‘Can you tell me, sir,’ said I, ‘what this letter T is?’

He looked at it and then at me in the most singular fashion.  ’Young man,’ said he, ‘it is not the letter N.’  Then before I could ask further he clapped his spurs into his horses ribs and rode, stomach to earth, upon his way.

At first his words had no particular significance in my mind, but as I trotted onwards Violette chanced to half turn her dainty head, and my eyes were caught by the gleam of the brazen N’s at the end of the bridle-chain.  It was the Emperor’s mark.  And those T’s meant something which was opposite to it.  Things had been happening in Germany, then, during our absence, and the giant sleeper had begun to stir.  I thought of the mutinous faces that I had seen, and I felt that if I could only have looked into the hearts of these people I might have had some strange news to bring into France with me.  It made me the more eager to get my remounts, and to see ten strong squadrons behind my kettle-drums once more.

While these thoughts were passing through my head I had been alternately walking and trotting, as a man should who has a long journey before, and a willing horse beneath, him.  The woods were very open at this point, and beside the road there lay a great heap of fagots.  As I passed there came a sharp sound from among them, and, glancing round, I saw a face looking out at me—­a hot, red face, like that of a man who is beside himself with excitement and anxiety.  A second glance told me that it was the very person with whom I had talked an hour before in the village.

‘Come nearer!’ he hissed.  ’Nearer still!  Now dismount and pretend to be mending the stirrup leather.  Spies may be watching us, and it means death to me if I am seen helping you.’

‘Death!’ I whispered.  ‘From whom?’

’From the Tugendbund.  From Lutzow’s night-riders.  You Frenchmen are living on a powder magazine, and the match has been struck that will fire it.’

‘But this is all strange to me,’ said I, still fumbling at the leathers of my horse.  ‘What is this Tugendbund?’

’It is the secret society which has planned the great rising which is to drive you out of Germany, just as you have been driven out of Russia.’

‘And these T’s stand for it?’

’They are the signal.  I should have told you all this in the village, but I dared not be seen speaking with you.  I galloped through the woods to cut you off, and concealed both my horse and myself.’

‘I am very much indebted to you,’ said I, ’and the more so as you are the only German that I have met today from whom I have had common civility.’

’All that I possess I have gained through contracting for the French armies,’ said he.  ’Your Emperor has been a good friend to me.  But I beg that you will ride on now, for we have talked long enough.  Beware only of Lutzow’s night-riders!’

‘Banditti?’ I asked.