As he rode
on the noise became louder, and in another five minutes he came up
to the troop.
It was quite dark, and riding past the men, he made his way to the
head of the column.
"I have had an awful bother in getting rid of that stone," he said,
as he rode up to the leader. "I began to think that I should lose
you altogether. It is quite a chance I took this road."
"An unfortunate chance, sir, for you. A fortunate one for us," the
officer he addressed said in English, but with a strong accent,
"since you are our prisoner," and as he spoke he laid his hand on
Rupert's bridle.
Rupert gave an exclamation of horror at finding the mistake that he
had made, but he saw at once that resistance would be useless.
"Je me rends, monsieur. But what horrible luck."
The three French officers at the head of the troop burst into a
laugh.
"Monsieur," the one who had first spoken said, now in his native
tongue, "we are indebted to you, for you have made us laugh, and
heaven knows we have had little enough to laugh at today. But how
came you here? Your cavalry have taken the upper road. We were
drawn up to make a last charge, when we heard them turn off that
way; and were, I can tell you, glad enough to get off without more
fighting. We have had enough of it for one day."
As the speaker proceeded, Rupert became more and more convinced
that he knew the voice; and the fact that the speaker was
acquainted with English, the more convinced him that he was right.
Pages:
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247