We have some difficult journeyings to make, and there will
be certain persons lying in wait for messengers from Marlborough;
and we may be sore beset to avoid them. Tom, do you remember the
tall dark man with whom my duel was fought?"
"Sir James?"
"That is the name by which he goes in England. He passes there as
one Sir James Montacute, a man of bravery and wealth. But there is
another side to the picture. That man, Tom, is a spy, and in the
pay of the King of France. If I had known as much that day as I
have since learned from his Grace the Duke, methinks I should not
have left him alive upon the field. Tom, we shall probably have to
measure our wits against his in a duel of another sort ere long."
Tom threw back his head with a defiant gesture.
"Well, my lord; and I am ready!" he said.
"Very good, Tom; I thought as much. You did not love our
dark-skinned friend much better than I did. I think we shall find
him lurking in wait for us somewhere amid the snows of the St.
Bernard Pass. Hast ever heard of the St. Bernard, Tom, and the good
monks there?"
"I think I have," answered Tom, who had heard so many new things of
late that he could not be expected to keep them all in mind
together.
"Well, it may be we shall have to seek their hospitality yet;
although our way lies across the Little St.
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