"Are you deaf? I ask you for spies, horses and a carriage!"
"Where do you suppose I can find them?" replied the citizen, perspiring more and more.
"That is no concern of mine.... Find them—I must have them. That is all I have to say to you."
"But, all the same, monsieur, who may you be?"
"I am M. Charras, first aide-de-camp to General Pajol, who is commander-in-chief of the Expeditionary Army of the West."
Charras had invented this phrase on the spur of the moment, and, thinking it sufficiently high-sounding, had adopted it to impress the country town's folk.
"All I can do," he said, "is to give you the names of carriage proprietors."
"Give them me.... We shall discover the other things, for you do not seem to me to be very much up to matters yourself."
The man gave the addresses of two or three cab proprietors. They left the mansion-house, which was on the left as you enter the town, about three hundred yards before you come to the château, and they returned in the direction of Paris. A magnificent signboard was grilling in the noonday sun: it represented a coach drawn by four horses, with two saddle-horses held by grooms. This set Charras's mouth watering.
"Hullo there! Where is the proprietor?" he shouted.