Methinks I like the one I bought at Rochelle even better than that which the Queen of Navarre bestowed upon me; but I grieved sorely over the death of Victor, the horse Francois gave me.

I was riding him at the fight of Moncontour, and he was shot through the head with a ball from a German arquebus." Pierre had, as soon as they arrived, been welcomed and made much of by Philip's mother; and was speedily seated in the post of honour in the kitchen, where he astonished the French servants with tales of his master's adventures, with many surprising additions which had but slight basis of fact.
Gaspard Vaillant and his wife thought that Philip's parents would like to have him, for a time, to themselves; and did not come up for two or three hours after he had arrived.
"You will admit, John, that my plan has acted rarely," the merchant said, when he was seated; "and that, as I prophesied, it has made a man of him.

What would he have been, if he had stayed here ?" "He would, I hope, brother Gaspard," Lucie said gravely, "have been what he is now--a gentleman." "No doubt, Lucie.

He promised as much as that, before he went; but he is more than that now.

He has been the companion of nobles, and has held his own with them; and if he should go to court, now, he would do honour to your family and his, though he rubbed shoulders with the best of them.
"And now, what are you thinking of doing next, Philip?
You will hardly care to settle down among us here, after such a life as you have led for the last three years." Philip repeated the views he had expressed to Francois de Laville, and his plans were warmly approved by his uncle and father; though his mother folded her hands, and shook her head sadly.
"The lad is right, Lucie," the merchant said.
"He is lord now of the Holford estates--for the deeds are completed and signed, Philip, making them over to you.