Afterwards I came out and seating myself on the bench with my back against the wall, waited for something to happen.  My dogs seemed to have comprehended the gravity of my mission, and crouched close to my feet, cocking their ears at the slightest sound.

Little by little the great harvest moon climbed high behind our old Roman church, perched on the embankment opposite, bathing everything in molten silver, and causing the tall pine-trees in the little cemetery adjacent to cast long black shadows on the road.  Down towards the Marne, the frogs were croaking merrily somewhere in the distance a night locust buzzed, and alarmed by the striking of midnight the owls who nested in the belfry, fluttered out into the night and settling on the church top, began their plaintive hooting.  Still no one passed.

Such calm reigned that it was almost impossible to believe that over there, beyond those distant hills, battle and slaughter were probably raging.

Presently a shiver warned me that I had been seated long enough; so, marking a hundred steps, I began to pace slowly up and down, watching the ever-changing firmament.  The first gray streaks of dawn were beginning to lighten the east when a growl from Tiger made me face about very abruptly.  I must admit that my heart began beating abnormally, and the hand in my pocket gripped my revolver as though it were a live animal and likely to escape.

A second later all the dogs repeated the growl, and then I could hear the clicking of a pair of sabots on the road.  The noise approached, and my guardians looked towards me, every muscle in their bodies straining, waiting for the single word, “Apporte!”

“Couchez!” I hissed, and awaited developments.

The footsteps drew nearer and nearer, and in a moment the stooping figure of an old peasant came over the brow of the hill.  The gait was too familiar to be mistaken.  But what on earth was father Poupard doing on the highroad at that hour?

When he was within speaking distance I came out from the shadow of the wall and put the question.  If he had suddenly been confronted with a spook I do not think the old man could have been more astonished.  He stopped dead still, as though not knowing whether to turn about and run, or to advance and take the consequences.  Realizing his embarrassment, I hastily proffered a few words of greeting, and then he chose the latter prerogative.

“-Vous?_” he said, when at length he found his tongue. “Vous?”

“Yes—­why not?”

“Who’s with you?”

“Nobody.  Why?”

He seemed more embarrassed than ever.  Evidently he hadn’t yet “caught on.”

“What can I do for you?” I continued.

He still hesitated, looking first at me and then at a bottle he carried in his hand.  Finally he resolved to make a clean breast of it.

“Why,” he said, “I didn’t expect to find a woman here, least of all une chatelaine.  It rather startled me!  You see, I’ve got into the habit of coming round towards dawn.  The boys begin to get chilly about that time, and are glad enough to have a go at my fruit brandy.  They say I’m too old to mount guard, so I must serve my country as best I can.  Will you have some—­my own brew?”