was the hearty greeting that he received from Colonel Maclvor, of whom he had seen but little during the campaign, as the Scottish regiment formed part of Enghien’s command, and was not present at the battle of Nordlingen, being left in garrison at Metz when the duke marched to join Turenne.  Mazarin himself presented him to many of the ladies of the court, thereby showing that he wished him to be regarded as a particular friend of his; and Hector, having gained much in self possession since he had last appeared there, was able to make himself more agreeable to them than before, to bandy compliments, and adapt himself to the general atmosphere of the court.  The cardinal sent for him again the next morning.

“The news is bad from Poitou, Colonel Campbell, and I think that it would be well that you should proceed there at once.  So we will release you from further attendance, and you can make up for it by giving us a longer time on your return.”

Hector, however, tarried two days longer in Paris, by which time he had received all the clothes that he had ordered.  Early on the morning of the third day he mounted and rode away with Paolo and three of his troopers.  Hunter had been left behind at Philippsburg for the cure of a wound that he had received at Nordlingen.  Hector was mounted on one of the horses that Enghien had given him; the other was in the hands of the Imperialists.  They traveled fast, and met with no adventure until they arrived at Poitou, where Hector learned that in the western part of the province the peasants had almost everywhere risen, had defeated the royal troops who had marched against them from La Rochelle and Nantes, and had captured and burnt any chateaux, slaying all persons of the better class who fell into their hands.

As he neared his own estate, learning that the tenants there had so far not joined the rising, but that several bodies of insurgents were in the neighbourhood, he rode still more rapidly forward.  Signs of the trouble were everywhere apparent.  In the villages only women were to be seen; there was no sign of life or movement in the fields; and he passed two chateaux which were now but empty shells.  As soon as he had crossed into his own estates he found the houses entirely deserted; no man, woman, nor child was to be seen; no animals grazed in the fields, and the little stacks of hay and straw had been carried away.

“It is evident,” he said to Paolo, “that MacIntosh has called all the tenantry into the chateau; had they joined the insurgents the women and children would still be here.”

As they ascended the steep hill on whose brow the chateau stood, he could make out that there were a number of men posted upon the walls.

“He is evidently determined that he will not be caught napping, Paolo, and all the peasants of Poitou could not take the place unless they were well provided with cannon.”