I instantly followed her advice, and opening the door to which she pointed, soon found myself in the little court of the auberge, which again opened into what seemed the garden of a _guingette_, surrounded on three sides by walls, and on the fourth, which lay to my right hand, flanked by a high cliffy bank that sloped down towards the door at which I stood. It was night, and the moon had not yet risen, but there was still light enough remaining to let me see or rather divine all this, and running up the bank, and along the edge, with as noiseless a foot as possible, I soon heard voices speaking in the garden below me. I crept on as fast as I could, and the next moment clearly distinguished the words made use of. The groom was acting the orator as I came up, and proceeded as follows:-- "No, no, that won't do at all, Monsieur Parnac, for if he were to be taken in your house, under my guidance, most likely my good lord would turn me to the door, if he did not throw me out of the window, and would certainly ruin you here for your pains. You do not know what a man he is--so sharp, if you give him the least cause for suspicion! I do believe he finds out when one is going to do any little trick, even before one knows it oneself. I remember his turning off his chief ecuyer for merely whispering in the street with a maquignon, who was bringing him a horse for sale. No, no, let it be managed my way. Send off some one to-night, and have the officers stationed about the watering-place, by Meri, you know. Let them take me too, seemingly, for being in his company; and so my lord's suspicions will be set at rest, and I shall be carried back to Paris, too, where I shall get the reward." "Ay, but, Maître Pierre, are you quite sure of the reward?" demanded mine host. "All I can tell thee, Parnac, is this," replied the groom. "I heard it offered by proclamation, as we were riding home, the evening before I came away. A thousand crowns were to be given to any one who would deliver up the leader of those that had rescued the criminal, and two thousand crowns to those who would deliver up the criminal himself. I would have done it myself, if I had known at the time that this boy was the person; and I could have managed it easily as we came through the city. But I never found it out, as I tell you, till we met with this Jacques Marlot, and then I heard them talk about it quite as if they were in security." "Well, well, Pierre, I think thou wilt get thy thousand crowns," answered the landlord; "and they know how to do these things so secretly at the Court, that thou mayest get them and not lose thy master's service either; but tell me, what am I to get?" "Why, of course, I will pay thee for the man and horse sent to the city," replied the groom. "Ay, but that will not be quite enough," answered mine host, "to pay me for risking your good lord's custom and patronage. Something more! something more! good Pierre, or thou mayest ride to Rennes to-night thyself."