-then, with pleasure, Colonel Hulot. About
six days since, I was quietly going home, at about eleven at night,
after leaving General Montcornet, whose hotel is but a few yards from
mine. We had come away together from the Quartermaster-General's, where
we had played rather high at _bouillotte_. Suddenly, at the corner of a
narrow high-street, two strangers, or rather, two demons, rushed upon me
and flung a large cloak round my head and arms. I yelled out, as you may
suppose, like a dog that is thrashed, but the cloth smothered my voice,
and I was lifted into a chaise with dexterous rapidity. When my two
companions released me from the cloak, I heard these dreadful words
spoken by a woman, in bad French:

"'"If you cry out, or if you attempt to escape, if you make the very
least suspicious demonstration, the gentleman opposite to you will stab
you without hesitation. So you had better keep quiet.--Now, I will tell
you why you have been carried off. If you will take the trouble to put
your hand out in this direction, you will find your case of instruments
lying between us; we sent a messenger for them to your rooms, in your
name. You will need them. We are taking you to a house that you may
save the honor of a lady who is about to give birth to a child that
she wishes to place in this gentleman's keeping without her husband's
knowledge. Though monsieur rarely leaves his wife, with whom he is
still passionately in love, watching over her with all the vigilance
of Spanish jealousy, she had succeeded in concealing her condition; he
believes her to be ill. You must bring the child into the world. The
dangers of this enterprise do not concern us: only, you must obey us,
otherwise the lover, who is sitting opposite to you in this carriage,
and who does not understand a word of French, will kill you on the least
rash movement."

"'"And who are you?" I asked, feeling for the speaker's hand, for her
arm was inside the sleeve of a soldier's uniform.

"'"I am my lady's waiting-woman," said she, "and ready to reward you
with my own person if you show yourself gallant and helpful in our
necessities."

"'"Gladly," said I, seeing that I was inevitably started on a perilous
adventure.

"'Under favor of the darkness, I felt whether the person and figure of
the girl were in keeping with the idea I had formed of her from her tone
of voice. The good soul had, no doubt, made up her mind from the first
to accept all the chances of this s