return to Chacource, there; from Chacource you have a
department road, straight as an arrow, which will take you to Troyes; at
Troyes you take carriage again, and follow the road to Sens instead of
that to Coulommiers. The donkeys--there are plenty in the provinces--who
saw you in the morning won't wonder at seeing you again in the evening;
you'll get to the opera at ten instead of eight--a more fashionable
hour--neither seen nor recognized, I'll warrant you."

"Adopted, so far as I am concerned," said Morgan.

"Adopted!" cried the other three in chorus.

Morgan pulled out one of the two watches whose chains were dangling from
his belt; it was a masterpiece of Petitot's enamel, and on the outer
case which protected the painting was a diamond monogram. The pedigree
of this beautiful trinket was as well established as that of an Arab
horse; it had been made for Marie-Antoinette, who had given it to the
Duchesse de Polastron, who had given it to Morgan's mother.

"One o'clock," said Morgan; "come, gentlemen, we must relay at Lagny at
three."

From that moment the expedition had begun, and Morgan became its leader;
he no longer consulted, he commanded.

D'Assas, who in Morgan's absence commanded, was the first to obey on his
return.

Half an hour later a closed carriage containing four young men wrapped
in their cloaks was stopped at the Fontainebleau barrier by the
post-guard, who demanded their passports.

"Oh, what a joke!" exclaimed one of them, putting his head out of the
window and affecting the pronunciation of the day. "Passpawts to dwive
to Gwobois to call on citizen _Ba-as_? 'Word of fluted honor!' you're
cwazy, fwend! Go on, dwiver!"

The coachman whipped up his horses and the carriage passed without
further opposition.

CHAPTER XXVIII. FAMILY MATTERS

Let us leave our four _hunters_ on their way to Lagny--where, thanks to
the passports they owed to the obligingness of certain clerks in citizen
Fouche's employ, they exchanged their own horses for post-horses and
their coachman for a postilion--and see why the First Consul had sent
for Roland.

After leaving Morgan, Roland had hastened to obey the general's orders.
He found the latter standing in deep thought before the fireplace. At
the sound of his entrance General Bonaparte raised his head.

"What were you two saying to each other?" asked Bonaparte, without
preamble, trusting to Roland's habit of answering his thought.

"Why," said Rolan