The wagoner said: "I have just come from the justice of the peace, as I wanted to find out before coming to you what I had a right to claim; he told me that you ought to pay for everything, even my horses and carriages, do you understand? I unharnessed my horses, and escaped, myself, which is so much the less on your account. Will you settle? Yes or no?"
We were almost dead with fright when the sergeant came in. He had heard loud words, and asked: "What is it, Father Moses? What is it about? What does this man want?"
Sorlé, who never lost her presence of mind, told him the whole story, shortly and clearly; he comprehended it at once.
"Twelve pipes of three-six, that makes twenty-four pipes of cognac. What luck for the garrison! what luck!"
"Yes," said I, "but it cannot come in; the city gates are shut, and the wagons are surrounded by Cossacks."
"Cannot come in!" cried the sergeant, raising his shoulders. "Go along! Do you take the governor for a fool? Is he going to refuse twenty-four pipes of good brandy, when the garrison needs it? Is he going to leave this windfall to the Cossacks? Madame Sorlé, pay the portage at once; and you, Father Moses, put on your cap and follow me to the governor's, with the letter in your pocket. Come along! Don't lose a minute! If the Cossacks have time to put their noses in your casks, you will find a famous deficit, I warrant you!"
When I heard that I exclaimed: "Sergeant, you have saved my life!" And I hastened to get my cap.
"Shall I pay the portage?" asked Sorlé.
"Yes! pay!" I answered as I went down, for it was plain that the wagoner could compel us. I went down with an anxious heart.
All that I remember after this is that the sergeant walked before me in the snow, that he said a few words to the sapper on orderly duty at the governor's house, and that we went up the grand stairway with the marble balustrade.