-out for signs to show why the corporal had been unhorsed. He blamed
himself for having sent but one man on so important an errand, and he
drew from this mistake an axiom for the police Code, which he afterwards
applied.

"If they have got rid of the corporal," he said to himself, "they have
done as much by Violette. Those five horses have evidently brought
the four conspirators and Michu from the neighborhood of Paris to the
forest. Has Michu a horse?" he inquired of the gendarme who was driving
him and who belonged to the squad from Arcis.

"Yes, and a famous little horse it is," answered the man, "a hunter
from the stables of the ci-devant Marquis de Simeuse. There's no better
beast, though it is nearly fifteen years old. Michu can ride him fifty
miles and he won't turn a hair. He takes mighty good care of him and
wouldn't sell him at any price."

"What does the horse look like?"

"He's brown, turning rather to black; white stockings above the hoofs,
thin, all nerves like an Arab."

"Did you ever see an Arab?"

"In Egypt--last year. I've ridden the horses of the mamelukes. We have
to serve twelve years in the cavalry, and I was on the Rhine under
General Steingel, after that in Italy, and then I followed the First
Consul to Egypt. I'll be a corporal soon."

"When I get to Michu's house go to the stable; if you have served twelve
years in the cavalry you know when a horse is blown. Let me know the
condition of Michu's beast."

"See! that's where our corporal was thrown," said the man, pointing to a
spot where the road they were following entered the _rond-point_.

"Tell the captain to come and pick me up at Michu's, and I'll go with
him to Troyes."

So saying Corentin got down, and stood about for a few minutes examining
the ground. He looked at the two elms which faced each other,--one
against the park wall, the other on the bank of the _rond-point_; then
he saw (what no one had yet noticed) the button of a uniform lying in
the dust, and he picked it up. Entering the lodge he saw Violette and
Michu sitting at the table in the kitchen and talking eagerly. Violette
rose, bowed to Corentin, and offered him some wine.

"Thank you, no; I came to see the corporal," said the young man, who saw
with half a glance that Violette had been drunk all night.

"My wife is nursing him upstairs," said Michu.

"Well, corporal, how are you?" said Corentin who had run up the stairs
and found the gendarme with his head ba