"Because there are people in the cottage, and it won't do to take Monsieur Michel there."
"People? Ah, ça! those damned Blues get a footing everywhere."
"There are no soldiers there; it is only Jean Oullier, who has spent the day going round the country, and has brought a few of the Montaigu men with him."
"What are they doing?"
"Only talking. Go in, and drink a cup of cider with them, and warm yourself a bit."
"Well, but our young gentleman, my dear, what shall we do with him?"
"Leave him with me. That was agreed upon, you know, Maître Courte-Joie."
"We were to give him to you in your house, where there's a cellar or a garret to put him in; and that's easy enough to do, for he is not hard to manage, poor fellow,--but here in the open fields there's a risk of losing him; he'll slip away from you like an eel."
"Pooh!" said Rosine, with a smile which since the deaths of her father and brother seldom came upon her lips, "do you think he would make more objection to following a pretty girl than two old fellows like you?"
"But suppose the prisoner carries off his keeper?" said Courte-Joie, still dissatisfied.