t would be to kidnap Count Saxe; there were but three
sentries about the place, the rest of the small body of twenty
soldiers being quartered some distance away, to guard the hay stores.

I determined to speak to Count Saxe next morning, upon the rashness
of remaining at Hueningen under those risky circumstances. I had
often laughed behind Madame Riano's back at what she called
presentiments, but this sudden waking, this seeing, all at once, a
very present danger which had escaped everybody's notice, seemed to
me uncomfortably like those supernatural warnings which Madame Riano
was always talking about. However, I concluded to take perfectly
natural means to satisfy myself there was no danger brewing, and so
went to Gaston Cheverny's room. It was quite dark, and I lighted a
candle with my flint and steel. He was not in his bed, and it had
not been slept in. A chair, in which he had evidently been sitting,
was pushed back from the table, on which were papers and a letter
sealed and addressed to Francezka. The one window of the room,
which looked upon the river, was wide open, and as I went to it, above
the steady downpour of the rain I heard some faint noises on the
river bank.

I went out, and called to the sentry, giving the countersign. There
was no answer--for there was no sentry. I gave the alarm instantly,
and at the same moment I heard distinctly the grating oars in their
rowlocks, and the sound of a boat pulling off from the shore. Lights
shone in the house. Count Saxe, half dressed, was the first person out
of it. The other officers came running with lanterns. We found the
three sentries lying on the grass at some distance from each other,
bound and gagged. By that time, the guards at the hay ricks, a quarter
of a mile off, had seen the commotion, and were on hand. At once, the
river bank was searched. Every man was accounted for, except Gaston
Cheverny; but in a few minutes, a squad of soldiers returned from the
river bank hauling a young Austrian officer with them. His uniform was
all mud, and his face and hands were liberally besmeared. He was at
once taken within the house, to be interrogated by Count Saxe, and he
was, without exception, the most cheerful looking prisoner I ever saw.
As a soldier flashed a lantern into his eyes, we saw that his
countenance was wreathed in smiles.

"Well, gentlemen," he said to us all, standing around him, Count Saxe
in the middle, "I have pleasure in introducing myself--"