ome down either from the north or
south into the town?"

The landlord gave some elaborate directions.

"Good!" Rupert said. "I think we shall get through yet."

Then he broke up two of the portions of bread, and gave them to the
horses, removed the bits from their mouths, and poured a bottle of
wine down each of their throats; then bridled up and mounted,
throwing two louis to the host, and saying:

"We can trust you to be secret as to our having been here, can we
not?"

The landlord swore a great oath that he would say nothing of their
having passed, and they then rode on.

"That landlord had 'rogue' written on his face," Adele said.

"Yes, indeed," Rupert said. "I warrant me by this time he has sent
off to the nearest post. Now we will take the first road to the
north, and make for Nantes. It is getting dark now, and we must not
make more than another ten miles. These poor brutes have gone
thirty already."

Two hours' further riding at an easy pace brought them to a
village, where they were hospitably received at the house of the
maire of the place.

The start was again made early.

"We must do our best today," the marquis said. "We have a
fifty-five mile ride before us; and if the horses take us there,
their work is done, so we can press them to the utmost. The troops
will have been marching all night along the road on which the
innkeeper set them; but by this morning they will begin to suspect
that they have been put on a false scent, and as likely as not will
send to Nantes. We must be first there, if possible."

The horses, however, tired by their long journeys on the two
preceding days, flagged greatly during the last half of the
journey, and it was late in the afternoon before they came in sight
of Nantes. At a slight rise half a mile from the town Rupert looked
back along the straight, level road on which they had ridden the
last few miles of the journey.

"There is a body of men in the distance, marquis. A troop of
cavalry, I should say. They are a long way behind--three miles or
so; and if they are in chase of us, their horses must be fagged;
but in five-and-twenty minutes they will be here."

They urged their weary steeds into a gallop as far as the town, and
then rode quietly along the streets into an inn yard. Here they
dismounted in a leisurely way.

"Take the horses round to the stable, rub them down and give them
food," the marquis said to the ostler who came out.

Then turning to