to start?"

"Haven't you a post-chaise?"

"Yes, it's here in the coach-house."

"Haven't you horses to get you to the next stage?"

"They are in the stable."

"Haven't you each your passports."

"We have each four."

"Well, then?"

"Well, we can't stop the diligence in a post-chaise. We don't put
ourselves to too much inconvenience, but we don't take our ease in that
way."

"Well, and why not?" asked Montbar; "it would be original. I can't see
why, if sailors board from one vessel to another, we couldn't board a
diligence from a post-chaise. We want novelty; shall we try it, Adler?"

"I ask nothing better," replied the latter, "but what will we do with
the postilion?"

"That's true," replied Montbar.

"The difficulty is foreseen, my children," said the courier; "a
messenger has been sent to Troyes. You will leave your post-chaise at
Delbauce; there you will find four horses all saddled and stuffed with
oats. You will then calculate your time, and the day after to-morrow,
or rather to-morrow, for it is past midnight, between seven and eight in
the morning, the money of Messires Bruin will pass an anxious quarter of
an hour."

"Shall we change our clothes?" inquired d'Assas.

"What for?" replied Morgan. "I think we are very presentable as we are.
No diligence could be relieved of unnecessary weight by better dressed
fellows. Let us take a last glance at the map, transfer a pate, a cold
chicken, and a dozen of champagne from the supper-room to the pockets
of the coach, arm to the teeth in the arsenal, wrap ourselves in warm
cloaks, and--clack! postilion!"

"Yes!" cried Montbar, "that's the idea."

"I should think so," added Morgan. "We'll kill the horses if necessary,
and be back at seven in the evening, in time to show ourselves at the
opera."

"That will establish an alibi," observed d'Assas.

"Precisely," said Morgan, with his imperturbable gayety. "How could men
who applaud Mademoiselle Clotilde and M. Vestris at eight o'clock in the
evening have been at Bar and Chatillon in the morning settling accounts
with the conductor of a diligence? Come, my sons, a last look at the map
to choose our spot."

The four young men bent over Cassini's map.

"If I may give you a bit of topographical advice," said the courier, "it
would be to put yourselves in ambush just beyond Massu; there's a ford
opposite to the Riceys--see, there!"

And the young man pointed out the exact spot on the map.

"I should