best fashioner of an epitogium in Paris: although, in his accounts, as I have often urged upon him, he will occasionally confound the Latin particles."

"And the other two?"

"I doubt whether so much can be said in favour of them. They are clerks of the University, indeed; but, alas! it is not always piety and learning that are to be found under the cowl. They were sore fighters, I remember, and given to drink wine, when by any chance they could get at it. But, in truth, I can say little about them; being myself, from my youth up, a lover of peace and a hater of brawls."

"The turn-coat villain!" groaned Houpelande, half aloud. "That is nothing against them," said De Briqueville; "at least nothing that we do not know already. But can you tell us what security have we for their honour, in case of their being admitted to save their lives by entering into the service of my lord?"

"I can answer that best, if you will tell me for what crime they have forfeited their lives."

"Only murder and robbery."

"As for murder," said David, "by which you no doubt mean, in general terms, a violent death, I should think that man over bold who would undertake to guarantee, either that they should refrain from giving it, or escape receiving

it. But robbery brings us direct to the question. We Scots, you must know, valiant sir, and my honourable lord, are sometimes in the case to leave our own beloved country; either because we have not wherewithal left to live in it, or because our enemies-or, as it may happen, the laws of the realm will not permit us to do so. Now, suppose us landed in Brittany, at our own charges, and with our own sword by our side, come hither all the way, of express purpose to take a hand in what may be going forward-how think you we determine as to our course of action? Observe, you are all alike to us; there is not one drop of your blood in our veins; we know you not from Adam; and we have, therefore, no duties to bind us, no predilections to consult."

"You sell your swords, of course," said De Briqueville, "to whomsoever will hire them."

"Of a surety we do! And then you ask, what security you can have for our honour? Why, our honour goes into the bargain with our swords; and the honour of a military adventurer is fidelity. You have said, and said truly, that we do not give our fidelity: we sell it. But fidelity is not a material object, like house or land, which you part with

in perpetuity. The service and the hire, go on from day to day; and thus I humbly opine, that you may absolutely depend upon a soldier's honour, so long as you pay him better than other people."

"A most wise conclusion!" said the Lord de Retz. "Hire them, De Briqueville, since you will have it so; for the question of their life or death is not worth the words it has cost." Bauldy and Nigel looked at each other for a moment, and then the former stepped forward.

"My lord," said he, "we humbly thank you for the honour you intend us; but till our present engagement be at an end, we cannot possibly accept of it."

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'Think better of it, young men!" said De Briqueville, sternly. "You will find that this is no boy's play. You are offered instant choice between the gallows and a fortune which half your beggarly nation might covet."

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"It is clear, at least," cried Nigel, with a bitter and haughty laugh, that your nation covets the strength and valour of ours. I take all here to witness, that we die, partly for conquering in battle, against odds of three to two, which this man calls murder and robbery; but principally because we refuse to forfeit our honour, by entering into the service of the Lord de Retz!"

"De Briqueville," said the baron, in a low voice, but which was heard distinctly all round the room, "I am in no mood for fooling. Away with them at once!"

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Let there be three of them, then," replied the officer, whose cheek was burning with shame and anger. "We owe the taunt to this other Scot; and if he dangle with the rest, Orosmandel will never miss him."

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Whatever you owe me," said David, calmly, "I could excuse your paying in such a manner as that. But I really cannot comprehend your anger. You have put the courage of your prisoners to the most ample proof; and if you were desirous of engaging them before, you ought, in common reason, to be doubly more so now. You do not know our countrymen. These young men are at this moment piqued in honour. Their pride is wounded, and their very valour impeached, by the alternative you have offered them. Manage them as is the custom of our canny country. Give them a night to think of it. Fill their bellies with the rich meats and strong wines of the castle, that they may compare them with the hungry diet to which they have been accustomed; and let them walk round your impregnable ram. parts, and think the while of the brown heaths and naked hills of their own home. If by this time to-morrow, they

do not crave service under your banner as a boon, without consulting Orosmandel at all on the subject, I will place my head at your disposal."

"Will you do this?" cried the Lord de Retz, suddenly, while a baleful smile lighted up his countenance. "It is agreed! Not another word, De Briqueville! Away, all of you. I bid you welcome to my poor house of La Verrière; and I pray you to feast your fill!"

CHAPTER XXVIII.

THE audience-hall not being in the private apartments of the baron, David left it by the public avenue as well as the rest. Houpelande was in no state of mind to speak to him, and Felicite, with pale cheek and staring eyes, looked like one walking in a dream. His fellow-students, however, were broad awake. They acknowledged the wisdom of his policy as regarded them; and comprehended at once that the lives of all three, together with the property of Houpelande, and perhaps the honour of his daughter, depended upon the success of Sir Archibald. It was now well on in the day; and by midnight, at latest, their fate would be sealed for good or bad.

