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I do not knohether it was the influence of that thing lying in a corner of the barn under the cloak that Rodenard had flung over it, or whether other influences of destiny were at work to impel me to rise at the end of a half-hour and announce my determination to set out on horseback and find enial

"To-morrow," I instructed Ganymede, as I stood ready to mount, "you will retrace your steps with the others, and, finding the road to Lavedan, you will follow ht, h a country that is unknown to you," he protested

"I do not hope to reach it to-night I will ride south until I come upon so, direction"

I left hiht had now fallen, but the sky was clear, and a crescent looained a crossroad, where, turning to the right, I set my face to the Pyrenees, and rode briskly amain That I had chosen wisely was proved when some twenty minutes later I clattered into the han of a peacock--as if in irony of its humbleness, for it was no better than a wayside tavern Neither stable-boy nor ostler was here, and the unclean, overgrown urchin to whom I entrusted my horse could not say whether indeed Pere Abdon the landlord would be able to find me a room to sleep in I thirsted, however; and so I deterht, if it were only to drink a can of wine and obtain infor the hostelry there was a clatter of hoofs in the street, and four dragoons headed by a sergeant rode up and halted at the door of the Paon They seemed to have ridden hard and some distance, for their horses were jaded almost to the last point of endurance

Within, I called the host, and having obtained a flagon of the best vintage--Heaven fortify those that must be content with his worst!--I passed on tomy whereabouts and the way to Lavedan This I learnt was but some three or four miles distant About the other table--there were but tithin the roooons in a whispered consultation, of which it had been well had I taken heed, for it concerned me more closely than I could have dreamt