"Voluntary or involuntary?" "Who knows, with these people?" "Pooh! But what did they tell you?" "They told me nothing." "Well, what then?" "Then, after you left me I went on bargaining for oats." "Yes. What next?" "Next, the peasant who spoke to me asked for earnest-money; that was fair. I asked him for a receipt; that was fair, too. He wanted to go to a shop and write it. 'No,' I said. 'Here's a pencil; haven't you a scrap of paper about you? My hat will do for a table.' He tore off the back of a letter and gave me a receipt. There it is. Read it." The sub-prefect took the paper, and read;-- "Received, of M. Jean-Louis Robier, the sum of fifty francs, on account, for thirty sacks of flour, which I engage to deliver to him May 28. F. TERRIEN. May 14, 1832." "Well," said the sub-prefect, "I don't see any information there." "Turn over the paper." "Ah, ha!" exclaimed the functionary. The paper which he held was one half of a page of letter paper torn through the middle. On the other side from that on which the receipt was written were these words:-- arquis ceived this instant the news her whom we are expecting. Beaufays, evening of 26th send officers of your division presented to Madame. your people in hand. respectfully, oux. "The devil!" cried the sub-prefect; "that is nothing more nor less than a call to arms. It is easy enough to make out the rest." "Nothing easier," said the general. Then he added, in a low voice, "Too easy, perhaps." "Ah, _ça!_ didn't you tell me these people were sly and cautious? I call this, on the contrary, a bit of innocent carelessness which is amazing." "Wait," said Dermoncourt; "that's not all." "Ah, ha!" "After parting with my seller of oats I met a beggar, half an idiot. I talked to him about the good God and the saints and the Virgin, about the buckwheat and the apple year (you observe that the apple-trees are in bloom), and I ended by asking him if he could not act as guide for us to Loroux, where, as you know, I am to make an inspection. 'I can't,' said my idiot, with a mischievous look. 'Why not?' I asked in the stupidest way I could. 'Because I am ordered to guide a lady and two gentlemen from Puy-Laurens to La Flocelière.'" "The devil! here's a complication." "On the contrary, enlightenment." "Explain." "Confidences which are given when not extorted, in a region where it is so difficult to get them, seem to me such clumsy traps that an old fox like myself ought to be ashamed to be caught by them. The Duchesse de Berry, if she is really in La Vendée, cannot be at Souday and Beaufays and Puy-Laurens at the same time. What do you think, my dear sub-prefect?"