“What have you got in that valise, Malcolm?
One would think that you were going upon a campaign.”
“I have got four bottles of good wine, and bread
and meat enough to last us for two days. I do
not mean, if I can help it, to enter a shop or stop
at an inn till we arrive at Tours. We can make
a shift to sleep for tonight in a wood. It would
be safer a thousand times than an inn, for I will
bet fifty to one that if we ventured to enter one we
should find one or both of our horses lame on starting
again.”
“Oh come, Malcolm, that’s too much!
The Duke of Chateaurouge is not ubiquitous. He
has not an army to scatter over all France.”
“No, he has not,” Malcolm agreed; “but
from what I know of him I doubt not that he can lay
his hands on a number of men who will stick at nothing
to carry out his orders and earn his money. Paris
swarms with discharged soldiers and ruffians of all
kinds, and with plenty of gold to set the machine
in motion there is no limit to the number of men who
might be hired for any desperate deed.”
As they were talking they were making their way towards
one of the southern gates. They arrived there
before it opened, and had to wait a few minutes.
Several other passengers on horseback and foot were
gathered there.
“I could bet a crown piece,” Malcolm said,
“that some one among this crowd is on the watch
for us, and that before another half hour the Duke
of Chateaurouge will know that we have started.”
A number of peasants with market carts were waiting
outside the gates, and for the first few miles of
their ride the road was dotted with people making
their way to the city. As they rode, Malcolm discussed
the question of the best road to be taken. Ronald
himself was still in favour of pushing straight forward,
for he was not so convinced as his follower that a
serious attempt would be made to interrupt their journey.
He pointed out that the road, as far as Orleans at
least, was one of the most frequented in France, and
that in that city even the most reckless would hardly
venture to assault them.
“I agree with you, Ronald, that the road offers
less opportunities for ambushes than most others,
for the country is flat and well cultivated; but after
all a dozen men with muskets could lie in ambush in
a cornfield as well as a wood, and the fact that people
are going along the road counts for little one way
or the other, for not one in fifty would venture to
interfere if they saw a fray going on. But granting
that so far as Orleans the country is open and cultivated,
beyond that it is for the most part forest; but above
all — although they may regard it as possible
that we may be on our guard, and may travel by other
roads — it is upon this direct line that
they are sure to make the most preparations for us.
Beyond that it can only be chance work. We may
go by one road or by another. There may be one
trap set on each road; but once past that and we are
safe.”
