The Refugees

ge, gaunt man, raw-boned and haggard, with a wide forehead, a large, fleshy nose, and a powerful chin. He wore neither wig nor powder, but Nature had put her own silvering upon his thick grizzled

he had still preserved something of the strength and of the spirit of his youth. He was dressed as became his rank, plainly and yet well, in a sad-coloured brown kersey coat with silver-plated buttons, knee-breeches of the same, and white woollen stockings, ending in broad-

ich bigotry could employ, short of absolute expulsion, which had not been turned against him. He was impeded in his business, elbowed out of all public employment, his house filled with troops, his children encouraged to rebel against him, and all redress refused him for the insults and assaults to which he was subjected. Every rascal who wished to gratify his personal spite, or to gain favour with his bigoted supe

e, and had been witnesses to his unsuccessful appeal. Now they tramped across toge

one gruffly, “get off ag

y,” cried the other, with a hideous oath. “Who are you,

t at them, and was turning to go, when one of them

d. “Would you dare to look li

s hand pressed to his side, “were I twenty years

t is enough, Andre! He has threatened the king’s gua

s wiry frame, he shook himself clear of them again and again, and it was only when his breath had failed him that the two, torn and panting, were able to twist round his wrists, an

f the old man’s face he gave a violent start, and drawing his sword, had rushed forward with such fury that the two guardsmen not only dropped their victim

e Catinat. “What is

to their feet again, ver

one, saluting, “this is a Hugue

ected by the king, captain

ave a word with the great master of his country, he must be harassed by two

nd at the shrill summons an old sergeant and half

asked the ca

e Meu

you

las Kl

arrest these men,

sergeant, a dark grizzled old

they are t

at charge,

respected citizen who had co

is own confession,” cri

rge in that form, captain? Just as the captain pleases.” He gave a little shrug of

harge them with laying their halberds down while on duty

e disgraced the guards! An hour on the wooden horse with a musket at either foot may teach you that halberds we

clump of guardsmen with

sign of exultation, during this sudden reversal of fortune; but when the s

d not hoped

in the name of wonder,

wicked is heavy upon us, and whom

man,” said he. “But he can only see the world through the glass

me from hi

ask yo

and I g

my faith, if my kinsmen are to come and bandy arguments with the king,

nephew, it is strange to me how you can live in th

belief in m

n shook his

nd danger ever at your feet. It is hard for you to walk with the Lord

willing to let the black gown and the white surplice settle these matters between them

“when the hands of the wicked are heavy upon your kinsfolk, and there is a breaking of ph

ho was somewhat mystified by the scriptural langu

upon me, with one Dalbert, their captain

nguedoc Dragoons? I have already s

s also a score against this murde

s he don

which should be mine, his great boots on my Spanish leather chairs, his pipe in his mouth, his wine-p

H

t me into

H

in his drunken love he would have th

ng faun or weary nymph who slumbered in marble amid the foliage. The few courtiers who met them gazed with surprise at so ill-assorted a pair of companions. But the young soldier was too full of his own plans to waste a thought upon their speculations. Still hurrying on, he followed a crescent path which led past a dozen stone dolphins shooting water out of their mouths over a

you com

cale

re i

, beyond th

t us make

mory, are y

ou tell me. There is room for a man with a swo

t would

word with this C

when I said even now that you were

i squaw, or turned her innocent prayers to the Mitche Manitou, I should like to set eyes upon the man who would dare to lay a hand

he caleche jolted and clattered upon its way. As they sped on, with the road-side trees dancing past the narrow windows, and the white dust streaming behind t

s all th

yesterda

re is Ad

is at

his Da

is the

in his power while you

ocked in

n raved with his hands in the air a

erre is

s use

Amos

r. He is a man, by

d lambs who fled early before the wolves, when first it was seen that the king’s hand waxed heavy upo

an evil time

urpose may l

e left him i

albert, smoking with him, an

stranger in a strange land. You d

God’s han

h, I am on fir

evotion. Soon, as the road curved down to the river-bank, the city wall grew nearer and nearer, until they had passed the southern gate, and were rattling over the stony causeway, leaving the broad Luxembourg upon their right, and Colbert’s last work, the Invalides, upon their left. A sharp turn brought them on to the river quays, and crossing over the Pont Neuf, they skirted the stately Lo

very side by an immens