"As you will," answered the Prussian colonel with hauteur. Then turning to the group of officers who had sat motionless upon their horses, he said:—
"Gentlemen, you will please accompany this carriage to Falzenberg. Lieutenant Saueraugen, bring up your batteries with all possible speed and report to me. Franz von Shiffen, you will please come with me." He gave his black charger a slight touch with the spur, the spirited animal sprang forward, and he was seen galloping down the road, with Franz von Shiffen riding hotly after him.
Baron von Waldenmeer, general of the division of the Rhine, was seated with a beer mug before him and his pipe freshly lit, enjoying his evening smoke, when word was brought to him that the party of Frenchmen, encountered by his son and some other members of his staff on the road from Inweiler, had arrived at Falzenberg, and was now awaiting his pleasure in the room below. His son, who had come in some time before, had told him of the incident of the meeting.
The baron blew a cloud of smoke out of his capacious mouth.
"Show the entire party up here at once. We can then hear their story and decide as to the probability of it. You, Karl, send word to General von Scrappenhauer that I shall have to defer our party of Skat for an hour. Ludwig, have your father's beer mug replenished. Would you have his throat become like the bed of a dried-up stream? And now send up your Frenchmen; I am waiting for them."
Ludwig von Waldenmeer, who was the picture of his younger brother Karl, except that he was heavier in build and larger of girth, passed the beer flagon from his end of the table to his father.
Karl gave a few commands to an orderly, then took a seat by the general's side. The latter was a man of about sixty. Around his shining bald pate was a fringe of grizzled hair that had once been red. His mustache was a bristling, scrubby brush of the same color. Although not of great height he was broad of chest and still broader about the waistband; and even in his lightest boots he rode in the saddle at two hundred pounds.
An orderly opened the door and ushered in the four French travelers. Mademoiselle de Rochefort entered first. She paused for a moment at the sight of a room full of officers. Then she took a few steps into the room and stood awaiting the baron's command. The baron took one look at the figure before him, then rose suddenly to his feet and came toward her; the other officers took the signal and rose from their places at the table and stood beside their chairs.
"You are the daughter of Honoré de Rochefort. One has no need to ask the question, it is answered by your face." And General von Waldenmeer took Edmé by the hand and led her to a seat by his side. Agatha kept at her mistress's elbow like a faithful guardian.
Tournay and Gaillard, travel-stained and splashed with mud from head to foot, remained standing by the door.