"Here comes the gendarme; God protect you!"
Madame looked through the glass placed in the back of the carriage, and saw, indeed, that the gendarme was only" a few yards away, regulating his horse's pace to that of the princess's horses. What could they think, except that this man, having seen a carriage stopped and surrounded by several individuals—and that at eleven o'clock at night—had conceived suspicions and, not daring to attack so numerous a company alone, wished to give the alarm to the first brigade he should meet On the road? M. de B——l could not run on foot the whole stage; so he stopped and sat by the roadside, waiting for news when the coachman should return. When the duchesse reached the posting inn where she had to take fresh horses, she looked anxiously around her. The gendarme had disappeared. No doubt he had gone to warn the brigade. They hurried the livery-stable keeper as much as they could, and set off with only two horses, in order to allay suspicions; but they were scarcely out of the village before they found the gendarme again. He looked like a fairy knight sprung out of the ground. The general opinion was that there was no gendarmerie station in the village which they had just passed through, and that they would be arrested at the next village. A few yards from the posting inn, the gendarme took a side road, and they never saw him again. When they reached the other side of the village, where they expected to be arrested, and saw that the road was free, they breathed again.
"Well, what does Your Highness think about our gendarme?" asked M. de Villeneuve.
"Either he is a precious simpleton who does not know how to mind his own business," said the duchesse, "or he is a cunning blade who has recognised me; and who, if I succeed, has in his pocket already, in advance, his brevet as officer and some few hundred louis to equip himself with. In any case, he can brag of having put me in a great fright!"
M. de B——l learnt these details upon the return of the coachman, and went back home somewhat reassured. On 4 May, they continued on the way towards Toulouse, via Nîmes, Montpellier and Narbonne, travelling night and day, and only stopping early in the mornings for breakfast, to make her toilette and to give time for the stablemen to oil the carriage. They changed horses at Lunel.
"Where are we?" asked the princess.
"At Lunel, madame," replied M. de Villeneuve.
"Oh!" said she, "if that excellent D * * *, who sent me in Italy a cask of wine of his own growing, knew that I was stopping to change horses at this moment, how he would come running here! But we must not be imprudent."
They set off again without informing M. D * * *. On 5 May at 7.30 P.M., the Duchesse de Berry entered Toulouse in an open barouche, without any sort of disguise to prevent those who had seen her from recognising her. As usual, the carriage drew up before the posting inn; those who were out of work and the inquisitive soon came running up. Amongst these spectators was a young man of fashionable appearance, who gazed with an expression that was less that of idleness and more that of curiosity than other people's; Madame pretended to be asleep without, on her side, losing sight of him, and he fixed his gaze so persistently upon her.