t on getting out of the way of
the board carried by the supposed workman that he did not look in
the prince's face, and the prince and Thelin passed safely into
the yard."

As he was passing the first sentinel, the prince let his pipe fall
from his mouth. He stooped, picked it up, and re-lighted it
deliberately.

"Close to the door of the canteen he came upon an officer reading
a letter. A little farther on, a few privates were sitting on a
bench in the sun. The concierge at the gate was in his lodge, but
his attention was given to Thelin, who was following the prince,
accompanied by his dog Ham. The sergeant, whose duty it was to
open and shut the gate, turned quickly and looked at the supposed
workman; but a movement the prince made at that moment with his
board caused him to step aside. He opened the gate: the prince
was free.

"Between the two drawbridges the prince met two workmen coming
towards him on the side his face was exposed. He shifted his board
like a man weary of carrying a load upon one shoulder. The men
appeared to eye him with suspicion, as if surprised at not knowing
him. Suddenly one said: 'Oh! it is Berthon;' and they passed on
into the fortress."

The prince hastened with Thelin to the place where the cabriolet
engaged the day before was waiting for them. As Louis Napoleon
was about to fling away the board he had been carrying, another
cabriolet drove by. As soon as it was out of sight, the prince
jumped into his own, shook the dust off his clothes, kicked off
his wooden shoes, and seized the reins. The fifteen miles to St.
Quentin were soon accomplished. The prince got out at some distance
from the town, and Thelin entered it alone, to exchange the cabriolet
for a postchaise. The mistress of the post-house offered him a
large piece of pie, which he thankfully accepted, knowing that it
would be a godsend to his master. A woman, whom they had passed
upon the highway on entering the town, took Thelin aside and asked
him how he came to be driving with such a shabby, common man that
morning; for Thelin was well known in the neighborhood.

Before he rejoined the prince with the pie and the postchaise, Louis
Napoleon had become very impatient. Seeing a carriage approach,
he stopped it, and asked the occupant if he had seen anything of a
postchaise coming from St. Quentin. The traveller proved afterwards
to have been the prosecuting attorney of the district (_le procureur
du roi_).

It was nine