going to incur assumed more serious proportions each time I
scanned my following; while Fresnoy, plying me with perpetual
questions respecting my plans, was as uneasy a companion as my
worst enemy could have wished me.

'Come!' he grumbled presently, when we had covered four leagues
or so, 'you have not told me yet, sieur, where we stay to-night.
You are travelling so slowly that--'

'I am saving the horses,' I answered shortly. 'We shall do a
long day to-morrow.'

'Yours looks fit for a week of days,' he sneered, with an evil
look at my Sardinian, which was, indeed, in better case than its
master. 'It is sleek enough, any way!'

'It is as good as it looks,' I answered, a little nettled by his
tone.

'There is a better here,' he responded.

'I don't see it,' I said. I had already eyed the nags all round,
and assured myself that, ugly and blemished as they were, they
were up to their work. But I had discerned no special merit
among them. I looked them over again now, and came to the same
conclusion--that, except the led horses, which I had chosen with
some care, there was nothing among them to vie with the Cid,
either in speed or looks. I told Fresnoy so.

'Would you like to try?' he said tauntingly.