“Well, it is quite settled that we will try that way, but it may be some time before the opportunity occurs.  However, you may as well get the two disguises and the two brace of pistols, and stow them away somewhere where they are not likely to be found.”

“There are plenty of places where one can do that, master; there is a row of old trees inside the fortifications, and I warrant that if I cannot find one with a hollow large enough to stow them away in, I can hide them in the branches with small chance of their ever being seen.”

Another month passed.  Paolo made a point of occasionally going out soon after the gates were open, saying casually that his master had a fancy for a bottle of better wine with his breakfast, or that he was going to get some eggs to make an omelette for him.  Hector was in no particular hurry, for the news had come that Turenne with his own troops and those of Hesse had, with the Swedes, marched away for the Rhine.  It was rumoured that they would be joined by another army, for in no other way could the Imperialists account for Turenne having retired when he had a force at least equal to any that Merci could set in the field against him.  Hector saw that at any rate there was no chance of a great battle being fought just then, and felt, therefore, no impatience to be off.  Two or three times carts with faggots had been unloaded after the gates were closed, but as they took nothing out, it was impossible for him to conceal himself in them.

At last, to his satisfaction, a number of waggons of flour came in late one afternoon, and he determined to carry his plan into execution that night.  The storehouses were not in the great court, but in a smaller one off it.  Beyond two soldiers at the gate and a sentry at the commandant’s door, no guards were kept in the courtyards, though a few sentries were placed upon the walls.  Hector had his supper as usual, and Paolo brought in the news that eight of the waggons had not been unloaded in time to go out.  A fatigue party of soldiers were now completing the work, which would be finished about nine o’clock.  Taking off their boots a little after that hour they went quietly downstairs, then put them on again and boldly crossed the courtyard, for the night was so dark that there was no fear of their figures being perceived.

As they entered the inner yard they again took off their boots and walked up to the carts.  In two of these the carters were fast asleep.  They passed on quietly, feeling in each cart for the sacks, and were delighted to find that they were all placed in the one farthest up the yard, which would therefore be the last to go out.  They were tidily piled in lines side by side at the forward end of the waggon.  They cautiously removed the sacks of the middle lines; Hector lay down feet foremost, and Paolo laid the sacks regularly over him till they reached the level of the others.  Half a dozen were doubled and packed neatly in at the end, so as to conceal his head and prevent its being noticed that any had been taken out.  The rest were distributed evenly, so that the sacks were all as level as before, and no one would have suspected that they had been disturbed.