“Ah! but the distance is long—fully twenty leagues,” answered Madame La Roche. “You would be recognised as strangers, and probably detained by the mayor of a large village you must pass through.”
“But we must take care and not pass through any village,” said Rayner. “We will try to make our way along bypaths. What we should be most thankful for is a trustworthy guide. Perhaps our good friend François here will find one for us.”
“That I will try to do,” said the old mulatto. “It is not, however, very easy, as few of them know much of the country to the east.”
“But how was it discovered that these English officers and their men were in the country?” asked Mademoiselle Sophie, the eldest of the young ladies, turning to François.
“It appears that yesterday morning there was found on the beach the dead body of a seaman, who was supposed from his appearance and dress to be English, while the marks of numerous feet were perceived on the sand, some going to the west, others coming in this direction. Those going to the west were traced until a party of French and black sailors were discovered asleep in a wood. They stated that the vessel was French, captured by an English man-of-war; that she had been driven by the hurricane on the reef, and that it was their belief the English officers and crew had escaped as well as themselves, but they could not tell what had become of them. The mayor, on hearing this, had despatched a party of gendarmes in search of the missing people. How soon they may be here it is impossible to say.”
“But they will not be so barbarous as to carry off to prison English officers who come with a flag of truce, and had no hostile intentions!” exclaimed Virginie.
“The authorities would be only too glad to get some Englishmen to exhibit as prisoners,” said François. “We must not trust them; and I propose that we hide away the officers and men.”
Just as François had finished giving this account, Le Duc ran into the room.
“Oh, madame, oh messieurs!” he exclaimed, “I have seen those gendarmes coming along the road towards the house; they will be here presently.”
“Here, come this way, my friends!” cried Madame La Roche. “François, run and get the ladder. There may be time for you all to mount up before the gendarmes appear. Call the other sailors. The sick man is strong enough to move, or some one must help him. Vite, vite!”