"My friends?"
"Why, yes," exclaimed Pillot, "by then you will probably have three friends."
"Oh," said I, beginning to understand, "go on."
"The animal will not be worth buying, and you will return to your room. Since monsieur cannot leave Verdu without a horse, he may as well sit up late; there will be agreeable company."
"Now I am puzzled again."
Pillot laughed. "It is a child's trick, monsieur. When it is getting very late a man from the village will arrive with a fresh horse. After some delay you will go out and instruct him to call in the morning."
"Yes," said I, still wondering.
"Monsieur will go out, but he will not return, and when his friends hurry to the stable they will find only two horses which cannot run a mile. Now I must slip away without being seen, and I trust you will remember not to start before ten o'clock."
After waiting a few minutes in order to let him get clear, I strolled into the common room, and sat a while talking with the people on the state of the country. Rather to my surprise very few of them spoke in favour of Condé, the majority exclaiming against him as a traitor, and saying he ought to be executed.
"He is a fine general, though," remarked the inn-keeper; "I fought under him at Rocroi."