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Castelroux visited ht be accounted encouraging None of his ers were yet returned, nor had any sent word that they were upon the trail of my followers My heart sank a little, and such hope as I still fostered was fast perishing Indeed, so imminent did my doom appear and so unavoidable, that later in the day I asked for pen and paper that I hts Yet when the writing ht me, I wrote not I sat instead with the feathered end of my quill between my teeth, and thus pondered the hed the wording of the wager and the events that had transpired, and I cath to the conclusion that Chatellerault could not be held to have the least claim upon my lands That he had cheated at the very outset, as I have earlier shoas of less account than that he had been instru me

I took at last the resolve to indite a full memoir of the transaction, and to request Castelroux to see that it was delivered to the King himself Thus not only would justice be done, but I should--though tardily--be even with the Count No doubt he relied upon his power to ht leave, and to destroy everything that ht afford indication ofthat had sprung up betwixt the little Gascon captain andcontrived to convince the latter that I was, indeed, Bardelys, and he little dreamt of such a step as I was about to take to ensure his punish to write when my attention was arrested by an unusual sound It was at first noupon its shore Gradually it grew its volume and assumed the shape of human voices raised in lusty claun boo up at that, and, wondering what ht be toward, I crossed toI overlooked the courtyard of the jail, and I could see soreater commotion without

Presently, as the populace drew nearer, it seeht a blare of truuish above the noise, which had non tohoofs of so past the prison doors