CHAPTER XIV.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 148, 3 April 1886, Page 3

CHAPTER XIV.

THE TWO FRIENDS ST\RT ON THEIR JOURNEY. Tiie youth of this period cannot remember the high and palmy days of tbo Hotel dcs Postes, as ono must be far beyond thirty years of age to recall the curious srjectacle exhibited botwoen seven and eight o'clock in rue Jean Jacques Rousseau, in the reign of Louis Philippe. In this narrow court yard, now barely sufficient for the postman, dashed out from time to time curious vehicles, drawn with dizzy speed by five horses. The passers by drew back quickly to the extreme limits of the court-yard, while the carriage turned to tho right or to the left with an exactitude that did the greatest honour to the postillions of that forgotten time, when whips cracked jealously, and the lanterns, flashing like motoors, disappeared suddenly in one of the turnings of the narrow street ; this noisy vortex giving a greater appearance of movement than the cold and regular speed of the locomotive ; and more than one man of forty regrets the mail-coach of his earlier days. i The carriages that were used at this time had attained, in 1547, their highest perfec tion, and realised at that period the ideal of speed and comfort. On the evening of the day that had begun so inauspiciously, and ended so fortunately by the unexpected reatoration of volume the seventh, Sartilly and his inseparable friend, Chateaubrun, wrapped up to their eyes in their furred cloaks, were walking along the pavement in front of the mail coach office, waiting their turn to take their places. The Vi«count was sad and preoccupied, as Jeanne's strange disclosuro returned incessantly to his mind ; although attributing it to fever, yet he could not but be struck by the persistency of her belief in thia vision, which he had never put faith in, and now, for the first time, he began to wonder if this phantom might not hide a threatening reality. His anxious look contrasted strangely with the irank physiognomy of the gay Captain, standing in the front row of the group with his lighted cigar, in spite of all administrative regulations, while with a keen eye he was examining the motley crowd around him. "Do you know whom I am looking for?" he said, in alow voice, to Sartilly, nudging his elbow. "No," was Sartilly's answer. "I am amusing myself in trying todis cover who among all these odd faces is to be our fellow traveller." "Indeed," said Edmond, :t I had forgotten that we were not to be alone in the coupe" ; but you will see better when he takes his place alongsido of us." "That's not the same thing at all ; one can observe a peison better when he is not suspecting it, and if I could find out the sailor amidst this throng, I would know him by heart in a moment." The Viscount made a gesture of indifference, while Chateaubrrn added, laughing, " Who knows? one learns a great deal while traveling." Chance had delayed, this day, the starting of the line to Brittany ; almost all the mail coaches had left, and the groups of persons were sensibly diminishing, as it waa now near seven o'clock, and night was coming on. " The deuce take them all !" paid the impatient Captain; "we are going to be the last," and the oath had scarcely passed his lips, when a coach drove into the little court-yard ; the deep voice of the conductor crying out : "Brest, gontlemen ; take your places." A tall man, with an athletic breadth of ehoulders, came out from the group, and drew near the mail coach. "No. 1, M. de Kerity," said the conductor. "Here," replied the traveller, jumping into the coupe with quite juvenile vivacity. "This naval officer is very active," said Chateaubrun, in a low voice ; " he goes up aa if he were climbing the shrouds of his Ship." "No. 2, M. de Sartilly. No 3, Captain Chateaubrun," said the deep voice of the conductor. The two friends did not wait to be called twice : the Captain, getting up the first, took the middle place, while Sartilly seated himself in the corner. The door was shut noiselessly, and the couductor jumping up on his seat, called out, " All ready," and five minute 3 afterward, the horses, staiting at full speed, passed along the bridge near the Place de la Concorde, galloping toward the barrier of Passy. It was quite dark now, and the travellers had not exchanged a word. The naval captain, sitting in his corner wrapped in a large cloak, did not seem inclined to speak, while Sartilly, in a thoughtful mood, was looking vagutly at tho Trocadero, before which the mail was passing at this moment, Ohateaubrun alone turned around alternately to each one of his companions, with an evident desire to begin a conversation, his cigar furnishing him with the wished-for opportunity. " I suppose, eir, that the odour is not disagreeable to you ?*' he said to the stranger. " I ought to have asked you sooner, but X am a military man, and imagine everybody smokes." " Tobacco does nob incommode me in the leaat ; lam a sailor," answered the stranger, laconically. Chateaubrun, finding in this short reply a word he could take hold of to begin a conversation, took advantage of it to say : " Oh then, sir, we have certainly mutual acquaintances, although the cavalry service is not nearly connected with the marine.

