"Yes. A merchant's wife, she says she is. But you shall see her."
"I don't remember the name," I answered.
"Still, you may know them," he rejoined, with the dull persistence of a man of few ideas. "It is just possible that we have made a mistake, for we found no papers in the carriage, and only one thing that seemed suspicious."
"What was that?"
"A red cockade."
"A red cockade?"
"Yes," he answered. "The badge of the old Leaguers, you know."
"But," I said, "I have not heard of any party adopting that."
He rubbed his bald head a little doubtfully. "No," he said, "that is true. Still, it is a colour we don't like here. And two ladies travelling alone--alone, Monsieur! Then their driver, a half-witted fellow, who said that they had engaged him at Rodez, though he denied stoutly that he had seen the Capuchin, told two or three tales. However, if you will eat no more, M. le Vicomte, I will take you to see them. You may be able to speak for or against them."
"If you do not think that it is too late?" I said, shrinking somewhat from the interview.