'I have just ascertained that a coach containing certain Imperialists of high rank is proceeding from the neighbourhood of Toul, towards the German frontier; and that, guided by a spy who is in our interest, it will, on the night of the 11th, pass through a defile of the Vosges, two miles north of your garrison. These Imperialists it behoves you to capture, and as you value the service of the most Christian King, to seize at all hazards. They have a slender escort, to avoid notice; but kill or capture them all, and my good Lord Dundrennan will return to me for further orders. Meantime, accept the assurance of my utmost esteem. 'GORDON, '_Captain of the Garde du Corps Ecossais_. 'For Blane, of that Ilk, 'Captain of Lutzelstein, '_These_.' 'Well, Arthur, what is to be done?' asked Dundrennan, stretching out his legs and draining a long horn of purple Rhenish, after scanning over the Marquis's letter. 'Obey.' 'Of course; I never doubted that: so we shall have a little affair with sword and pistol.' 'Who may those Imperialists be? Duke Charles, perhaps?' 'Nay, he is supposed to be with Count Gallas beyond the Rhine.' 'De Bitche probably?' 'Wrong again: he is shut up by our troops in Seltz.' 'This coach passes on the evening of the 11th.' 'To-morrow.' 'I will undertake this duty; and you, Dundrennan, will keep the castle for me in my absence.' The Viscount demurred loudly against this arrangement; but in case the whole affair might be a decoy, a snare to lure off my garrison and recapture the castle of the Counts Palatine, he ultimately agreed to keep the place in my absence, and secure a retreat for me in case of my falling into an ambush. CHAPTER LXVIII. THE SURPRISE. With ten of Brissac's dragoons, each having a Scottish musketeer _en croupe_ behind him, I mounted and rode from Lutzelstein about sunset on the 11th, having previously, since mid-day, beset the defile by men disguised and armed, to warn me in case of being anticipated or foiled by an earlier passage of the expected vehicle.