Instead of troubling themselves about the fleet, they entered a vessel
that seemed awaiting them, and on whose deck they were joined by two
companions. In a very short time they were out of harbor and off with a
fresh wind across the Channel. Mainwaring had been wrong,--was the
ferryman right?--was a duel the purpose of this flight in disguise?
No; the travellers made no halt at Boulogne, the favorite
duelling-ground of English hot-bloods, but pushed off in haste for
Montreuil, and thence rode straight to Paris, which they reached after a
two-days' journey.
It seemed an odd freak, this ride in disguise for the mere purpose of a
visit to Paris. But there was nothing to indicate that the two young men
had any other object as they strolled carelessly during the next day
about the French capital, known to none there, and enjoying themselves
like school-boys on a holiday.
Among the sights which they managed to see were the king, Louis XIII.,
and his royal mother, Marie de Medicis. That evening a mask was to be
rehearsed at the palace, in which the queen and the Princess Henrietta
Maria were to take part. On the plea of being strangers in Paris, the
two young Englishmen managed to obtain admittance to this royal
merrymaking, which they highly enjoyed.
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