nd the conversation,
interrupted for an instant, was resumed. It must be confessed that
it concerned a matter most interesting to the travellers--that of the
stoppage of a diligence bearing a sum of sixty thousand francs belonging
to the government. The affair had occurred the day before on the road
from Marseilles to Avignon between Lambesc and Pont-Royal.

At the first words referring to this event, the two young men listened
with unmistakable interest. It had taken place on the same road which
they had just followed, and the narrator, the wine merchant of Bordeaux,
had been one of the principal actors in the scene on the highroad. Those
who seemed the most curious to hear the details were the travellers in
the diligence which had just arrived and was soon to depart. The other
guests, who belonged to the locality, seemed sufficiently conversant
with such catastrophes to furnish the details themselves instead of
listening to them.

"So, citizen," said a stout gentleman against whom a tall woman, very
thin and haggard, was crowding in her terror. "You say that the robbery
took place on the very road by which we have just come?"

"Yes, citizen, between Lambesc and Pont-Royal. Did you notice the spot
where the road ascends between two high banks? There are a great many
rocks there."

"Yes, yes, my friend," said the wife, pressing her husband's arm, "I
noticed it; I even said, as you must remember, 'Here is a bad place; I
would rather pass here by day than at night.'"

"Oh! madame," said a young man whose voice affected to slur his r's
after the fashion of the day, and who probably assumed to lead the
conversation at the table d'hote, on ordinary occasions, "you know the
Companions of Jehu know no day or night."

"What! citizen," asked the lady still more alarmed, "were you attacked
in broad daylight?"

"In broad daylight, citizeness, at ten o'clock in the morning."

"And how many were there?" asked the stout gentleman.

"Four, citizen."

"Ambushed beside the road?"

"No; they were on horseback, armed to the teeth and masked."

"That's their custom," said the young frequenter of the table d'hote,
"and they said, did they not: 'Do not defend yourself, we will not harm
you. We only want the government money.'"

"Word for word, citizen."

"Then," continued this well-informed young man, "two dismounted from
their horses, flinging their bridles to their comrades, and commanded
the conductor to deliver up the m