The chatelaine will be glad to receive you." By the time they reached the castle the drawbridge had been lowered; and Madame de Landres stood at the gate, ready to receive her guest.

As Philip, leaping off, lifted the girl to the ground, the lady embraced her kindly.
"I am truly glad to be able to offer you a shelter, for a time.

You are young, indeed, to be abroad without a natural protector; for as I gather this gentleman, whose name I have not yet learned, rescued you by chance from an attack by the Catholics." "God sent him to my succour, as by a miracle," Claire said simply.
"The Chevalier Fletcher is known to my father.

Had he arrived but one minute later, I should be one among seventy or eighty who are now lying dead in a wood, near La Chatre.

My father had a chateau close by, but it was fired after the massacre." "And now, mademoiselle, with your permission, and that of Madame de Landres, we will ride on at once.