“Therefore, as you see,” he said, “there is no course open for me but to fly for England or Ireland, where I intend to settle.  I trust, madam, that you and your daughter will accompany me.  Putting aside my respect and, I may say, my affection for yourself, you will have understood from what I said to you when last at la Villar, that I hope some day to make your daughter Norah my wife, if I should be so fortunate as to obtain her affections.  How this may be I cannot say, but at any rate I trust that you will return to England, and as I have ample funds you may be assured that my first care will be to provide for your future.”

On arriving at Nantes Hector at once rode to the governor, and presented the cardinal’s letter to him.

“You may be assured, Colonel Campbell, that I shall carry out his eminence’s instructions,” he said, after perusing the cardinal’s letter.  “I will send an officer down to the port with you to aid you in obtaining passage, should there be a ship leaving for England, or to take up a ship for your service.”

“I would rather the latter,” Hector said.  “I may have ladies with me, and so should wish to have plenty of accommodation.”

“I am also instructed,” the governor said, “to close the gate, in case any party, followers of the Dukes of Vendome or Beaufort, or of any families connected with them, arrive before you leave, and to grant them no admittance until a messenger from the mouth of the river informs me that you are fairly out at sea.”

“I am indeed obliged to his eminence for that order, sir; he did not mention to me that he was giving it, but it will certainly save me from much anxiety.”

As Hector was not disposed to haggle about terms, he had no difficulty in hiring a vessel to carry them across the Channel.  Twenty-four hours after his arrival the party from the chateau rode in, and but half an hour later fifty horsemen wearing the cognizance of Vendome galloped up to the gate.  They were headed by four or five gentlemen, one of whom demanded angrily why the gates were shut.

“They are closed by order of the governor,” the officer in charge replied.

“Tell the governor that the Count d’Erlon, with a party of gentlemen, retainers of the Duke of Vendome, are here, and demand instant admittance.”

Twenty minutes later the governor himself arrived at the gate.  “I am sorry, gentlemen,” he said, “that I am compelled to keep the gates closed.  I have an order from Cardinal Mazarin to that effect, and that, coming from the first minister of France, I dare not disregard even if the duke himself were with you.  It would cost me my place, and possibly gain me a cell in the Bastille; and, grieved as I am to refuse admittance to such honourable gentlemen, still I must do so.”

“And for how long is this monstrous edict to remain in force?” the leader of the party asked.

“That I am unable to say precisely, but I believe that I can open them tomorrow morning.”