“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.