After the ceremony Claude quickly bound up Mary's hair, and the queens
departed from the chapel in their coach. We soon followed, meeting
them again at St. Denis gate, where we found the best of horses and
four sturdy men awaiting us. The messenger to Dieppe who had preceded
us would arrange for relays, and as Mary, according to her wont when
she had another to rely upon, had taken the opportunity to become
thoroughly frightened, no time was lost. We made these forty leagues
in less than twenty-four hours from the time of starting; having
paused only for a short rest at a little town near Rouen, which city
we carefully passed around.
We had little fear of being overtaken at the rate we were riding, but
Mary said she supposed the wind would die down for a month immediately
upon our arrival at Dieppe. Fortunately no one pursued us, thanks to
Queen Claude, who had spread the report that Mary was ill, and
fortunately, also, much to Mary's surprise and delight, when we
arrived at Dieppe, as fair a wind as a sailor's heart could wish was
blowing right up the channel.
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