Chapter XXXIV
“Et Balbus bellum horridum fecit.”
—CONVULSIUS.
HE Marquis led us from the station into a road, where we found the van already under way and two carriages awaiting us. In one Dick and Teddy were already installed; the Marquis and Kate entered the other. I joined my friends, and Halfred sprang upon the box; and off we set for a destination which our leader, after his habit, kept till the last a profound secret. So far as I could see, our force consisted of the party I have named, the men in the van, and the three drivers. Hankey, I presumed, must be one of the last. Where we were to find a ship, and how soon we were to find our French allies, I had no notion at all.
That drive seemed as interminable as the railway journey, and certainly it was far more uncomfortable. We were all three too sleepy to talk much, but, to my constant wonder and delight, I found my two companions as ready as ever to go ahead and take their chance of what might befall them.