“Haven’t you horses to get you to the next stage?”
“They are in the stable.”
“Haven’t you each your passports.”
“We have each four.”
“Well, then?”
“Well, we can’t stop the diligence in a post-chaise. We don’t put ourselves to too much inconvenience, but we don’t take our ease in that way.”
“Well, and why not?” asked Montbar; “it would be original. I can’t see why, if sailors board from one vessel to another, we couldn’t board a diligence from a post-chaise. We want novelty; shall we try it, Adler?”
“I ask nothing better,” replied the latter, “but what will we do with the postilion?”
“That’s true,” replied Montbar.
“The difficulty is foreseen, my children,” said the courier; “a messenger has been sent to Troyes. You will leave your post-chaise at Delbauce; there you will find four horses all saddled and stuffed with oats. You will then calculate your time, and the day after to-morrow, or rather to-morrow, for it is past midnight, between seven and eight in the morning, the money of Messires Bruin will pass an anxious quarter of an hour.”