We were
attacked by Chouans just beyond Mortagne. My son came very near being
killed; he received two balls in his hat while protecting me."
"Is it possible, madame? were you in the mail-coach which those
brigands robbed in spite of the escort,--the one we have just come by?
You must know the vehicle well. They told me at Mortagne that the
Chouans numbered a couple of thousands and that every one in the coach
was killed, even the travellers. That's how history is written! Alas!
madame," he continued, "if they murder travellers so near to Paris you
can fancy how unsafe the roads are in Brittany. I shall return to
Paris and not risk myself any farther."
"Is Mademoiselle de Verneuil young and handsome?" said the lady to the
hostess, struck suddenly with an idea.
Just then the landlord interrupted the conversation, in which there
was something of an angry element, by announcing that breakfast was
ready. The young sailor offered his hand to his mother with an air of
false familiarity that confirmed the suspicions of Corentin, to whom
the youth remarked as he went up the stairway: "Citizen, if you are
travelling with the female citizen de Verneuil, and she accepts the
landlord's proposal, you can come too."
Though the words were said in a careless tone and were not inviting,
Corentin followed. The young man squeezed the lady's hand when they
were five or six steps above him, and said, in a low voice: "Now you
see the dangers to which your imprudent enterprises, which have no
glory in them, expose us.
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