But my regiment, the 7th Hussars, was in cavrison at Pontivy three years ago, and my company was sent to Brest for six months. I know everybody there,— M. de Kersal, M. de Locudy, M. de Renhoile, M. de— '" 41 It is twenty years since 1 left Brest, and I know no one there," interrupted the stranger, to stop this list of names the Captain was giving. "But you are going back again now?" cried Chateaubrun, rather disconcerted at being so coolly cut, as the English say. " No, air ; I belong to the port at Toulon, and I am going there to fulfil a special mission " After this rather discouraging answer the sailor leaned back in his corner as if he wished to sleep. Chateaubrun, very much vexed, began whistling a hunting song, thinking what he could do to looaen the tongue of his silent neighbour before the end of the journey ; but not finding anything practicable, and being very much fatigued, and Sartilly fast asleep by his side, ho resolved to go to sleep also, and ten minutes after, the Captain was snoring with admirable regularity, while the mail-coach with its tinkling bells passed rapidly along by the great trees in the royal avonue that, leads to Versailles. At time, the'light from an open taver.n illuminated for an instant the interior of the coupe ; then all again was dark as night ; the lights having doubtless awakened the naval officer, for his eyoa shone in the darkness, and when a flash of light illumined the carriage he looked at his travelling companions with deep attention. "These horses are founderodj and we will be twenty minutes behind time at the next changing place." "But, conductor, I assure you they woro brought into the stable last night at seven o'clock." " That's nothing to me. Tell your master I shall state it in my report." " Ah, after all, it is his lookout. Why did he hire his hor?pd to milords, who give ten francs to the driver to go over the road in three quarters of an hour ?" Thid dialogue, accompanied by loud oaths and stamping of wooden shoes, awoko Chatoaubrun from his sleep, and, rubbing his eyes and looking round him, he saw his two companions were, sleeping or seeming to sleep. The light from the coupe fell upon a group standing at the door of an open stable, of men in blouses going to and fro along the road, while from time to time | the motion of one of the horses made the bells of their collars vibrate, while the conductor, cramped in his fur vest with his ridtnej-hood rait>ed about his ears, was scolding the benumbed postilions. This change of horses in the night, tho sleeping farmci't<, tho white road stretching along the dark forest, tho distant barking of the shepherd dogs, was a scene well know n to the traveler of former days. " Where are we, postilion ?" asked Chateaubrun, lowering tho glass, and putting his head out of the window. " At.Couterne," answered the drawling voice of a stable-boy. 11 This is no information at all," grumbled | Chateaubrun, "Ii you would get down, sir, and stretch your legs a little," said the conductor, politely, " this is the moment to do so. These brutes will make us lose at least four minutes hero." "Well, I'll be glad, to do bo," Chateaubrun said, passing quickly over hia friend's leg?, who did not move when the conductor opened the door ; and, jumping down to the ground, stamping his feet, and stretching his arms several times, and thinking it would be well to make a friend of the conductor, he said in a military manner to him : " I see that you have been in the army ; indeed, it is very evident."' This remark touched the vanity of the conductor very agreeably, for drawing himself up, he answered with groat satisfaction : •' Yes, Captain, I have served seven years three in Africa." " I thought so ; but, my friend, it seems to me your horses have been over-driven ; they travel very slowly. Did the prefect or general inspector use them yesterday ?" " Oh, the authorities, they do not crowd upon us at that rate ; but it appears that yesterday there was an Englishman here who was going to Brest in a carriage as heavy as a waggon ; he had six horses, and lavished money on all sides, giving ten francs to the driver. You can see, now, why we have not better hordes. " " Ah," said the Oaptain, becoming more attentive, "this Englishman is going to Breat, and is in such haste to get there ?" "Yes ; and I would like to know what an Englishman is going to do at Brest ; but atter all, that's nothing to me ; but lam going to scold the postmaster here for hiring our mailcoach horses, when he knew we would want them, and now thei'e are no fresh ones." " And how far i 3 this Englishman in ad vance of us?" asked Chateaubrun, affecting an indifferent manner. " Oh, seven or eight hours, at least, and I hope he will soon be much farther off still, that we may not arrive exactly at the moment to take the horpea ho leaves " "The deuce take your wishes," said Chateaubrun to himself, and taen added aloud: "At what hour will we arrivo tomorrow evening at Pontorson ?" •'About seven o'clock. If you leave us there, we will go "to Brest empty, for the naval officer who is with us stops also at Pontorson." "Really, it is curious; "but I think we will leave the coach when the horse" are changed before arriving at the town ; but my friend will tell you about it to-morrow, for I have never been here before." " At