France -- History -- Revolution, 1789-1799 -- Fiction; Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821 -- Fiction
We say Mâcon _or_ Saint-Julien, because about three miles from the
capital of Bresse the road forks; the one to the right keeping straight
on to Saint-Julien, the other, which deviates to the left, leading to
Mâcon.
When the rider reached this bifurcation, he was about to take the road
leading to Mâcon, when a voice, apparently coming from beneath an upset
cart, implored his pity. The rider called to the postilion to see what
the matter was.
A poor market-man was pinned down under a load of vegetables. He had
evidently attempted to hold up the cart just as the wheel, sinking into
the ditch, overbalanced the vehicle. The cart had fallen on him, but
fortunately, he said, he thought no limbs were broken, and all he wanted
was to get the cart righted, and then he could recover his legs.
The rider was compassionate to his fellow being, for he not only
allowed the postilion to stop and help the market-man, but he himself
dismounted, and with a vigor one would hardly have expected from so
slight a man, he assisted the postilion not only to right the cart, but
to replace it on the roadbed. After which he offered to help the man to
rise; but the latter had said truly; he really was safe and sound, and
if there were a slight shaking of the legs, it only served to prove
the truth of the proverb that God takes care of drunkards. The man was
profuse in his thanks, and took his horse by the bridle, as much, it was
evident, to hold himself steady as to lead the animal.
The riders remounted their homes, put them to a gallop, and soon
disappeared round a bend which the road makes a short distance before it
reaches the woods of Monnet.
They had scarcely disappeared when a notable change took place in the
demeanor of our market-man. He stopped his horse, straightened up, put
the mouthpiece of a tiny trumpet to his lips, and blew three times. A
species of groom emerged from the woods which line the road, leading
a gentleman’s horse by the bridle. The market-man rapidly removed his
blouse, discarded his linen trousers, and appeared in vest and breeches
of buckskin, and top boots. He searched in his cart, drew forth a
package which he opened, shook out a green hunting coat with gold
braidings, put it on, and over it a dark-brown overcoat; took from
the servant’s hands a hat which the latter presented him, and which
harmonized with his elegant costume, made the man screw his spurs to
his boots, and sprang upon his horse with the lightness and skill of an
experienced horseman.
“To-night at seven,” he said to the groom, “be on the road between
Saint-Just and Ceyzeriat. You will meet Morgan. Tell him that he _whom
he knows of_ has gone to Mâcon, but that I shall be there before him.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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