It was about three hours after midnight, and the moon was not yet very low. The captain, taken by surprise in several respects, mechanically grasped the document and read it. "It is a--a pass," he said, presently, staring at it and at me in a bewildered manner. "As you see, for myself and all my company," said I; "signed by M. de la Chatre." "Yes, it is his signature." "His seal, also, you will observe." "I do. Yet, it is strange. Certain orders that I have received,--in fact, orders to which I have just been attending,--make this very surprising. I cannot understand--" "It is very simple. While you were attending to your orders, I was making a treaty with M. de la Chatre. In accordance with it, he wrote the pass. He will, doubtless, relate the purport of our interview as soon as you return to the chateau. I know that he is impatient for your coming. Therefore, since you have seen the pass, I shall not detain you longer." "But--I do not know--it is, indeed, the writing of M. de la Chatre--it seems quite right, yet monsieur, since all is right, you will not object to returning with me to the chateau that M. de la Chatre may verify his pass?" "Since all is right, there is no use in my doing so; and it would be most annoying to M. de la Chatre to be asked to verify his own writing, especially as the very object of this pass was to avoid my being delayed on my march this night." The captain, a young and handsome gentleman, with a frank look and a courteous manner, hesitated. "Monsieur will understand," I went on, "that every minute we stand here opposes the purpose for which that pass was given." "I begin to see," he said, with a look of pleasurable discovery. "You have changed sides, monsieur? You have repented of your errors and have put your great skill and courage at the service of M. de la Chatre?" "It is for M. de la Chatre to say what passed between us this evening," said I, with a discreet air. "Then _an revoir_, captain! I trust we shall meet again." And I took back the pass, and ordered my men forward, as if the young captain had already given me permission to go on. Then I saluted him, and returned to Julie. The captain gazed at us in a kind of abstraction as we passed. His men were as dumbfounded as my own. His foremost horsemen had heard the short conversation concerning the pass, and were, doubtless, as much at a loss as their leader was. When we were well in the mountain road, I heard him give the order to march, and, looking back, I saw them turn wearily up the road to the chateau. We continued to put distance between ourselves and Clochonne.