"What's the matter with him?" asked Peyrade.
"It's his head--he pitched down hard on the ground," replied the boy.
"For a gindarme who knows how to ride it was bad luck--I suppose the horse stumbled. He's got a hole--my! as big as your fist--in the back of his head. Seems as if he must have hit some big stone, poor man! He may be a gindarme, but he suffers all the same--you'd pity him."The captain of the gendarmerie now arrived and dismounted in the courtyard. Corentin threw up the window, not to lose time.
"What has been done?"
"We are back like the Dutchmen! We found nothing but five dead horses, their coats stiff with sweat, in the middle of the forest. I have kept them to find out where they came from and who owns them. The forest is surrounded; whoever is in it can't get out.""At what hour do you suppose those horsemen entered the forest?""About half-past twelve."
"Don't let a hare leave that forest without your seeing it," whispered Corentin. "I'll station Peyrade at the village to help you; I am going to see the corporal myself--Go to the mayor's house," he added, still whispering, to Peyrade. "I'll send some able man to relieve you. We shall have to make use of the country-people; examine all faces." He turned towards the family and said in a threatening tone, "Au revoir!"No one replied, and the two agents left the room.
"What would Fouche say if he knew we had made a domiciliary visit without getting any results?" remarked Peyrade as he helped Corentin into the osier vehicle.
"It isn't over yet," replied the other, "those four young men are in the forest. Look there!" and he pointed to Laurence who was watching them from a window. "I once revenged myself on a woman who was worth a dozen of that one and had stirred my bile a good deal less. If this girl comes in the way of my hatchet I'll pay her for the lash of that whip.""The other was a strumpet," said Peyrade; "this one has rank.""What difference is that to me? All's fish that swims in the sea,"replied Corentin, signing to the gendarme who drove him to whip up.
Ten minutes later the chateau de Cinq-Cygne was completely evacuated.
"How did they get rid of the corporal?" said Laurence to Francois Michu, whom she had ordered to sit down and eat some breakfast.
"My father told me it was a matter of life and death and I mustn't let anybody get into our house," replied the boy. "I knew when I heard the horses in the forest that I'd got to do with them hounds of gindarmes, and I meant to keep 'em from getting in. So I took some big ropes that were in my garret and fastened one of 'em to a tree at the corner of the road. Then I drew the rope high enough to hit the breast of a man on horseback, and tied it to the tree on the opposite side of the way in the direction where I heard the horses. That barred the road. It didn't miss fire, I can tell you! There was no moon, and the corporal just pitched!--but he wasn't killed; they're tough, them gindarmes! Idid what I could."
"You have saved us!" said Laurence, kissing him as she took him to the gate. When there, she looked about her and seeing no one she said cautiously, "Have they provisions?""I have just taken them twelve pounds of bread and four bottles of wine," said the boy. "They'll be snug for a week."Returning to the salon, the girl was beset with mute questions in the eyes of all, each of whom looked at her with as much admiration as eagerness.
"But have you really seen them?" cried Madame d'Hauteserre.
The countess put a finger on her lips and smiled; then she left the room and went to bed; her triumph sure, utter weariness had overtaken her.
The shortest road from Cinq-Cygne to Michu's lodge was that which led from the village past the farm at Bellache to the /rond-point/ where the Parisian spies had first seen Michu on the preceding evening. The gendarme who was driving Corentin took this way, which was the one the corporal of Arcis had taken. As they drove along, the agent was on the look-out for signs to show why the corporal had been unhorsed. He blamed himself for having sent but one man on so important an errand, and he drew from this mistake an axiom for the police Code, which he afterwards applied.
"If they have got rid of the corporal," he said to himself, "they have done as much by Violette. Those five horses have evidently brought the four conspirators and Michu from the neighborhood of Paris to the forest. Has Michu a horse?" he inquired of the gendarme who was driving him and who belonged to the squad from Arcis.
"Yes, and a famous little horse it is," answered the man, "a hunter from the stables of the ci-devant Marquis de Simeuse. There's no better beast, though it is nearly fifteen years old. Michu can ride him fifty miles and he won't turn a hair. He takes mighty good care of him and wouldn't sell him at any price.""What does the horse look like?"
"He's brown, turning rather to black; white stockings above the hoofs, thin, all nerves like an Arab.""Did you ever see an Arab?"
"In Egypt--last year. I've ridden the horses of the mamelukes. We have to serve twelve years in the cavalry, and I was on the Rhine under General Steingel, after that in Italy, and then I followed the First Consul to Egypt. I'll be a corporal soon.""When I get to Michu's house go to the stable; if you have served twelve years in the cavalry you know when a horse is blown. Let me know the condition of Michu's beast.""See! that's where our corporal was thrown," said the man, pointing to a spot where the road they were following entered the /rond-point/.
"Tell the captain to come and pick me up at Michu's, and I'll go with him to Troyes."So saying Corentin got down, and stood about for a few minutes examining the ground. He looked at the two elms which faced each other,--one against the park wall, the other on the bank of the /rond-point/; then he saw (what no one had yet noticed) the button of a uniform lying in the dust, and he picked it up. Entering the lodge he saw Violette and Michu sitting at the table in the kitchen and talking eagerly. Violette rose, bowed to Corentin, and offered him some wine.
