an hour before noon
Being there , and desirous of learning for myself whether the arrest of Auvergne had pacified his country to the extent described by the King 's agents , I determined to take advantage of a vacation of the assembly and venture as far in that direction as Gueret ; though Henry , fearing lest the malcontents should make an attempt on my person in revenge for the death of Biron , had strictly charged me not to approach within twenty leagues of the Limousin . I had with me for escort at Chatelherault a hundred horse ; but , these seeming to be either too many or too few for the purpose , I took with me only ten picked men with Colet their captain , five servants heavily armed , and of my gentlemen Boisrueil and La Font . Parabere , to whom I opened my mind , consented to be my companion . I gave out that I was going to spend three days at Preuilly , to examine an estate there which I thought of buying , that I might have a residence in my government ; and , having amused the curious with this statement , I got away at daybreak , and by an hour before noon was at Touron , where I stayed for dinner . That night we lay at a village , and the next day dined at St. Marcel . The second afternoon we reached Crozant . Here I began to observe those signs of neglect and disorder which , at the close of the war , had been common in all parts of France , but in the more favoured districts had been erased by a decade of peace .