"It would be better still, Paolo, for you to put a blister on
to your cheek, then before you join them put a great lump of tow
into your mouth, so as to swell your cheek out almost to bursting
point, and then tie a bandage round your face; you could then by
pointing to it make out that you had so terrible a swelling that
you were unable to talk."

"That would be better certainly, master, indeed, it would be a
capital plan. Of course I should get into the waggon in which you
were, and gradually shift the sacks so that you could crawl out.
When we smuggled you in we would try and put in with you a couple
of brace of pistols, and if we were armed with them the carters
would not venture to interfere with us. Of course, master, I should
have to get a disguise for you. We could never be tramping across
the country with you dressed as a French officer."

"Get something that I could put over the clothes I wear. A long
frock, some loose breeches, and rough cloth to wrap round the legs
below them, and of course a pair of countryman's shoes. The best
plan would be for you to stand treat again at a cabaret a few miles
out of the town, get them all in there, then I could slip out of
the waggon and throw the sacks back into their place. Of course
you would choose some spot where the cabaret either stands alone
or is at the end of a village, so that there may be no one standing
by, and I could, when I got down, walk quietly back along the
road. You can make signs to them that you live hard by, and would
leave them there; then if there should be any suspicion that I
had escaped in the waggons, and a troop of cavalry were sent in
pursuit, the men would be all able to declare that they had seen
nothing of me, and so could give no clue whatever that would set