But the sixth man was no priest. He was a Huguenot
minister whom Gaspard remembered with Conde's army, an elderly frail man
bound with cruel thongs to a horse's back and his legs tethered beneath its
belly.
Recognition awoke in the Jacobin's eye. "Ah, my lords of Spain! What brings
you northward?"
Gaspard was by his side, while Champernoun a pace behind was abreast the
minister.
"To see the completion of the good work begun this. morning."
"You have come the right road. I go to kindle the north to a holy
emulation. That heretic dog behind is a Picard, and I bring him to Amiens
that he may perish there as a warning to his countrymen."
"So?" said Gaspard, and at the word the Huguenot's horse, pricked
stealthily by Champernoun's sword, leaped forward and dashed in fright up
the hill, its rider sitting stiff as a doll in his bonds. The Jacobin cried
out and the soldiers made as if to follow, but Gaspard's voice checked
them. "Let be. The beast will not go far. I have matters of importance to
discuss with this reverend father.
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