"There were three of them, Elise, my child, and they had big red seals and swore a great deal."
"Of course," admitted the woman hastily, "you could do nothing by force."
"I did try to prevent them from going upstairs where Paul was," the old man replied, "but one of them knocked me on the head and into a corner where I lay like a log."
"Oh that I had been here," moaned Elise, as she and Louchet went toward the house. "If I could only know where they have taken Paul!"
"To Tours," replied Père Louchet with decision.
"How do you know?" asked Elise quickly.
"I remember it plainly now. When I lay in the corner with a kind of dazed feeling in my head, not wishing to get up and stir around, I saw one of the men—not the one who hit me, but a smaller man with a larger hat and more cockades and more seals, take a paper out of his pocket and read it to Paul. I tried to make out what it said, for although I could hear every word that was uttered, I could not get an idea in my head that would hold together; but I was able to catch the word Tours; I am sure they have gone to Tours."
"How is your head now, Père Louchet?" asked Elise with feverish eagerness.
"As clear as a bell," was the reply. "Let me have one little nip more of that brandy and it will be clearer."
"Can you ride?"