“Then we’ll mount.”
The two young men were soon in their saddles, and on the road to Vannes; Cadoudal guiding Roland, and Branche-d’Or, the major-general of the army, as Georges called him, following about twenty paces in the rear.
When they reached the end of the village, Roland darted his eyes along the road, which stretches in a straight line from Muzillac to the Trinité. The road, fully exposed to view, seemed absolutely solitary.
They rode on for about a mile and a half, then Roland said: “But where the devil are your men?”
“To right and left, before and behind us.”
“Ha, what a joke!”
“It’s not a joke, colonel; do you think I should be so rash as to risk myself thus without scouts?”
“You told me, I think, that if I wished to see your men I had only to say so.”
“I did say so.”
“Well, I wish to see them.”