“How the truth? Do I not, then, already know the truth?”
“You know a portion. It is now my duty to tell you the rest. You are devoted to your customers, are you not, my dear Léonard?”
“In life and death, M. le Comte.”
“Well, in two hours they will be here—in two hours they will be saved.”
The hot tears coursed down poor Léonard’s cheeks, but this time they were tears of joy.
“In two hours?” cried he, at last. “Are you sure of it?”
“Yes; they were to have left the Tuileries at eleven or half-past, in the evening; they were to arrive at Châlons at mid-day; and an hour, or, at most, an hour and a half, is sufficient to cover the four leagues from Châlons to this place. They will be here in an hour at the latest. I am awaiting a detachment of hussars, which should arrive here under the command of M. Goguelot.”
Hearing a rumbling sound, M. de Choiseul put his head out of the window.
“Ah, there they are, coming from the direction of Cilloy!”
And, in fact, the hussars were, at the moment, on the point of entering the village.