One afternoon a strange thing happened.  We could see the Auvergne hills at no great distance on our left—­the Puy de Dome above them—­and we four were riding together.  We had fallen—­an unusual thing—­to the rear of the party.  Our road at the moment was a mere track running across moorland, sprinkled here and there with gorse and brushwood.  The main company had straggled on out of sight.  There were but half a dozen riders to be seen an eighth of a league before us, a couple almost as far behind.  I looked every way with a sudden surging of the heart.  For the first time the possibility of flight occurred to me.  The rough Auvergne hills were within reach.  Supposing we could get a lead of a quarter of a league, we could hardly be caught before darkness came and covered us.  Why should we not put spurs to our horses and ride off?

“Impossible!” said Pavannes quietly, when I spoke.

“Why?” I asked with warmth.

“Firstly,” he replied, “because I have given my word to go with the Vidame to Cahors.”

My face flushed hotly.  But I cried, “What of that?  You were taken by treachery!  Your safe conduct was disregarded.  Why should you be scrupulous?  Your enemies are not.  This is folly?”

“I think not.  Nay,” Louis answered, shaking his head, “you would not do it yourself in my place.”

“I think I should,” I stammered awkwardly.

“No, you would not, lad,” he said smiling.  “I know you too well.  But if I would do it, it is impossible.”  He turned in the saddle and, shading his eyes with his hand from the level rays of the sun, looked back intently.  “It is as I thought,” he continued.  “One of those men is riding grey Margot, which Bure said yesterday was the fastest mare in the troop.  And the man on her is a light weight.  The other fellow has that Norman bay horse we were looking at this morning.  It is a trap laid by Bezers, Anne.  If we turned aside a dozen yards, those two would be after us like the wind.”

“Do you mean,” I cried, “that Bezers has drawn his men forward on purpose?”

“Precisely;” was Louis’s answer.  “That is the fact.  Nothing would please him better than to take my honour first, and my life afterwards.  But, thank God, only the one is in his power.”

And when I came to look at the horsemen, immediately before us, they confirmed Louis’s view.  They were the best mounted of the party:  all men of light weight too.  One or other of them was constantly looking back.  As night fell they closed in upon us with their usual care.  When Bure joined us there was a gleam of intelligence in his bold eyes, a flash of conscious trickery.  He knew that we had found him out, and cared nothing for it.