Curtis held out his hand, to be grasped by Jack's left. "You have travelled all the way from Spain?"
"With a convoy of prisoners—yes. Been a good while about it too. First part of the way in a wagon, after that on horseback. Tell me how they are here. I have heard nothing lately."
"I'll come and show you the way. The Colonel keeps all right. Looks older than he used, that's all. Mrs. Baron is well. One fancied at the time that Roy's being sent to Bitche would kill her outright; but it didn't. Having to devote herself to Ivor was a mercy in disguise, I don't doubt. Kept her from dwelling on her own trouble. It was a vast relief to them all when the kind fellow who got Roy away came and told them he'd seen the boy safe on board a vessel for England. He was well rewarded by the Colonel, as you may suppose; not that he did it for reward. But, of course, we don't breathe a word about that in Verdun, for the fellow's own sake. Only, as I know them well, and as I know you belong to them—"
Jack made a gesture of assent. "Ivor was ill, was he not?"
"I dare say he would have been so anyhow, after that march from Valenciennes; but the arrest of Roy was a finishing stroke. You won't find him looking good for much now. I suppose hardly anything could have knocked him down like the death of Sir John Moore. It is a fearful loss to the country. No man living could have been worse spared."
Curtis paused, cast a glance at Jack, and changed the subject.
Presently they reached the house where still the Barons lived, as since their first arrival in Verdun.
"By the bye, I'm not sure whether you'll find them in," he said. "The Colonel said at appel that he was going to take Ivor, with his wife, for a drive in the country, hoping it might do him good. It was worth trying. But I think they must have returned before now."
"You're allowed to go where you will?"
"Why, no. Douceurs are efficacious, however. Will you let me show you the way upstairs?" Jack hesitated. "No—I understand. Of course you'd rather see them alone first; and I did not mean to go in. But you can't mistake the room. First landing, first door to the right."