"Shall we go back and ask him to write down his reasons for the change?" asked L'Estang; but the officer was already giving instructions for the opening of the gate, and in a few minutes we were outside the walls.
CHAPTER XXVIII
Farewell France!
"The danger is over!" exclaimed my companion as we left the city behind us; "lean back on the cushions and try to sleep."
"There are several questions I wish to ask first."
"I will answer them in the morning, when you have rested, but not now," he said firmly.
He had brought a number of cushions and rugs, and he tended me as carefully as if I had been a delicate woman. And yet he was in the pay of the brutal Anjou, and perhaps his own hands were not innocent of the blood of my slain comrades!
It might have been that he guessed something of the thoughts passing through my mind, for he exclaimed suddenly, "There is one thing I would say, monsieur. This massacre is none of my seeking, and through it all my sword has never left the scabbard except in your defence. The mercy once shown to me I have shown again."
"You are a good fellow, L'Estang," I murmured, "and I thank you."