Here and there a ray of early sunshine, darting between the overhanging eaves, gave promise of glorious travelling-weather.

But the faces, I remarked in my walk, did not reflect the surrounding cheerfulness.

Moody looks met me everywhere and on every side; and while courier after courier galloped by me bound for the castle, the townsfolk stood aloof is doorways listless and inactive, or, gathering in groups in corners, talked what I took to be treason under the breath.

The queen-mother still lived, but Orleans had revolted, and Sens and Mans, Chartres and Melun.

Rouen was said to be wavering, Lyons in arms, while Paris had deposed her king, and cursed him daily from a hundred altars.