CHAPTER XVI.

"WHEN THE DEVIL DRIVES."

Monsieur de Vivonne had laid his ambuscade with discretion. With a closed carriage and a band of chosen ruffians he had left the palace a good half-hour before the king's messengers, and by the aid of his sister's gold he had managed that their journey should not be a very rapid one. On reaching the branch road he had ordered the coachman to drive some little distance along it, and had tethered all the horses to a fence under his charge. He had then stationed one of the band as a sentinel some distance up the main highway to flash a light when the two courtiers were approaching. A stout cord had been fastened eighteen inches from the ground to the trunk of a wayside sapling, and on receiving the signal the other end was tied to a gate-post upon the further side. The two cavaliers could not possibly see it, coming as it did at the very curve of the road, and as a consequence their horses fell heavily to the ground, and brought them down with them. In an instant the dozen ruffians who had lurked in the shadow of the trees sprang out upon them, sword in hand; but there was no movement from either of their victims. De Catinat lay breathing heavily, one leg under his horse's neck, and the blood trickling in a thin stream down his pale face, and falling, drop by drop, on to his silver shoulder-straps. Amos Green was unwounded, but his injured girth had given way in the fall, and he had been hurled from his horse on to the hard road with a violence which had driven every particle of breath from his body.

1. What was the driver ordered to do?
2. where?
3. Who was travelling?
4. and?
5. Where we they coming from?
6. Did they travel quickly?
7. Who approached the travellers?
8. Did they mean the travellers harm?
9. Did the two parties meet amicably?
10. How many swordarms were there?
11. Did the stricken horsemen fight back?
12. What were the horsemen's names?
13. and?
14. How were the horsemen brought down?
15. Had Green any air in his lungs?
1. drive some little distance
2. along the branch road
3. Monsieur de Vivonne
4. a band of chosen ruffians
5. the palace
6. no
7. two courtiers
8. unknown
9. no
10. a dozen
11. no
12. De Catinat
13. Amos Green
14. A stout cord had been fastened eighteen inches from the ground
15. no