My hope is that when the king
comes to his senses I may be able to obtain an interview with him, and
even if I cannot have leave to return to Villeroy I may be allowed to take
up my abode outside the walls, or at any rate to obtain a quiet lodging
for ourselves."
For the next three weeks the time passed quietly. Guy went every morning
to the _salle d'armes_, for his wound being on his left shoulder he was
able to use his sword arm as soon as it began to heal.
"You underrated your skill," the fencing-master said when he had given him
his first lesson. "It is true that you do not know the niceties of sword-
playing, but indeed you are so quick of eye and wrist that you can afford
to do without them. Still, doubtless after a couple of months' practice
here you will be so far improved that he will need to be a good swordsman
who holds his own with you."
Guy paid only one visit during this time to the lodgings of the Italian.
"You have not heard from me, Master Aylmer," the latter said, "because
indeed there has been nothing of importance to tell you. The Armagnacs
are, I hear, collecting a great army, and are likely ere long to march in
this direction. The butchers are becoming more and more unpopular and more
and more violent; not a day passes but many citizens are killed by them
under the pretence that they are Armagnacs, but really because they had
expressed themselves as hostile to the doings of these tyrants.
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