His pursuers were hard on him, and, seeing him headed by Count Hannibal's party, yelled in triumph, holding him for dead.

And dead he would have been within thirty seconds had Tavannes played his part.

But his thoughts were elsewhere.

Either he took the poor wretch for Tignonville, or for the minister on whom his mind was running; anyway he suffered him to slip under the belly of his horse; then, to make matters worse, he wheeled to follow him in so untimely and clumsy a fashion that his horse blocked the way and stopped the pursuers in their tracks.

The quarry slipped into an alley and vanished.