"Twelve or twenty, let us kill them all."
"Wait till they are within our reach."
A little later and the wagon with its escort appeared at a turn of the road.
"Long live the King!" cried the peasant leader; and as he spoke, a hundred muskets were fired at the same instant. When the smoke scattered, the escort was scattered likewise. Seven horsemen had fallen, and the other five had made their escape. The peasants rushed to the wagon. "Hallo! this is not the guillotine," cried the leader; "it's a ladder."
In fact, there was nothing whatever in the wagon but a long ladder.
The two wounded horses had fallen, and the driver had been killed by accident.
"There is something suspicious about a ladder with an escort, all the same," said the leader. "It was going in the direction of Parigné. No doubt it was intended for scaling the Tourgue."