She replied with a few words in Spanish, whereupon La Flèche said to D'Ars:
"This worthy woman humbly requests your lordships' names, so that she may pray for you."
Guillaume laughed.
"That is an amusing request," he said. "Advise this worthy woman, friend La Flèche, to pray for us without knowing our names. The good Lord knows us well, and we can tell him nothing about ourselves that he does not know better than we do."
La Flèche saluted humbly with his dirty cap, and our travellers, spurring their steeds, soon left the gypsies behind.
"By the way," said D'Alvimar to Guillaume, as the bell-tower of La Motte-Seuilly appeared on the horizon, "you have not told me where you are going. Does that château belong to another of your friends who would, doubtless, think me an intruder?"
"Yonder château is the home of a young and lovely woman, who lives there with her father, and they will both receive you courteously. They will keep you until evening, not only in order not to be deprived of the company of Monsieur de Bois-Doré, whom they esteem very highly, but also to prove to you that we are not savages in our poor country province, and that we know how to practise hospitality in the old French way."
D'Alvimar replied that he had no manner of doubt of it, and succeeded in making some other courteous remarks to his companion, for no man was ever better taught; but his bitter thoughts soon turned to another subject.
"According to what you have told me of this Bois-Doré, my host that is to be," he said, "he is an old mannikin, I should judge, whose vassals enjoy themselves to their hearts' content?"
"No," replied Monsieur d'Ars. "Those gypsies interrupted me. I was about to tell you that, when he returned to the country, wealthy and bemarquised, people were surprised to find that he was as brave as a lion, despite his mild aspect, and that, while he had some laughable foibles, he also had some Christian virtues which are a very comfortable possession for a man."