The officers gave an exclamation of surprise, while Captain Simon stepped forward and shook hands warmly with Hector.

“You did not tell me exactly what you were going to do,” he said.  “I thought that it was to see some of the duchess’s adherents in Turin, but I never dreamt that you were going to attempt to communicate with the citadel.  Had I known that, I certainly should not have expected to see you again, for from what we have heard it is next to impossible to get through the enemy’s lines.”

“We will not trouble Monsieur Campbell until he has finished his breakfast,” the commandant said.  “He has already told me briefly how he managed, but I shall be as glad as you will to have the details.”

Accordingly, after breakfast Hector related at much greater length the story that he had told the governor of the manner in which the mission had been carried out.

“Ma foi!” the colonel said, “I would rather have faced a battery than swum those moats in such weather.  Well, gentlemen, I think that you will agree with me that Monsieur de Turenne is fortunate in having so brave and enterprising an officer on his staff.”

The officers cordially assented.

“I wonder that you did not enter the citadel and stay there till the convoy arrived.”

“In the first place, colonel, I had received no orders to do so, and the general might require me for other service.  And in the second place, had I not returned he would not have known whether his message had reached the garrison, and so might have hurried on his preparations more hastily than he otherwise would have done, and might, in his fear that the garrison would surrender, have made the attempt before he had collected sufficient food to last them until he was in a position to raise the siege.”

“Your reasons are good ones; but certainly, with shelter and warmth close at hand —­ for the sentry would speedily have passed the word along, and as soon as it was ascertained that you were indeed a French officer, and alone, the gates would have been opened for you —­ it must have required no small effort to turn away and to face the danger of passing the sentries and scaling the walls, of possibly having to swim the Po, and of certainly having no chance of getting a change of clothes until you arrived here, for you could not have calculated upon finding the shed, much less those sacks, with the snow falling heavily.”

“That was a piece of good fortune, indeed.  If we had not found it, we should have gone on walking until we got here.  Still, we had had little sleep the night before, and were heartily glad that we had no farther to go.  And now, sir, with your permission we will start for Susa at once.”

“Your escort returned yesterday, but I will send a troop of cavalry with you.”