A lumbering peasant, with a blouse, sabots, and a striped nightcap, replied in some unknown patois; when the courier again said—
"Well, then, take the diligence horses; I must get on at all events; they are not so presse, I'll be bound; besides it will save the gens-d'armes some miles of a ride if they overtake them here."
"Have we another vise of our passports here, then?" said I, addressing the courier, "for we have already been examined at Nancy?"
"Not exactly a vise," said the courier, eyeing me most suspiciously as he spoke, and then continuing to eat with his former voracity.
"Then, what, may I ask, have we to do with the gens-d'armes?"
"It is a search," said the courier, gruffly, and with the air of one who desired no further questioning.
I immediately ordered a bottle of Burgundy, and filling the large goblet before him, said, with much respect,
"A votre bonne voyage, Monsier le Courier."
To this he at once replied, by taking off his cap and bowing politely as he drank off the wine.
"Have we any runaway felon or a stray galerien among us?" said I, laughingly, "that they are going to search us?"