"Ay; why not?"
"The mother loves not such," urged the man, "and alive he will be dangerous."
"I like not knifing a man when the blood is cold in me," Simon answered.
"I'll do it, I have no such sentiment."
"Time enough," Simon said. "Besides, since he helps this scholar of Passey, he's no friend to him of Vayenne." And then, turning to Herrick, he went on: "I marked you when you came to the brook; you rode not like a priest."
"What matter how I rode so we have fallen among friends?" said Herrick.
"Friends? Hardly that; but at least we would not let the wounded man die. Dead he is but carrion as any other man; alive he is worth much gold. There are those beyond Montvilliers who will pay handsomely for him."
"Beyond Montvilliers! You would sell him into the hands of his country's enemies? That were traitor's work indeed!"
"The country's rulers would hang me to the first tree if they caught me. To-day the game is mine; to-morrow——" And he snapped his fingers and laughed.
He walked away, and soon afterward the men who had gone into the woods returned with a rough litter. Into this the young Duke was carefully lifted, and whether he were conscious or not Herrick could not tell. These traitors would keep him alive if they could; at least there was more hope with them than with those others who were bent on slaying him, and Herrick found what consolation he could in the thought.