When you are alone
with the doctor and all is safe, get up, put on the country
gentleman's suit, say goodbye to him and go straight to the stables
at the Henri the 4th. You are the Sire de Nadar. I have written a
note here, telling you the horse will be there and you are to fetch
it--here it is. The messenger will know my seal."
"I am indeed obliged to you," Rupert said, "you have thought of
everything; but how will the doctor explain my not being
forthcoming in the morning?"
"Oh, he will arrange that easily enough. The soldiers will all
sleep soundly enough after this march; besides, they will not, in
all probability, be near his quarters, so he will only have to say
that he found you were too ill to continue the journey, and had
therefore had you carried to a confrere of his. You must be under
no fear, Rupert, of any evil consequences to anyone, for no one
will ever connect you with the convoy. You will be missed at roll
call, but that will go for nothing. When you are absent again at
six o'clock, you will be reported as missing. Then it will be
supposed that you are hid in the city, and a sharp watch will be
set at the gates; but after a few days it will be supposed that you
have either got over the walls, or that you have gone out disguised
as a peasant. A prisoner of war more or less makes but little
difference, and there will never be any fuss about it."
Soon after dusk on the evening of the 13th of October, Adele de
Pignerolles was sitting alone in a large room in the house of
Madame de Soissons.
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