"
"Shall we get to Paris to-night, Lady Mother?" Charlie asked.
"No, indeed; it will be five days, if not six, for I see by the way that
we are travelling we are bearing east, and shall sleep at Lille or may be
at Tournay; then, doubtless, we shall bear south, and may stop the next
night at Cambrai, and make to Noyon on the following day, and thence to
Compiegne or to Senlis, and the next day will take us to Paris. It all
depends how far and how fast we ride each day. But these matters will be
arranged by the herald. Were we to go by the shortest route we should get
there more quickly; but Amiens is held by the party to whom the men who
attacked our castle belong, and by the way we are travelling we shall keep
for some time in Artois, and so escape all risk of trouble on the road."
"I don't care for trouble," Charlie said stoutly; "we have got Long Tom
and Robert Picard and the other two, and Guy can fight also."
"That would be all very well, my son," his mother said smiling, "if we
were only attacked by half a dozen vagrants, but brave as they all are
they could do naught if a large body surprised us; but be assured that
there is no fear of that--by the way we are travelling we shall meet with
none but friends."
"I should like to be attacked by the vagrants, mother. The last time you
made us stay with you when there was fighting going on, except just at the
first, but here we should see it all.
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