valley and Auch, I recalled the Cardinal's warning that if I
failed in my attempt I should be little likely to trouble Paris
again.

The lout by the window paid no attention to me; nor I to him,
when I had once satisfied myself that he was really what he
seemed to be. But by-and-by two or three men--rough, uncouth
fellows--dropped in to reinforce the landlord, and they, too
seemed to have no other business than to sit in silence looking
at me, or now and again to exchange a word in a PATOIS of their
own. By the time my supper was ready, the knaves numbered six in
all; and, as they were armed to a man with huge Spanish knives,
and made it clear that they resented my presence in their dull
rustic fashion--every rustic is suspicious--I began to think
that, unwittingly, I had put my head into a wasps' nest.

Nevertheless, I ate and drank with apparent appetite; but little
that passed within the circle of light cast by the smoky lamp
escaped me. I watched the men's looks and gestures at least as
sharply as they watched mine; and all the time I was racking my
wits for some mode of disarming their suspicions, or failing
that, of learning something more of the position, which far
exceeded in difficulty and danger anything that I had expected.
The whole valley, it would seem, was on the look-out to protect
my man!

I had purposely brought with me from Auch a couple of bottles of
choice Armagnac; and these had been carried into the house with
my saddle bags. I took one out now and opened it and carelessly
offered a dram of the spirit to the landlord. He took it. As he