Here Marguerite returned. Her stepsons drew her to the other end of the room, and whispered to her for some minutes. By the looks which they cast towards us at intervals, I conjectured them to be enquiring our business in the cottage.

In the meanwhile the Baroness expressed her apprehensions, that her husband would be suffering much anxiety upon her account. She had intended to send on one of her servants to inform the Baron of her delay; but the account which the young men gave of the forest rendered this plan impracticable. Claude relieved her from her embarrassment. He informed her that he was under the necessity of reaching Strasbourg that night, and that would she trust him with a letter, she might depend upon its being safely delivered.

“And how comes it,” said I, “that you are under no apprehension of meeting these robbers?”

“Alas! Monsieur, a poor man with a large family must not lose certain profit because ’tis attended with a little danger, and perhaps my lord the Baron may give me a trifle for my pains. Besides, I have nothing to lose except my life, and that will not be worth the robbers taking.”

I thought his arguments bad, and advised his waiting till the morning; but as the Baroness did not second me, I was obliged to give up the point. The Baroness Lindenberg, as I found afterwards, had long been accustomed to sacrifice the interests of others to her own, and her wish to send Claude to Strasbourg blinded her to the danger of the undertaking. Accordingly, it was resolved that he should set out without delay. The Baroness wrote her letter to her husband, and I sent a few lines to my banker, apprising him that I should not be at Strasbourg till the next day. Claude took our letters, and left the cottage.