"Have you sent reinforcements to our outposts, Derby?"
"Yes, my Lord, pardon me, without your orders,—nay, in spite of your orders."
"You have done well," said Lord Wentworth.
"Bub the reinforcements will have arrived too late."
"Who knows? Let us not be alarmed. You must go with me at once to Nieullay. We will make these rash rascals pay dear for their audacity; and if they already hold Ste. Agathe, why, we shall be free to drive them out of it."
"God grant it!" said Lord Derby; "but they have begun the game manfully."
"We will have our revenge!" replied Wentworth. "Who commands them, do you know?"
"It is not known,—probably Monsieur de Guise, or Monsieur de Nevers, at least. The ensign who rode here at full speed to bring the almost incredible news of their sudden appearance told me only that he recognized at a distance, in the front rank, your former prisoner, you remember, Vicomte d'Exmès—"
"Damnation!" cried the governor, clinching his fists. "Come, Derby, come quickly!"
Madame de Castro, with her senses sharpened, as they are apt to be at important crises, had heard almost all of Lord Derby's report, although made in a low voice.