"Faith! yes, I should. It would spare me a disagreeable errand, which I only accepted against my will."
"Ah! then you have come from those gentlemen?"
Maître Jacques pronounced the words we have underscored in a tone that varied from contempt to menace.
"Yes, I do, in the first instance," replied Aubin Courte-Joie; "but I met Jean Oullier on my way, and he, too, gave me a message for you."
"Jean Oullier! Ah! anything that comes from him is welcome. He is a gars I love,--Jean Oullier! He has done a thing in his life which made me his friend forever."
"What was that?"
"That's his secret, not mine. But come; tell me, in the first place, what those lordly gentlemen want of me?"
"It is your division leader who has sent me."
"The Marquis de Souday?"
"Yes."