In a second, the hussars, who wished nothing better than to be off, were mounted.
“Gentlemen of the hussars, march. Form by fours, and proceed at a foot pace.”
And he and his forty men left Pont-de-Somme-Vesles at five punctually by his watch.
The detachment was to have fallen upon Varennes. He took the by-road in order to avoid St. Menehould, but lost his way above Mofficourt.
The little troop hesitated for a moment, when a horseman coming from Neuville saw the perplexity of M. de Choiseul, and finding that he was a Royalist and a gentleman, asked if he could be of any assistance to him.
“Indeed you can,” replied M. de Choiseul. “You can conduct us to Varennes by the Chalade.”
“Follow me, then,” cried the gentleman.
And he placed himself at the head of the hussars.
This gentleman was no other than M. de Malmy, and that is how it was that I met him on the Place Latry, between two officers whom I knew not—namely, M. de Choiseul and M. Goguelot.
