ourtyard. The messengers themselves disappeared.

Georges reached the gate on the street just as a horseman, pulling up
his horse, looked about him and seemed to hesitate.

"He is here, sir," said Georges.

"Who is here?"

"He whom you seek."

"How do you know whom I am seeking?"

"I presume it is Georges Cadoudal, otherwise called Round-head."

"Exactly."

"Then I bid you welcome, Monsieur Roland de Montrevel, for I am the
person you seek."

"Ah, ah!" exclaimed the young man, amazed.

Then, dismounting, he looked about as if for some one to take his mount.

"Throw the bridle over your horse's neck, and don't be uneasy about him.
You will find him when you want him. Nothing is ever lost in Brittany;
you are in the land of honesty."

The young man made no remark, threw the bridle over his horse's neck as
he had been told, and followed Cadoudal, who walked before him.

"Only to show you the way, colonel," said the leader of the Chouans.

They both entered the cottage, where an invisible hand had just made up
the fire.

CHAPTER XXXII. WHITE AND BLUE

Roland entered, as we have said, behind Georges, and as he entered cast
a glance of careless curiosity around him. That glance sufficed to show
him that they were alone.

"Are these your quarters, general?" asked Roland with a smile, turning
the soles of his boots to the blaze.

"Yes, colonel."

"They are singularly guarded."

Georges smiled in turn.

"Do you say that because you found the road open from La Roche-Bernard
here?" he asked.

"I did not meet a soul."

"That does not prove that the road was not guarded."

"Unless by the owls, who seemed to fly from tree to tree, and
accompanied me all the way, general. In that case, I withdraw my
assertion."

"Exactly," replied Cadoudal. "Those owls were my sentinels, sentinels
with good eyes, inasmuch as they have this advantage over the eyes of
men, they can see in the dark."

"It is not the less true that I was fortunate in having inquired my way
at La Roche-Bernard; for I didn't meet even a cat who could have told me
where to find you."

"But if you had raised your voice at any spot on the road and asked:
'Where shall I find Georges Cadoudal?' a voice would have answered: 'At
the village of Muzillac, fourth house to the right.' You saw no one,
colonel; but at that very moment fifteen hundred men, or thereabout,
knew that Colonel Roland, the First Consul's aide-de-camp, was on his
way