and Hector, having gained much in self possession since he had last
appeared there, was able to make himself more agreeable to them
than before, to bandy compliments, and adapt himself to the general
atmosphere of the court. The cardinal sent for him again the next
morning.

"The news is bad from Poitou, Colonel Campbell, and I think that it
would be well that you should proceed there at once. So we will
release you from further attendance, and you can make up for it by
giving us a longer time on your return."

Hector, however, tarried two days longer in Paris, by which time
he had received all the clothes that he had ordered. Early on the
morning of the third day he mounted and rode away with Paolo and
three of his troopers. Hunter had been left behind at Philippsburg
for the cure of a wound that he had received at Nordlingen. Hector
was mounted on one of the horses that Enghien had given him; the
other was in the hands of the Imperialists. They traveled fast, and
met with no adventure until they arrived at Poitou, where Hector
learned that in the western part of the province the peasants had
almost everywhere risen, had defeated the royal troops who had
marched against them from La Rochelle and Nantes, and had captured
and burnt any chateaux, slaying all persons of the better class
who fell into their hands.

As he neared his own estate, learning that the tenants there had so
far not joined the rising, but that several bodies of insurgents
were in the neighbourhood, he rode still more rapidly forward.
Signs of the trouble were everywhere apparent. In the villages
only women were to be seen; there was no sign of life or movement