"Sir, you will ride at once to Thouars, by way of Loudun, and deliver this despatch to General Salomon. It is most urgent. When you hand it to him, you can say that I begged you to impress upon him the necessity for losing not a moment of time. It is all important that he should arrive here tonight, for tomorrow morning we may be attacked. Take your troopers with you." The officer and his men mounted at once, and rode off at full speed. Leigh remained quiet until Menou and the other officers rode out from the courtyard and proceeded down the street, followed by their escort. Then he got up, stretched himself, and walked slowly to the spot where his two comrades were awaiting him. "I have learned what I wanted to know," he said. "Do you both make your way back to the spot where Pierre will be awaiting us, and tell him that I am going to swim the river, a mile above the town. He is to wait where he is until Lucien comes back from Tours--which will not be till twelve o'clock tonight, for his orders are to remain within sight of the town till six in the afternoon. If by that hour the troops there have not set out, they will not arrive until after we have captured Saumur. "Saunter along quietly. There is no hurry." After they had set out he, too, strolled out of the town, kept along the road for another half mile, and then struck off across the fields towards the river. Arrived there, he took off his heavy country shoes, tied them round his waist, and waded out into the river. He had but some thirty yards to swim. As soon as he reached the opposite bank, he poured the water out of his shoes, put them on again, and set out at a run. He had to make a detour, so as to get beyond the eminences on which the Republican troops were posted and, after running for a couple of miles, came down on the road. A short distance farther he arrived at a village. A peasant, with a horse and cart, was standing in front of a cabaret. "Do you want to earn two crowns?" he asked the man. The latter nodded. "Two crowns are not easily earned," he said. "I was just starting for Montreuil but, if it pays me better to go in another direction, I must put that journey off until tomorrow." "I want you to carry me to Doue," he said, "at the best speed of which your horse is capable." The countryman looked at him doubtfully. His clothes were not yet dry. Leigh saw that the man was not sure of his power to fulfil his promise. He therefore produced two crowns, and held them up. "By Saint Matthew," he said, "it is the first silver I have seen for months. I will take you." Leigh jumped up beside the peasant. The latter at once whipped up his horse, and started at a brisk trot. "You know that the Catholic Army is there?" he asked. "Yes, I know. I belong to it myself. I have been with it from the first."