CHICOT'S ASTONISHMENT AT FINDING HIMSELF SO POPULAR IN NERAC.
Chicot, having taken his resolution, began to prepare his little packet. "How much time will it take me," thought he, as he did so, "to carry to the king the news of what I have seen and fear? Two days to arrive at a city whence the governor can send couriers; Cahors, for example, of which Henri of Navarre thinks so much. Once there, I can rest, for after all a man must rest some time. Come, then, Chicot, speed and sang froid. You thought you had accomplished your mission, and you are but half-way through it."
Chicot now extinguished the light, opened his door softly, and began to creep downstairs on tip-toe.
He went into an antechamber, but he had hardly gone four steps before he kicked against something. This something was
