XV. TO CLOCHONNE, AFTER MADEMOISELLE!
XVI. BEHIND THE CURTAINS
XVII. SWORD AND DAGGER
XVIII. THE RIDE TOWARDS GUIENNE




AN ENEMY TO THE KING




CHAPTER I.

TWO ENCOUNTERS BY NIGHT


Hitherto I have written with the sword, after the fashion of greater men,
and requiring no secretary. I now take up the quill to set forth,
correctly, certain incidents which, having been noised about, stand in
danger of being inaccurately reported by some imitator of Brantome and De
l'Estoile. If all the world is to know of this matter, let it know
thereof rightly.

It was early in January, in the year 1578, that I first set out for
Paris. My mother had died when I was twelve years old, and my father had
followed her a year later. It was his last wish that I, his only child,
should remain at the chateau, in Anjou, continuing my studies until the
end of my twenty-first year. He had chosen that I should learn manners as