the changing placo before coming to Pontorson ? But there is only a cabin there, in the midst of fields, and you would not find a lemon withoutgoing a milo." " Inded, my friend wilfarrange all these matters ; he is familiar with this part of tho country." "You are going, I suppose, to Mont Saint Michel?" "Exactly, to see the high tides," answered the Captain, without expecting the protext he had just put forward could be in accordance with the calendar " Ah, that's true ; this is the time of the equinox," said tho conductor; ''yes, tomorrow the tide will be at its full height ;" nevertheless, thinking at the same time, while helping his passenger back to the carriage : " What fools these Parisians are, to travel eighty miles to see high tide." Chateaubrun took his place lightly between his two companions. Then the po3tilion cracked his whip, urged his horses on to full speed, and with their shoes hammering over the macadamised road, it really seemed that they were trying to overtake the eccentric Englishman. Chateaubrun, from whom all desire of sleeping had fled, was lost in all kinds of conjectures that the postilion's words had raised in his mind ; no longer doubting that the Englishman who was sowing gold on the road on his way to Brest was no other than De Noreff, hastening to make a conquest of the fleece of gold, and the silent officer in the coupd, against whom the Captain felt a grudge, was perhaps also an accomplice of tho Russian, or a spy watching over them, charged to get rid of them if necessary. Then there came back to his mind vague remembrances of the conductor of Lyons's story of a brigand in disguise, of a passenger who murdered hi? fellow

travellers while his accomplice stabbed the postiiion. The excited Captain kept his eyes fixed on his neighbour to the right, whose immobility attested either a deep sleep, or a determined wish to isolate himself, as he had not changed his position since j the Captain's baffled attempt atconversation the evening before, while passing the barrier. "Persons do not sleep in this way who havo the habit of watching at night," thought tho Captain, who began to have a serious idea of awakening Savtilly, that tli9y might both be on the alerb ; but Sartilly had sunk so deeply back into his corner, and was so soundlyasleep, that Chateaubrun having pity on him, left him to his rest ; and to kill time lighted a cigar, without asking permission this time, remarking that the striking of tho match had not disturbed the stranger. " Docidodly, we must make him open his eyes," said the Captain to himself, more and more distrustful. The carriage at this moment was rolling down a rapid descent, that the horses were going over in a gallop ; but a slight slackening in their gait indicated a turn in the road, and the postilion seeming to be curbing their speed, while the lamps light ing vaguely the two sides of the road, dark masses of trees could be seen, intersected with large white trunks of trees, showing they were crossing a forest. While Chateaubrun, with his forehead preyed against the glass, was straining his eyes to pierce through the ob&cui*ity that seemed becoming more donso, a violent jolt sud dcniy shook tho carriago, and tho hoives, brought vigorously back to the right, made a prodigious jump, and at the same time a harsh voice roso above the crackling of the axlo-trees, crying out : " Halt, or you are dead men !" The scene that followed was so rapid that the travellers had scarcely time to noto ifc An obstaclo barred the road, but the postilion had been ablo to turn his horses qnickly enough to avoid knocking against it ; the mailcoach oscillated for an instant like a ship tossed by the waves, tho ri^ht wheel going down into the ditch at the side of the road, happily not very deep, and there was a stoppage of a few seconds, Was the car riage going to be upset ? Those who had obstructed the way by an enormous trunk of a tree hoped so, without doubt, as shadows were seen on tho sides of the road, and confused and threatening cries were heard behind tho carriage ; but bhia was all, as tho horses, urged on by blow?, and pushed by tho weight of the mail, iu<-hed down the descent at full speed, drawing the right wheel out of the ditch into the load, while the left brushed the end ot the barricade, and the postilion having had eithei the skill or good fortune to pa*s the narrow distance between the barricade and the hedge, the extricated coach roiled on victoriously. While this miraculous escape was accomplished, a curious scene was passing in the inteiior of the coupd. At the first cry of the brigand?, tho Captain entered into action with a promptitude that he thought he would not regret — but in which he was mistaken— and to awake Sartilly by an onergetic push, and jump at the throat of his other neighbour, was for the alert Captain but the affair of a second, as his head being filled with the idea that he was travelling with the accompliceofDeNoieff's, ho had thrown himself without a moment's reflection upon the stranger, who, not sleeping as soundly as he appeared to be, disengaged himself by a single effort, throwing the Captain roughly on his friend. Whe her the authors of this attempt had no fire arms, or whether they thought it useless and imprudent to use them, and had hoped to succeed in their attempt