While the robber was putting this promise in execution, Marteville whispered a few words of consolation to Louise, bidding her not be afraid, that they were _fort honnêtes gens, très aimables_ to their friends, _et cetera_; but seeing that his words produced no effect, and that the unfortunate girl, beginning to comprehend the nature of his character, had burst into tears of bitter regret, he muttered a curse or two, not loud, but deep; and without any farther effort to allay her fears, sat whistling on his horse, till the robber, half sliding, half running, managed to descend from the eminence on which he had first appeared. "_Eh bien_, Callot," said Monsieur Marteville to his former companion, "how goes it with the troop?" "But badly," replied Callot: "What with one devilry or another, we have but half a dozen left." "And where is Pierrepont Le Blanc?" demanded the Norman: "Could not he keep you together?" "Oh! we have sent him to the kingdom of moles," answered the robber, twisting his face into a most horrible grin. "First he quarrelled with one, and then he quarrelled with another; and then, as he was captain, and had the purse, he bethought him of taking himself off with all the treasure. But we caught him on the road; and so, as I have said, we sent the buccaneer on an embassy to the kingdom of moles. After that, there were two of us shot near Epernay, by a party of the Guard; and then six more went to see what could be gathered upon the road to Perpignan, and one was taken and hanged at Troyes; so that there are but myself and five others of the old band left." "And quite enough too, if you had a bold leader," replied the Norman. "But where do you roost, _mes jolis oiseaux_?" "No, no; we do not perch now," answered the robber; "we go to earth. Under the old castle here, are the most beautiful vaults in the world; and I defy Beelzebub himself to nose us, when we are hidden there." "But why not take to the château itself? Is it so far decayed?"