Behind this the Frenchman crouched, and his three companions followed his example, peering through the brushwood screen in front of them.

Still the one broad sheet of sunshine poured down between the two pines, but all else was as dim and as silent as a vast cathedral with pillars of wood and roof of leaf.

Not a branch that creaked, nor a twig that snapped, nor any sound at all save the sharp barking of a fox somewhere in the heart of the forest.

A thrill of excitement ran through the nerves of De Catinat.

It was like one of those games of hide-and-seek which the court used to play, when Louis was in a sportive mood, among the oaks and yew hedges of Versailles.