by up^et ting tho carriage, the adventure was not pushed further, after they saw that the postilion had succeeded in going beyond the barricade. The danger was over ; but the Captain's situation was extremely disagreeable, ap still stupefied by the quick and pacific winding up of this attack, and vexed also at being roughly pushed, poor Chateaubiun was at a loss to knew how to get out of his difficulty ; while Sartillv, awakened from a sound sleep so suddenly, understood nothing of these disorderly movements ; the pailor being the most calm and least astonished of the three travellers, as he had carefully shut the window, put up his coatcollar, and was preparing again to resume his sleep, or at least his apathy. But the Captain could contain himself no longer, ''Zounds • sir, you have great presence of mind," he said in a half 'angry, half imperative tone. '' And you," answered the sailor, "permit me to tell you, you have a very disagreeeble way of awaking ; persons are not to be strangled in that manner, and ib is for tunate for me that I havo a strong arm " "I don't know how it happened," murmured the Captain, resolved to make a full apology. '" 1 confess," he said frankly, "that at tho first moment I thought we were upset, and J had the misfortune to cling to you, sir, and beg you to pardon a wholly involuntary violence." This courteous tone seemed to make very little impression upon the sailor, who merely bowed without answering ; but Chatoaubrun would not be bafHed, and »aid : "It appears that I was mistaken, and took a night attack for an accident to tho coach." " But how is it possible," said Sartilly, " that at this epoch, and in a country the richest and mo9t populous in Prance, a mail coach could be stopped on the road '! Ifc is really incredible." " The fact is," replied the Captain, "that I had very little ide* of such a thing on our route- to lower Normandy ; for wo muse be, if I am not mistakon, near Alencon." " I am almost tempted to believe they havo some grudge against us," continued the Visoo /nt, struck, in his turn, by the idea that already possessed his friend, " for I cannot imagine a band of brigands, in 1847, attacking us only forty leaguos from Paris ; but perhaps they merely wished to delay us." Chateaubrun, wishing to stop Sartilly'? too confidential conversation, pushed his elbow ; but the sailor, who perfectly under stood what was said, remarked ; " I do not know, sir," he said, .with an equivocal smile, " if there are any persons sufficiently interested in tho failure of our journey to risk thoir lives by a night attack ; but as far as regards myself, I am sure that no one will take up arms to prevent my filling my mission of inspector of fisheries on the coast." "It ia absurd, indeed, my dear Sartilly," cried the Captain ; " and this gentleman is right in ridiculing the idea ; for how could two Parisians have enemies in the department of the Orne?" "Nevertheless, this attack must have had some cause," murmured the obstinate Viscount. "T can see but one, if not probable, at least possible," said the sailor after an instant's silence; "you know, gentlemen, that at this time there is greai trouble all th,rqugh owjng to th,o h,igh price of grain, and the sufferings of the poor being very great from this cause, perhaps the famished peasants took it into their heads to be brigands for one night." '• That's a very good idea," said Chateaubrun, "and all can be easily explained in this way. These poor devils merely wanted to overturn the carriage to rob us, and had no intention of murdering"

Sartilly shook his head and did not seem the least convinced, while the sailor, doubtless thinking he had talked enough, threw himself back in his corner, and did nob often his mouth again. The horses continued to gallop at fi 11 speed, the attack haying this good result that they reached their changing place in at least half the time promised by the conductor. The horizon was brightening in the east, and by the pale light of daybreak could be seen low houses in a long village on both sides of the road. Two or three of the inhabitants were smoking quietly their morning pipes, while the gold-braided, three cornered hat of a soldier was seen at Lhe stable door, from which came out one by one the hordes, ready harnessed for changing. Evidently the news of the attempt upon the mail coach had not reached this quiet village. Sartilly and Chateaubrun had lowered the glasses, and put their heads out to hear the chatting between the conductor and the soldier, who, with his yellow belts and straps, represented the Government. The voice of the postilion was first heard, but the remaik had no relation to the events of the night, though it made our two friends start. "Look," cried the fortunate postilion, who had so skilfully avoided the barricade the night before. "His lord«hip has not been so lucky as we. There is his carriage with a broken wheel." The Captain's mind was too fully occupied with Do NoreflPs movements not to seize the thought immediately, and he jumped lightly to the ground to see the accident that had happened to the famous travelling carriage that, according to him, carried their enemy. The conductor, having already begun an animated colloquy with the soldier, related to him probably the attack upon the mail-coach, as the latter