two hours after
noon
For myself , I proposed to ride abreast of mademoiselle , but she made it so clear that my neighbourhood displeased her that I fell back , leaving her to ride with Fanchette ; and contented myself with plodding at their heels , and striving to attach the later evangelists to my interests . We were so fortunate , despite my fears , as to find the road nearly deserted -- as , alas , was much of the country on either side -- and to meet none but small parties travelling along it ; who were glad enough , seeing the villainous looks of our outriders , to give us a wide berth , and be quit of us for the fright . We skirted Lusignan , shunning the streets , but passing near enough for me to point out to mademoiselle the site of the famous tower built , according to tradition , by the fairy Melusina , and rased thirteen years back by the Leaguers . She received my information so frigidly , however , that I offered no more , but fell back shrugging my shoulders , and rode in silence , until , some two hours after noon , the city of Poitiers came into sight , lying within its circle of walls and towers on a low hill in the middle of a country clothed in summer with rich vineyards , but now brown and bare and cheerless to the eye . Fanchette turned and asked me abruptly if that were Poitiers . I answered that it was , but added that for certain reasons I proposed not to halt , but to lie at a village a league beyond the city , where there was a tolerable inn . ` We shall do very well here , ' the woman answered rudely .