The cavaliers about him drew their swords, and after saluting, asked if it were the will of their Lord Duke that they should punish these caitiffs who had so battered Goulard and Moulinet.
But "My Lord" put them aside with an impatient gesture of his glove.
"It would have served Goulard and Moulinet right if they had gotten twice as much!" he said. "They meddled in what did not concern them."
All the same, as he rode forward, his eyebrows, which were thick and barred across, twitched threateningly. He threw off his crimson cloak with an impatient gesture, and suddenly shone forth in a dazzling array of steel breast-plate and chain armour, all worked and damascened with gold.
"Epernon--Epernon--for my life, Epernon!" muttered the Abbé John under his breath to the Professor of Eloquence; "we could not have fallen on worse!"
The King's reigning favourite and boldest soldier rode straight up to them, with the careless ease which became the handsomest man in the kingdoms of France and Navarre.
"What have we here?" he demanded. "A pretty girl, two holy men, and a scarecrow! You are Genevists--Calvin's folk--Huguenots! This will not do; a fair maid's place is in a king's court. I will escort her thither. My wife will have great pleasure in her society, and will make her one of her own or of the Queen's maids-of-honour. From what I hear, her elder Majesty hath great need of such!"
"Not more than His Majesty has need of men of honour about him," cried the Abbé John fiercely--"aye, and has had all his life!"
"Hola, young cock-sparrow, clad in the habit of the hoodie-crow!" said D'Epernon, turning upon him, "from what stable-heap do you come that you chirp so loud?"
"From that same heap on which you serve as stable-boy, my Lord Duke!" said the Abbé John.
The Duke's brow darkened. He put his hand quickly to his gold-hilted rapier.
"Ah, pray do," sneered the Abbé John; "follow your inclination. Let the bright steel out. Get a man to hold our horses, and--have at you, my good Gascon!"
By this time the Duke d'Epernon's gentlemen were spurring angrily forward, but he halted them with a wave of his hand, without turning round in his saddle or taking his eyes off John's face.
"What is your name?" he demanded, his brows twitching so quickly that the eye could scarce follow their movements.