d near Lotier we came upon a lady
living in her coach, with one or two panic-stricken women for her only
attendants. Her husband was in Paris, she told me; half her servants
were dead, the rest had fled. Still she retained in a remarkable degree
both courage and courtesy, and accepting with fortitude my reasons
and excuses for perforce leaving her in such a plight, gave me a clear
account of Bruhl and his party, who had passed her some, hours before.
The picture of this lady gazing after us with perfect good-breeding,
as we rode away at speed, followed by the lamentations of her women,
remains with me to this day; filling my mind at once with admiration and
melancholy. For, as I learned later, she fell ill of the plague where we
left her in the beech-wood, and died in a night with both her servants.

The intelligence we had from her inspired us to push forward, sparing
neither spur nor horseflesh, in the hope that we might overtake Bruhl
before night should expose his captives to fresh hardships and dangers.
But the pitch to which the dismal sights and sounds I have mentioned,
and a hundred like them, had raised the fears of my following did much
to balk my endeavours. For a while, indeed, under the influence of
momentary excitement, they spurred their horses to the gallop, as if
their minds were made up to face the worst; but presently they checked
them despite all my efforts, and, lagging slowly and more slowly, seemed
to lose all spirit and energy. The desolation which met our eyes on
every side, no less than the death-like stillness which prevailed, even
the birds, as it seemed to us, being silent, chilled the most reckless
to the heart. Maignan's face lost its colour, his voice its ring. As for
the rest, starting at a sound and wincing if a leather galled them,
they glanced backwards twice for once they looked forwards, and held
themselves ready to take to their heels and be gone at the least alarm.

Noting these signs, and doubting if I could trust even Maignan, I
thought it prudent to change my place, and falling to the rear, rode
there with a grim face and a pistol ready to my hand. It was not the
least of my annoyances that M. d'Agen appeared to be ignorant of any
cause for apprehension save such as lay before us, and riding on in the
same gloomy fit which had possessed him from the moment of starting,
neither sought my opinion nor gave his own, but seemed to have undergone
so complete and mysterious a change t