Even supposing, however, that Douglas secured his footing within the walls, Bauldy and Nigel could by no means understand how a vast fortress was to fall into the hands of so small a force as could cross the swamp unobserved: but David informed them that this consummation was neither necessary nor possible. Douglas knew too well the art of war not to give himself the advantage of a division, by causing a simultaneous attack to be made on the outer works of the fortress. But, even if this were left undone, the forces of Montrichard were known to be assembling in the neighbourhood; and on this night the dwelling-house would be comparatively deserted, and almost every man capable of bearing arms posted on the fortifications nearest the expected enemy. Bauldy and Nigel themselves might open the doors to the knight, if he could not accomplish it himself by force; and once in, they might defy, at least for some hours, the whole garrison out of doors.

The house of itself was a fortress of considerable strength, defended by a thick curtain; and being niched in the angle toward the river, it commanded the passage of the Loire. Thus, if the knight's enterprise succeeded, all who chose

would be able to escape in the boats; and even the property of Houpelande might find its way back to Nantes in a much shorter time than it had taken to come.

This explanation, which David did not give till they were in the court, and out of hearing even of the walls, was so satisfactory that a slight tinge of rose-colour began to revisit the cheeks even of Felicité. Her father, however, was still gloomy and disheartened.

"I am an echevin of Paris," said he; "but when the moment of strife comes, they will mind me no more than a cast-off coat. I can fight, for that matter, as well as another; but then it must be in the day-time, and in a sober, citizenlike manner. To be cutting and slashing, in utter darkness, and with all the noises of hell in my ears-why, it would make me mad. I should thrust straight on, and embowel my own mother if she stood before me. Now, if you, David, who always know what you are about, and who mind whether it is light or dark no more than a cat-if for old acquaintance sake you would only let me take hold of your cloak, when it comes to escaping-What, you wont?"

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My good friend," replied the scholar, "I grieve to say that you must not depend upon me for anything. I have another, and a far harder task before me."

"I thought so. Nobody cares for the old tailor. I don't mind to be called sartor now, or vestiarius either; and I doubt whether, even if you did lend me a catch of your new cloak, the stuff is good enough to hold. The knight, Sir Archibald he and I have drunk together as good fellows, and I have seen him eat like four counsellors. Do you think he will remember me in this pinch?"

Unhappily, he will have the damsel of Laval on his hands.” "Not a doubt of it; or anybody else but Jacquin. It is needless to speak to you, Nigel; for you go on as if you had as many lives as inches-and these are not far from four score.

"I should be quite at your service," replied Nigel; "but I must tarry behind to speak a word in the ear to De Briqueville-he who is so ready at tying up Christians in bunches, like haddocks to dry."

"I could have taken my corporal oath of that! Bauldy, you have more sense than Nigel, though not much neither. If you will save me and my property, you shall have one half for your reward."

And who will save your daughter?"

"Sir, my daughter is myself; and the one cannot be saved without the other. Is it agreed?"

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Agreed. For my half of the property, I shall accept of a very moderate sum of money; and for my half of the persons, I choose Felicité!"

"What is that? You! Come, this is nonsense. We have no child's play before us, as De Briqueville most justly said."

Keep your money then, since you grudge the price of my service! Felicité has already given me her heart, for that was her own to bestow; and I ask of you, in full of all demands, nothing more than her hand. Even this, however, I shall leave to your generosity, when all is over. In the mean time, you may be assured, that if I leave this house alive, you and she shall be with me!”

David recommended to his two comrades, to play the part of unwilling guests for an hour or two, but to allow their ill humour to subside gradually under the influence of good cheer. If they could even affect intoxication towards bed-time, it would be so much the better; as in that case suspicion with regard to them would be laid asleep for the night. But when thus disposing, as it were, with their heads, they were to have their eyes and ears in their breasts, like the Blemmyes of Ethopia, mentioned, as they no doubt remembered, by Strabo. They were to observe the geographical position of their dormitory, so as to be able to find the great door in the dark; and, while waiting for the sounds which should call them to such course of action as their prudence and courage might suggest, they were, above all things, to spend the interval in supplications to God, through the mediation of the Virgin Mary and the blessed St. Bride.

David then bade a solemn adieu to the whole party individually; but, on arriving at Felicité, he lingered for a moment, and raised her hand to his lips.

"My bonny May," said he, "I leave you in good hands. Instead of the wealth and municipal distinction. to which you might have looked, you have chosen a stout arm, a true heart, and a blythe blue eye. In times and countries like these, the election is not only honourable to your womanly affections, but to your judgment; for the youth of the city are not only dissolute but effeminate, and truly it becomes a prudent lass, who would walk in safety through this perilous world, to have a man for her companion, and not to go to and fro in the image of the nymph Hercynna, the companion of Proserpine, with a goose at her side. Dii vertant bene! The dearest blessings of heaven be upon you! Away now with you all. Eat, drink, and be merry; and let not