Evening had come on before I was awake, and, on looking upward, saw above me the green leafy branches of some great trees. Then, on peeping from my nest amid the straw, I found, to my very great astonishment, that the wain was not in the same place where I had entered it, but that it was now at the end of a long and stately avenue, and close to an embattled wall, in which there opened an arched gateway surmounted by a coat of arms carved in stone.
I was about to investigate this circumstance further, when the sound of voices near me, or apparently immediately under the huge wain, made me shrink down and lie still and breathless to listen.
"Come, come, mon ami, don't lose your temper, for I assure you that you have none to spare," said a female voice.
"Bah! you always laugh when I kiss you, Angelique," replied a man, reproachfully; "why is this?"
"Because, Jacquot, your moustaches tickle me."
"You are always rather too ticklish between the nose and chin," retorted the other.
"Perhaps so, when Monsieur de Boisguiller and his hussars are here."
"Pardieu, if this be the case, then I shall go back to St. Malo, to dine with the fat cits and dance with their pretty daughters."
"You? Ha! ha!"
"Laugh as you may, mademoiselle: the coachman of Monsieur le Curé of St. Solidore, who holds the consciences of half the province in his keeping, is not without some importance at St. Malo, be assured."