hat he was doing; that
Real, the well-known head of the police in the western _arrondissement_,
trained under Fouche in suspicion, cunning and mercilessness, would make
unscrupulous use of any means of knowing the present state of Royalist
opinion in Anjou. He would be all the more severe, probably, because the
mildness of the Prefect of the Loir had more than once irritated him. So
Angelot thought he saw that Simon might easily drag his chosen victim
into a dangerous place, from which it would be hard to escape with
honour.

They reached the north-east edge of the moor just as the moon was
rising. At first the low light made all things strangely confused,
marching armies of shadows over the wild ground. Every bush might hide
a man, and the ranks of low oaks stood like giants guarding the hollow
black paths that wound between them. Les Chouettes, the only habitation
near, lay a mile away below the vineyards. The high-road to Paris might
be reached by one of the narrow roads that crossed the heath not far
away.

When they came to the edge of the open ground, near a grove of oaks
plunged in bracken, with a few crumbling walls beyond it where a farm
had once stood, Simon halted his party and whistled. He seemed to expect
a reply, but got none. After waiting a few minutes, whistling again,
exclaiming impatiently, he beckoned one of the other men and they walked
away together towards the road.

"Something wrong with the chaise?" said Angelot to the three who were
left. "What will you do if it is not there? You will have to carry me to
Paris, for I promise you I don't mean to walk."

"Monsieur will not be very heavy," one of the men answered,
good-humouredly; the same who had laughed before.

"Lift me then, and see!" said Angelot. "All right, my good fellow, I'll
ride on your shoulders. Voyons! you can carry me down the road."

They were standing in a patch of moonlight, just outside the shadow of
the oaks. The two other men stepped back for an instant, while their
comrade stooped, laughing, to lift Angelot. He was met by a
lightning-like blow worthy of an English training, and tumbled over
into the bracken. One of the two others fell flat in the opposite
direction, and the prisoner vanished into the shadows of the grove. The
third man dashed after him, but came into violent contact, in the
darkness, with the trunk of a tree, and fell down stunned at the foot of
it.

By this time the chaise had slowly climbed the hil