"Yes, later. We must consider now how we are to leave this neighborhood without any further explanation with that old idiot. I told him enough to induce him to be patient. He expects me to-morrow."
"For a duel?"
"No; he is too old!"
"But he is very cunning; are you anxious to rot in some dungeon in his château? No matter, I will go there with you, if you go."
"I shall not go. A certain prophecy makes me very prudent. When we are within a short distance of that little town of which you see the lights yonder, leave the escort, disappear, and return a quarter of an hour later and say that someone in the town handed you a letter for me. I will go to the château of Ars before reading it, but, as soon as I have read it, I will say to Monsieur d'Ars that I must go away at once. Do you understand?"
"I understand."
"Let us wait for Monsieur d'Ars then, and display no haste."
When honest Bois-Doré, armed to the teeth and firmly seated on the stately Rosidor, had passed the confines of the village of Briantes, he discovered Adamas, mounted on a little hackney of placid disposition, ambling at his side.
"What! is that you, master rebel?" he said, in a tone which did not succeed in being angry; "did I not forbid you to follow me and order you to keep watch over my heir?"
"Your heir is well guarded, monsieur; Master Jovelin gave me his word not to leave him, and, moreover, I do not see that he incurs any risk in your château, now that the enemy has left it and we are charging upon him."