sage without largess, I order my treasurer, Henriet, to hand over to you and your followers twenty gold crowns."
"Grand-merci, monseigneur! I pray God that he may give you good and long life."
"Pray God only to have mercy upon me, and to pardon my sins."
The marshal had his horses saddled, and left Machecoul with Pontou and Henriet, who had thrown in their lot with him.
It was with lively emotion that the people in the villages traversed by the little troop, saw the redoubted Gilles de Laval ride through their streets, surrounded by soldiers in the livery of the Duke of Brittany, and unaccompanied by a single soldier of his own. The roads and streets were thronged, peasants left the fields, women their kitchens, labourers deserted their cattle at the plough, to throng the road to Nantes. The cavalcade proceeded in silence. The very crowd which had gathered to see it, was hushed. Presently a shrill woman's voice was raised:—
"My child! restore my child!"
Then a wild, wrathful howl broke from the lips of the throng, rang along the Nantes road, and only died
