added, aloud, "Here is a little courier from England, my lords and gentlemen, with letters from home, for most of you, but none for me. Take them and read them. We can well afford to put off our ride for half an hour. In the mean time, I will question the boy as to the news of our native land--Here, Bernard, hold my horse. Boy, give them their letters, and then come with me." "Why, this has been opened," cried the marquis of Dorset, looking at the epistle which he received from the boy's hands. "I know it has, noble sir," answered the boy aloud. "All my letters were taken from me at Rennes, and, when they were returned, I could see they had been read." "Out, young cur," cried one of the Landais' officers, who was present. "Say you the people of the duke of Britanny would open your letters? Doubtless you opened them yourself." "Not so, noble sir," answered the lad; "for, alas, I cannot read."