“No; there was a regiment there until three days ago, but they marched away, and no doubt formed a portion of Prince Thomas’s force.  They know well enough that although our garrison can hold the walls, we are not strong enough to undertake any enterprise.”

“Then, sir, we have only to ask for an escort for a mile or so beyond the other side of the bridge, in case a company should have been left to watch the road.  Beyond that we will dismount and proceed on foot.  We will, if you please, put on our disguises here, with the exception of our hats, and perhaps you will lend us a couple of long cloaks, so that our appearance may not be noticed.  Although we shall not start until after dark, it is as well to be upon the safe side.  Maybe the enemy have spies in the town, and were it noticed that two young peasants rode out under the escort of a troop of cavalry news might be sent to Turin.  In that case we might be arrested as soon as we entered the city.  I should be obliged if you would give orders to the officer in command that one of the troopers should bring the horses, cloaks, and hats back here with him.”

The governor rang a bell, and on an orderly entering said:  “Tell Captain Sion to have his troop in readiness to start in an hour’s time, in order to form an escort for one of Viscount Turenne’s officers, and tell him that when he has the troop ready to start he is to come to me for detailed orders.  I have said an hour, Monsieur Campbell,” he went on, after the orderly had left the room, “because, in the first place, it is not yet dark, and in the second, it will take some twenty minutes to prepare a meal.  You will have a long night’s work before you, and I dare say you have had nothing since you halted for breakfast.”

“Thank you, colonel, I had not thought of it; but I should certainly have remembered it before tomorrow morning.  We halted for breakfast at eleven, and if it had not been for your kind offer we should have had no chance of getting anything till we entered Turin, and even there the less we go into any cabarets the better.”

“That is true.  I have sent a message to the cook that twenty minutes is the utmost we can give for the preparation of a meal.”

CHAPTER IV:  SUCCESS

Although the governor apologized to Hector for the poorness of the repast and the haste with which it had been prepared, it was really excellent, consisting of soup, some fish fresh from the river, a cutlet, and an omelette, with a bottle of good wine of Asti.  Paolo’s wants had been attended to in the kitchen.  It was six o’clock when they started.  The officer in command had already received his instructions, and the governor accompanied Hector to the door, where two horses were standing saddled.

“They are not your own,” he said, “but are two of mine.  I thought that yours had made a sufficiently long journey today.”