"Say nine o' the clock," answered the groom; "we shall not be there till eleven; but they must wait, you know, they must wait."
"Well, it shall be done without delay," replied the host, "but now, hie you in, Pierre, for you say the boy is as sharp as your master, and may suspect us. Yet stay; remember, if you fail me about the bags, I will do for you with your lord. So keep faith."
The groom replied at some length, but as their farther conversation seemed likely to refer alone to their private affairs, I made the best of my way back to the house, and ere either groom or landlord returned, had gained sufficient information from my pretty brunette, in regard to the roads, to serve my purpose for the next day. I found that, at the distance of about four miles from the village, the highway was intersected by another, which led away in the very direction I wished to take. It was neglected, however, and heavy, she said, passing through some wide forest ground, which always affords a bad foundation; and since the new road had been made, she added, few people ever travelled the old one except the couriers for St. Malo, who went that way for the purpose of dropping packets, and sometimes sums of money, at various small towns through which it alone passed. It used, she said, to have a bad reputation for robbers, and about three months before, one of the royal messengers had been plundered, but since that time she had heard of no farther outrage.
As she was speaking, the groom came in, and to break off a conversation I did not want him to hear, I asked him sharply where he had been so long. He replied that he had been tending his horses; and to put him completely off his guard, I ordered them to be at the door exactly at the hour on which I found he had already calculated. He promised to be punctual, and not doubting that he would be so, I soon after retired to bed. Danger of any kind never made me sleep less soundly, but I confess that, on this occasion, it was long before I could close my eyes; but it was self-reproach, not apprehension, kept me awake. I had been twice betrayed into an act of egregious folly during that one journey, and I began to think I was losing the acuteness which had been my most serviceable quality. I could have pardoned myself, perhaps, for suffering the groom to cheat me into staying where we then were; but for babbling myself, or suffering Jacques Marlot to babble in the hearing of a third person, I rated myself for a good hour after I was in bed.
[CHAPTER XI.]
I was up and watchful early the next morning; for although I had now obtained as much information in regard to my worthy guide's purposes as was necessary to enable me to shape my own plans thereby, I thought it better to prevent him, as far as possible, from organizing his scheme more completely with the landlord, and providing against contingencies. By seeing a bespattered horse standing in the yard, and the complacent countenances both of the groom and the landlord, I divined that their messenger had returned from Rennes, or from whatever other town they had sent to in search of officers to apprehend me, and that all their arrangements had hitherto been successful. Trusting, however, that they would find that such calculations, formed without the consent of so principal a party as myself, would be more difficult to execute than they anticipated, I took my breakfast in great tranquillity, and as soon as the horses were ready, paid my score and set out.
The groom was in great glee, which continued uninterrupted for four good miles of our morning's ride; but at length I began to see before us the division of the roads, with the finger-post that directed weary travellers towards their destination, and I now prepared myself for the execution of my design. Not knowing whether I might not have a severe struggle to effect it, I felt that my pistols were free in the holsters, and as we came to the carrefour, drew in my rein, and gazed up at the finger-post. There, written in large characters, certainly appeared Rennes! Paris! pointing either way to the road towards which our horses' heads were turned, or to that which we had just travelled. On the right-hand board, however, was written St. Malo, and as the groom was quietly riding on in the direction of Rennes, I shouted, "Holla! where are you going, good Pierre?"
He came back with a sweet complacent countenance, and told me that he had been going on the road to Rennes, which was the only one we could follow; but I took the liberty of differing with him in opinion, stating, that I thought the road to St. Malo would do just as well. He assured me that I was mistaken; that it would lead me at least ten miles to the right of the spot towards which my steps ought to be directed; that it was so bad our horses could not travel it; that it was infested by robbers of the worst description; and, in short, that every sort of evil under the sun awaited the unfortunate travellers who obstinately pursued that road.
I listened to the whole detail as calmly and attentively as possible; and then, much to his surprise, I informed him, that I loved robbers, delighted in bad roads, enjoyed a roundabout more than a straightforward track, and was contented to undergo all the evils that he threatened, for the sake of following the path to which I had a fancy. As the matter had now become serious, and the success or failure of his scheme depended upon the next ten steps, the worthy groom took it up en cavalier, put on a blustering aspect, stood up in the stirrups with the frown of a Sylla, and told me that he would submit to such whims no longer, but that go I must on the way which he thought right.
In reply to this I reminded him of one or two things which had occurred to me since I had become attached to Monsieur de Villardin, and in which my opponents had generally been worsted, when our contention came to manual operations. I believe, indeed, that I had established a very tolerable reputation for never suffering anything of the kind that I undertook to remain unfinished or imperfect; and, as I was both better armed and mounted than himself, my companion was easily convinced that it would be wiser to abandon every thing like compulsory measures towards me. He declared, however, that although he should certainly not attempt to force me to do what he thought right, he would take very good care not to follow me on such a road as that which I was determined to pursue.