Having given his orders and satisfied himself that they were fully understood, he gave a curt command, “En avant,” and once more the three of them rode at a sharp trot down the road towards the city.

IV

Citizen Rateau, if he thought about the matter at all, must indeed have been vastly surprised at the unwonted amiability or indifference of sergeant Ribot, who was in command at the gate of Gentilly.  Ribot only threw a very perfunctory glance at the greasy permit which Rateau presented to him, and when he put the usual query, “What’s in that parcel?” and Rateau gave the reply:  “Two heads of cabbage and a bunch of carrots,” Ribot merely poked one of his fingers into the bundle, felt that a cabbage leaf did effectually lie on the top, and thereupon gave the formal order:  “Pass on, citizen, in the name of the Republic!” without any hesitation.

Tournefort, who had watched the brief little incident from behind the window of a neighbouring cabaret, could not help but chuckle to himself.  Never had he seen game walk more readily into a trap.  Rateau, after he had passed the barrier, appeared undecided which way he would go.  He looked with obvious longing towards the cabaret, behind which the keenest agent on the staff of the Committee of Public Safety was even now ensconced.  But seemingly a halt within those hospitable doors did not form part of his programme, and a moment or two later he turned sharply on his heel and strode rapidly down the Rue de l’Oursine.

Tournefort allowed him a fair start, and then made ready to follow.

Just as he was stepping out of the cabaret he spied Chauvelin and Gourdon coming through the gates.  They, too, had apparently made a brief halt inside the guard-room, where—­as at most of the gates—­a store of various disguises was always kept ready for the use of the numerous sleuth-hounds employed by the Committee of Public Safety.  Here the two men had exchanged their official garments for suits of sombre cloth, which gave them the appearance of a couple of humble bourgeois going quietly about their business.  Tournefort had donned an old blouse, tattered stockings, and shoes down at heel.  With his hands buried in his breeches’ pockets, he, too, turned into the long narrow Rue de l’Oursine, which, after a sharp curve, abuts on the Rue Mouffetard.

Rateau was walking rapidly, taking big strides with his long legs.  Tournefort, now sauntering in the gutter in the middle of the road, now darting in and out of open doorways, kept his quarry well in sight.  Chauvelin and Gourdon lagged some little way behind.  It was still raining, but not heavily—­a thin drizzle, which penetrated almost to the marrow.  Not many passers-by haunted this forlorn quarter of old Paris.  To right and left tall houses almost obscured the last, quickly-fading light of the grey September day.

At the bottom of the Rue Mouffetard, Rateau came once more to a halt.  A network of narrow streets radiated from this centre.  He looked all round him and also behind.  It was difficult to know whether he had a sudden suspicion that he was being followed; certain it is that, after a very brief moment of hesitation, he plunged suddenly into the narrow Rue Contrescarpe and disappeared from view.