me,
I mounted the led horse, without which I never travelled, and bidding La
Trape accompany me, I gave orders to the others to follow at their
leisure to Pithiviers, where I proposed to stay the night.

La Ferte Alais, on the borders of the forest, is some five leagues
westward of Fontainebleau and as far north of Malesherbes, with which
it is connected by a high-road. Having disclosed my intentions to La
Trape, I left this road and struck into a woodland path which promised
to conduct us in the right direction. But the luxuriance of the
undergrowth, and the huge chaos of grey rocks which cumber that part of
the forest, made it difficult to keep for any time in a straight line.
After being an hour in the saddle we concluded that we had lost our way,
and were confirmed in this, on reaching a clearing. In place of the
chateau we saw before us a small house, which La Trape presently
recognized as an inn, situate about a league and a half on the
Fontainebleau side of Malesherbes.

We had still ample time to reach the Chateau by nightfall, but before
proceeding farther it was necessary that our horses should have rest.
Dismounting I bade La Trape see the sorrel well baited. The inn was a
poor place; but having no choice, I entered it and found myself in a
large room better furnished with company than accommodation. Three men,
who appeared to be of those reckless blades who are commonly to be found
in the inns on the outskirts of Paris, and who come not unfrequently to
their ends at Montfaucon, were tippling and playing cards at a table
near the door. They looked up on my entrance, but refrained from
saluting me, which, as I was plainly dressed, and much travel-stained,
was excusable. By the fire, partaking of a coarse meal, sat a fourth
man of so singular an appearance that I must needs describe him. He was
of great height and extreme leanness, resembling a maypole rather than a
man. His face matched his form, for it was long and meagre, and
terminated in a small peaked beard, which like his hair and moustachios
was as white as snow. With all this his eyes glowed with something of
the fire of youth, and his brown complexion and sinewy hands seemed to
indicate robust health. He wore garments which had once been
fashionable, but now bore marks of much patching, and I remarked that
the point of his sword, which, as he sat, trailed on the stones behind
him, had worn its way through the scabbard. Notwithstanding these signs
o