“Oh! general, it is very simple.”
“Let me judge of that.”
“I put this paper in the muzzle of my gun.” Coeur-de-Roi showed a large envelope with an official red seal, which had once, no doubt, contained some Republican despatch intercepted by the Chouans. “I present myself to the sentries, saying: ‘Despatch from the general of division.’ I enter the first guardhouse and ask to be shown the house of the citizen-commissioner; they show me, I thank them; always best to be polite. I reach the house, meet a second sentry to whom I tell the same tale as to the first; I go up or down to citizen Millière accordingly as he lives in the cellar or the garret. I enter without difficulty, you understand—‘Despatch from the general of division’. I find him in his study or elsewhere, present my paper, and while he opens it, I kill him with this dagger, here in my sleeve.”
“Yes, but you and your men?”
“Ah, faith! In God’s care; we are defending his cause, it is for him to take care of us.”
“Well, you see, colonel,” said Cadoudal, “how easy it all is. Let us mount, colonel! Good luck, Coeur-de-Roi!”
“Which of these two horses am I to take?” asked Roland.
“Either; one is as good as the other; each has an excellent pair of English pistols in its holsters.”
“Loaded?”
“And well-loaded, colonel; that’s a job I never trust to any one.”