The
distance to be ridden was about sixty miles, and late at night
on the 10th they rode into a village eight miles from Dreux. Here
they heard that the Duke of Mayenne, who commanded the force of
the League, was approaching the Seine at Mantes with an army of
ten thousand foot and four thousand horse.
"We must mount at daybreak, gentlemen," Sir Ralph Pimpernel said,
"or the forces of the League will get between us and the king. It
is evident that we have but just arrived in time, and it is well
we did not wait for our footmen."
The next morning they mounted early and rode on to the royal camp
near Dreux. Here Sir Ralph Pimpernel found Marshal Biron, a relation
of his wife, who at once took him to the king.
"You have just arrived in time, Sir Ralph," the king said when
Marshal Biron introduced him, "for tomorrow, or at latest the day
after, we are likely to try our strength with Mayenne. You will find
many of your compatriots here. I can offer you but poor hospitality
at present, but hope to entertain you rarely some day when the good
city of Paris opens its gates to us."
"Thanks, sire," Sir Ralph replied; "but we have come to fight and
not to feast."
"I think I can promise you plenty of that at any rate," the king
said. "You have ten gentlemen with you, I hear, and also that there
are two companies of foot from Holland now on their way up from
Honfleur.
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