By-and-by we heard him dismount, and a moment later he came in with a gentleman and two or three armed servants. He did not at once see me, but as the crowd made way for him he addressed himself sharply to M. Grabot. "Well, have you got them?" he said.
"Certainly, M. le Comte."
"Oh! very well. Now for the particulars, then. You must state your charge quickly, for I have to be in Vitre to-day."
"He alleged that he had been appointed Mayor of Bottitort," Grabot answered pompously.
"Umph! I don't know?" M. de Laval muttered, looking round with a frown of discontent. "I hope that you have not brought me hither on a fool's errand. Which one?"
"That one," the Mayor said, pointing to the solemn man, whose gravity and depression were now something preternatural.
"Oh!" M. de Laval grumbled. "But that is not all, I suppose. What of the others?"
M. Grabot pointed to me. "That one," he said—
He got no farther; for M. de Laval, springing forward, seized my hand and saluted me warmly. "Why, your excellency," he cried, in a tone of boundless surprise, "what are you doing in this GALERE! All last evening I waited for you, at my house, and now—"
"Here I am," I answered jocularly, "in charge it seems, M. le Comte!"