‘What do you mean to do?’ said Marie; ‘there will be danger in passing them.’
‘It must be tried, however. If they arrive before us at Senlis the game is up. You have courage to make the attempt, madame?’
‘I will dare anything,’ replied the Marchioness; ‘so that my bodily energy will but keep up to my determination.’
‘Then we will try it,’ said Philippe. ‘Now, keep a tight hold, a sure seat, and a good heart; and leave the rest to me.’
He continued walking the horse along the street until he was close upon the post-house—a wretched cabaret enough—about which the troop had collected, having dismounted, and knocked up the master for refreshment and what tidings they could collect. Knowing that, in all probability, the horse they rode would be called upon to exert all his power, Philippe paused for a few minutes to allow the animal to draw his breath; and then creeping in the obscurity as near the poste as he could safely, he struck the sharp and heavy stirrups into the sides of the horse, in lieu of spurs, and dashed hurriedly by.
The alarm was instantaneous. One of the guard perceived them, and called the others from the interior of the auberge. Headed by Desgrais, they rushed out and prepared to mount. The arrangement of their trappings took a minute or two, and then they started after the fugitives.
Meantime the horse which bore the student and the Marchioness flew on like the wind, with almost quivering rapidity. Philippe knew, however, that this velocity could not be sustained for any very long time, more especially under the extra burden; and he therefore again taxed his invention to produce some fresh scheme by which to deceive the others. He was aware that, somewhat further on, the road divided into two routes, one running through Mortefontaine, and the other by La Chapelle, and this decided him what plan to adopt. Still keeping his horse at his full speed, which the party of Desgrais had not yet been able to come up with, he pressed onward, and in another quarter of an hour had arrived at the bifurcation of the route in question. Taking the right-hand road without allowing his horse to relax his speed, before long they entered the beginning of the street of Mortefontaine.
Philippe pulled up the horse for a few seconds, finding that Desgrais’s party were not yet upon them; and then briefly explained to Marie his intentions. It chanced that an old professor of medicine at the Hôtel Dieu—one Docteur Chapelet, who had in no small degree annoyed Philippe by his exercise of authority over the students generally during his pupilage, had come to settle as apothecary at Mortefontaine. Young Glazer knew the house, which was situated within a court and porte-cochère in the middle of the village, and towards this he now rode, choosing those parts of the uneven road where the snow was deepest, to leave the most vivid marks behind him. Coming close to the porte-cochère, he immediately backed the horse into a small watercourse running at the side of the road, and then followed its direction until he came to a part of the road where the wind had blown the snow, as it fell, into the hollows. By this means not a trace of his progress was visible, after the gateway; and crossing the road at this point, he once more put the horse into a gallop across the bare open country, until he regained the grande route which led direct to Senlis.
CHAPTER XXX.
THE STRATAGEM AT MORTEFONTAINE—SENLIS—THE ACCIDENT
The alarm which had been so hurriedly given by the sentinel as the Marchioness passed the post-house at Le Bourget, called the guard together immediately; and after the short delay alluded to, they replenished their lights, and pricked on at a smart pace along the high-road, leaving directions with the aubergiste to inform Maître Picard of their route should he come up. Arriving at the fork, they halted awhile until they saw the traces of the fugitives, which they at once followed; for the surface of the snow on the left-hand road was perfectly undisturbed; and these marks, keenly picked out by the quick eye of Desgrais, brought the whole party up to the porte-cochère of the Docteur Chapelet, but a very short time after Marie and Philippe had quitted it. Here the impressions of the horse’s shoes suddenly ceased, and here of course they decided that the fugitives had taken shelter.