"'Hey, stupid, now you have learned how one can travel like a prince at the lowest figure. Ever since leaving Paris I have made three leagues and a half every hour, without a courier, and never have paid more than twenty-five sous.' And so saying, he jumps out of the carriage as lightly as a stag, the monster!" I could not prevent myself from laughing at this strange way of getting over the ground swiftly and cheaply, and my guide continued: "You understand, monsieur, how furious one was only to be paid twenty-five sous, and to be called _mon bon ami?_ The more the sly old fox begged to be taken gently, the more one wished to get even with him by jolting him over the road at the devil's own gait; while all the time the faster one went the better he was pleased, old miserable! Hey, monsieur, did you ever hear of such an old bandit? One must be without a heart to pretend to be ill when one is vigorous and solid as an old post-horse! But that is not all yet; I asked him where he was going. He replied: "'Wait for me here, and if I am not back in an hour you can go about your business.' "'And how about the carriage?' said I. "'If I don't return, you can take it back to the post-house, and some one will come to get it.' "'And your baggage?' "'I take it with me.' "And he showed me a long box, flat, square, and quite heavy, which he carried under his arm, and then he disappeared in the undergrowth, which is very thick in that place. "In this cursed village there is no inn, so I fed my horses and waited; but poor Devastator was so blown that he couldn't eat. I was hungry enough, however, and so I took a bite, and at the end of an hour my old deceiver had not got back. Well, I wait two hours and no one comes yet, so I start for the village which is in the distance, for say I to myself, he must be in the country house of the folks of the six horses and the courier. So I ring at the little door, and then at the big door,--nobody. I knock and pound as though I meant to break the door down,--nobody. "Finally I got tired, and came back and waited another half-hour; still nobody came. My faith! So then I went back to the post-house. We put the old berlingot under a shed, and from that time until now no one has been to claim it. So probably the old brigand finds himself well off where he is, and where you are going, monsieur; but all the same it is a curious kind of a town,--folks go there, but nobody ever comes back." Like my guide, I was much struck by this strange story, and became more and more curious. "But that man," said I, "the last one that you took to ----, was he very old?"