was making gestures of surprise and indignation ; but the Captain, thinking ♦"here was very little new to be learned from this source, began a conversation with the postilion, by putting a five-franc piece into his hand, and, going directly to the point, said to him : ' • This brokon carriage is really the one you drove yesterday, is it not ?" " Oh, to be sure ; there can be no mistake about it, as there is very seldom one of the kind passes this way ; it is furnished inside like a bedroom." Chateaubrun, drawing near to it, recognised on© of those carriages built with studied labour for long journeys, containing all the comforts of the most refined life. "Ah, il is only a cosmopolitan Russian that could have so perfect a carriage built," he murmured, stooping down to examine the springs, and during this inspection Sartilly had had time to get down from the coach, and arrived at the moment when the Captain said : " bow, I'm sure of what I am about," for he had just read upon the iron band of the axletree the name of a well-known carriage-maker in Vienna, Austria. 11 See, my dear friend." he eaid to the Viscount ; "will yo<i believe now that I have judged rightly, that it is M. de JNorcff who is going with such speed ocfore us '?" "But, since the wheel of hip carriage is broken, he cannot continue bis voyage." "Ah," said the postilion, " a little thing of that kind would not stop the Englishman, and ho is far on his journey now." " But how did he travel after the accident ?" asked Chateaubrun " I will tell you how it was," replied the lad, who had seen the white piece fall into his comiade's hand, and, like a true Norman, hoped for a similar windfall. " Be quick ' ' said the Captain, showing between his fingers a bright silver piece. " It was I who wa? driving the Englishman when the hind wheel broke, about half an hour after we le>t here. Ah, but he's a sharp man ; he neither swore nor stormed, bus spoke to his servant in a pathos that the devil himself could not have understood, and then said to me in real French : "Is there a carriage for sale in the village V' " Yes, there's the old notary's carriage ; but he wants forty pistoles for it, and it is fully fifteen years since he bought it from the fair at Caen." "Thirty francs for you if you bring it here before an hour : my servant will go with you, pay you, and I will wait for you here." " You can think if I did not run fast, but the notary — " "Very well; I understand, he drove a hard bargain ; but how did it end ?" " It ended in my lord getting the carriage, and I my thirty francs." " And he went on with the post-horses ?" " Yes, and briskly, I warrant you ; he pays woll enough to travel at the rate of four leagues an hour, and I wager that he is already beyond St. Hilaire." Chateaubrun and Sartilly exchanged looks of consternation, the Viscount particularly not being able to hide his agitation, and the Captain, judging it useless to let the villagers see their anxiety, took his friend by the arm, and returned to the coach. "Why despair?" he whimpered in his ear; "our situation was much worse yesterday morning, when wo had not volume seventh." " Take your places, gentlemen," said the conductor ; "we are already thirty five minutes behind time " " Well," asked Chateaubrun, climbing into tho coupe, " and our robbers ?" " I have sent to inform the brigadier, and have given your names. The soldier said it was no doubt some halt-starved persons about three leagues from here, who are suffering from want of bread, and ho wanted me ta go with him to the mayor. ' Well,' I said to hin>, ' and my despatches '' ' Come, Cadet, come with us, and I will treat you to a drink when we get there.' 'I can't refuse,' — and the day has not begun badly with me," said the postilion, mounting upon the seat, not without saluting the passenger who gave the five-franc piece, "Toll me," sal] the Captain, from the carriage window, '"did my loid take his servant with him ?" "No danger of his leaving him on the road ; a little follow, quuo young, but sharp and cunning as a monkey," tho Norman answered, punctuating IIL3 sentence by a noisy blow of the whip, that set the horses off in a gallop. The sailor had not moved, and seomed to be one who could travel through France without leaving the cai riage or opening his mouth ; and Cha'teaubrun, despairing of ever drawing another word from him, began looking upon him as a package of goods needing no attention ; beside?, the prudent Captaiu had other things to occupy him, for he no longer doubted that De Noreff was in advance Qf them with Toby, and the important question was to know if the Russian would be able to keep in advance, and how he would profit by it. After much reflection, Chateaubrun decided to wa.it until he and his friend were alone, to gain some information of the country they were travelling through ; and thinking it better to rest both body and mind, having learned to sleep at all times in his campaigns in Africa, it was not long before he was snoring. Sartilly, since the conversation he had heard at the stopping place, thinking all hope lost, sank gradually into a state of di^-.

couragement. Motionless and sad, "he burned over the gloomiest ideas in his exhausted brain, but his physical depression soon threw him into a sleep as deep as his friend's. (To be Continued.)