young brother, who had been ordered there a few days before.  As they arrived they were given quarters in the barracks, and received good pay—­the chiefs forty sous a day, and the privates ten.  So they felt as happy as possible, being well fed and well lodged, and spent their time preaching, praying, and psalm-singing, in season and out of season.  All this, says La Baume, was so disagreeable to the inhabitants of the place, who were Catholics, that if they had not been guarded by the king’s soldiers they would have been pitched into the Rhone.

CHAPTER V

Meantime the date of Cavalier’s departure drew near.  A town was to be named in which he was to reside at a sufficient distance from the theatre of war to prevent the rebels from depending on him any more; in this town he was to organise his regiment, and as soon as it was complete it was to go, under his command, to Spain, and fight for the king.  M. de Villars was still on the same friendly terms with him, treating him, not like a rebel, but according to his new rank in the French army.  On the 21st June he told him that he was to get ready to leave the next day, and at the same time he handed him an advance on their future pay—­fifty Louis for himself, thirty for Daniel Billard, who had been made lieutenant-colonel in the place of Ravanel, ten for each captain, five for each lieutenant, two for each sergeant, and one for each private.  The number of his followers had then reached one hundred and fifty, only sixty of whom were armed.  M. de Vassiniac, major in the Fimarcn regiment, accompanied them with fifty dragoons and fifty of the rank and file from Hainault.

All along the road Cavalier and his men met with a courteous reception; at Macon they found orders awaiting them to halt.  Cavalier at once wrote to M. de Chamillard to tell him that he had things of importance to communicate to him, and the minister sent a courier of the Cabinet called Lavallee to bring Cavalier to Versailles.  This message more than fulfilled all Cavalier’s hopes:  he knew that he had been greatly talked about at court, and in spite of his natural modesty the reception he had met with at Times had given him new ideas, if not of his own merit, at least of his own importance.  Besides, he felt that his services to the king deserved some recognition.

The way in which Cavalier was received by Chamillard did not disturb these golden dreams:  the minister welcomed the young colonel like a man whose worth he appreciated, and told him that the great lords and ladies of the court were not less favourably disposed towards him.  The next day Chamillard announced to Cavalier that the king desired to see him, and that he was to keep himself prepared for a summons to court.  Two days later, Cavalier received a letter from the minister telling him to be at the palace at four o’clock in the afternoon, and he would place him on the grand staircase, up which the king would pass.