"Would you please take me to the highest point, chère amie?" he asked. The countess bowed her head, without a word. A touch of the spur, and he followed her at an easy, touch-controlled canter, his horse eager to get abreast the mare. At last she reined up, met his eyes with a smile.
They stood upon a knoll in the downs, wide-spaced horizon all round. Far to the south and east were the dark masses of the Forêt de Laigue. From beyond them came a heavy distant roll of artillery. The colonel listened, searching the panorama with narrowed eyes. At his request she pointed out localities and the direction of localities. He turned to look backward, saw the lips of the ravine widening out to the south-east until the slopes fell into another valley. His face hardened.
"Let us go back, chère amie," he said. "As quickly as possible."
At a swift, swinging gallop—the skirts of her amazon fluttering in the wind—they hastened back to the grand'garde. The officer came up. The colonel took out his note-book.
"Have you any spades or farm implements, madame?" he asked.
He nodded to her affirmation, writing the while in his note-book. He tore out the page, folded it, gave it to the officer. "To be delivered to the Commandant Legros at the Château. Without delay."
Then he turned his horse and, followed by his companion, rode slowly along the lip of the ravine. She searched his features, anxiously.
He stopped in a depression of the down, out of sight of the grand'garde. He turned to her, and her heart fluttered at the tenderness of his face.
"Pauline," he said gravely, laying his hand upon her arm, "you must not stay here. Listen! The regiment on our left extends to the head of the ravine. The orders I received this morning left me to choose on which side of the ravine I should place my trenches. We advance no further. We are only a screen, but the screen must be maintained, must not be risked. I am obliged to choose the other side of the ravine. We shall almost certainly be attacked. I do not know when—nothing is known. But you would be in danger. You must leave this afternoon, go right back—to Amiens, Paris."