“Well, well, father!” answered Jacques; “Had you been of my mind, all would have been over by this time. You, Robert, Claude, and myself, why the strangers were but double the number, and I warrant you we might have mastered them. However, Claude is gone; ’tis too late to think of it now. We must wait patiently for the arrival of the gang; and if the travellers escape us tonight, we must take care to waylay them tomorrow.”

“True! True!” said Baptiste; “Marguerite, have you given the sleeping-draught to the waiting-women?”

She replied in the affirmative.

“All then is safe. Come, come, boys; whatever falls out, we have no reason to complain of this adventure. We run no danger, may gain much, and can lose nothing.”

At this moment I heard a trampling of horses. Oh! how dreadful was the sound to my ears. A cold sweat flowed down my forehead, and I felt all the terrors of impending death. I was by no means reassured by hearing the compassionate Marguerite exclaim in the accents of despair,