This was all very well, but, fearing that the affair might have graver consequences, I went to the door and began to halloo after our comrades. It was all in vain; they were already at the far end of the village, and I doubt not that they thought it but a ruse to entrap them.
Meanwhile, the few Russians within the room had come up to Léon and were staring at him curiously. Very sternly he commanded them to return to their places, and, bolting the doors, he pointed to the table, upon which a great cauldron of soup was steaming.
"The spoils to the victors," says he; and, indeed, that was no time for ceremony. I was just about to tell him as much, when a voice from the far end of the apartment arrested our attention, and, turning about, we saw the very last person in all Russia we would have looked for that night.
"Mademoiselle Valerie, by all that is holy!" cries Léon; and in a twinkling he had caught her in his arms and was almost tearing the robe from her back.
"What the devil are you doing here, little witch?" he asked her.
She told him in a word.
"The Emperor is at Bobr. He is a little tired of me, mon ami, so you see I waited for you."
"The same Valerie, upon my soul. You have quarrelled with His Majesty! There could be no better news. I salute you, fair Imperatrice, and, by St. Christopher, I will have supper with you."
She came up to me now, and greeted me very prettily. After all, it was not so wonderful that we had discovered her, for she had been riding a few hours ahead of us these many days, and this post-house was just such a place as her wit would choose for a bivouac. I told her as much, while chiding her faithlessness.
"Léon has ceased to eat since you went," said I; and God knows that that was somewhere near the truth.