think of
pursuing you, and thus you will baffle Charlot. Let your mother proceed
on her journey to Prussia, but tell her to avoid Charleroi, and to go
round by Liege. Thus only can she hope to escape Tardivet's men that are
patrolling the road from France. As for you, Suzanne, you had best go
North as far as Oudenarde, so as to circumvent the Captain's brigands
on that side. Then make straight for Roubaix, and await me at the 'Hotel
des Cloches.'"

"But, Monsieur, I shudder at the very thought of re-entering France."

"As Mademoiselle de Bellecour, a proscribed aristocrat, that is every
reason for your fears. But I have given the matter thought and I can
promise you that as the Citoyenne La Boulaye, wife of the Citizen-deputy
Caron La Boulaye, you will be as safe as I should be myself, if you are
questioned, and, in response, you will find nothing but eagerness to
serve you on every hand."

She spoke now of the difficulties her mother would make, but he
dismissed the matter by reminding her that her mother could not
detain her by force. Again she alluded to her dowry, but that also he
dismissed, bidding her leave it behind. Her family would need the money,
to be realised by the jewels. As for herself, he assured her that as his
wife she would not want, and showed her how idle was her dread of living
in France.

"And now, Mademoiselle," he said, more briskly, "let us see to this
ostler."

He opened the door of the outhouse, and uncovering his lantern he raised
it above his head. Its yellow light revealed to them a sleeper on the
straw in a corner. La Boulaye entered and stirred the man with his foot.

The fellow sat up blinking stupidly and dragging odd wisps of straw from
his grey hair.

"What's amiss?" he grunted.

As briefly as might be La Boulaye informed him that he was to receive a
matter of five hundred francs if he would journey into Prussia with the
ci-devant Marquise de Bellecour.

Five hundred francs? It was a vast sum, the tenth of which had never
been his at any one time of his wretched life. For five hundred francs
he would have journeyed into Hades, and La Boulaye found him willing
enough to go to Prussia, and had no need to resort to the more forcible
measures he had come prepared to employ.

Accompanied by the ostler, they now passed to the stables, and when
La Boulaye had unlocked the door and cut the bonds that pinioned the
Marquis's coachman, they got the horses, and together they harnes