troopers to go with different parties of the infantry, and to act
as orderlies to their captains. He rode rapidly up the lane, and
presently heard the cavalry passing across it.

"There is one party, Paolo," he said, urging his horse into a gallop.
In two or three minutes he came up with the column of horse.

"Where is your officer?" he asked, drawing rein as he reached them.

"Seize him!" a voice cried in German, and before he and Paolo could
turn their horses half a dozen troopers were upon them.

"I surrender," he cried in German, seeing that resistance was
impossible.

"Who are you, monsieur?" an officer demanded.

"I am colonel of the Poitou regiment of infantry," he said. "This
man is my lackey."

"Where are your cavalry, sir?"

"That I cannot tell you exactly, seeing that no one knows. I
thought that you formed part of our rearguard."

"How comes it that you, an infantry officer, were there? We heard
that there were no infantry with them."

"We joined them just before nightfall, and were at once divided up
among the various regiments of horse."