‘Well,’ my companion answered, drawing rein impatiently. ‘What is it?’
‘There are soldiers in the village.’
‘Soldiers,’ Antoine cried incredulously.
‘Ay, devils on horseback,’ the lad answered, spitting on the ground. ‘Three score of them. From Auch.’
Antoine turned to me, his face transformed with fury.
‘Curse you!’ he cried. ‘This is some of your work. Now we are all undone. And my mistresses? SACRE! if I had that gun I would shoot you like a rat.’
‘Steady, fool,’ I answered roughly. ‘I know no more of this than you do.’
Which was so true that my surprise was at least as great as his, and better grounded. The Cardinal, who rarely made a change of front, had sent me hither that he might not be forced to send soldiers, and run the risk of all that might arise from such a movement. What of this invasion, then, than which nothing could be less consistent with his plans? I wondered. It was possible that the travelling merchants, before whom I had played at treason, had reported the facts; and that on this the Commandant at Auch had acted. But it seemed unlikely since he had had his orders too, and under the Cardinal’s rule there was small place for individual enterprise. Frankly I could not understand it, and found only one thing clear; I might now enter the village as I pleased.
‘I am going on to look into this,’ I said to Antoine. ‘Come, my man.’ He shrugged his shoulders, and stood still.
‘Not I!’ he answered, with an oath. ‘No soldiers for me I have lain out one night, and I can lie out another.’