"But suppose you were to avoid that path?" whispered Gabriel.
"I should be false to my honor and to my duty as a soldier," was Pardaillan's reply. "Besides, it is better that I should not be able to do it. My two lieutenants received Monsieur de Guise's orders as well as myself, and they would interfere to prevent my running counter to them. No; my only hope is that La Renaudie will consent to surrender, and a faint hope it is; for he is as proud as Lucifer, and as brave as a lion. Moreover, he has an opportunity to fight, and will not be taken by surprise, as Castelnau was; and again, we are not very superior to him in point of numbers. However, you will assist me, will you not, Monsieur de Montgommery, in urging him to yield?"
"Alas!" said Gabriel, with a sigh, "I will do my best."
"The Devil take these civil wars!" cried Pardaillan, in conclusion.
They rode along in silence for almost ten minutes.
When they had taken the second path to the left, Pardaillan said,—
"Now we should be approaching them. How my heart beats! For the first time in my life, I believe, as God hears me, that I am afraid."
The royal troops were no longer laughing and talking, but advanced slowly and cautiously.
They had not gone two hundred paces, when they thought they could see through a thicket of trees the glistening of weapons upon a path, which ran parallel with the main road.
Their uncertainty was not of long duration, for almost immediately a firm voice cried out,—