"Ay, then," he answered, "you are going to Guitres, which is farther still; but in that case you'll have to pass the Saye low down, and I fear that all the rain which fell last night may have rendered the ford impassable. Besides all that, however, I heard that Lossac and his band were lying between St. Aulaye and Contras, and it is even to be doubted whether he does not keep parties scouring the whole country up as far as Barbezieux, for he wants to prevent the bands from the South from joining our great admiral and the Prince de Condé. So you had better take my advice and keep hard away to the west, though you do get among the sands, for you are not strong enough to do much against any of his people, and must e'en have recourse to what we call fox's strength, by which I mean cunning." I thanked the aubergiste for his good information, which was, indeed, not a little important to me; for the armies of the Prince de Condé and the Duke of Montpensier were so placed that it was difficult for either to reach its resources, and no less so, for any one wishing to join the one, to avoid falling into the hands of the other. The tidings I had received cast me into a momentary fit of musing; and the aubergiste, seeing the effect his words had produced, and, at the same time, having a strong desire that I should take my breakfast at his house, represented to me that, if I would but wait for half an hour, a courier from Angoulême would pass through Cubzac, and from him we could extract much information. I agreed to his suggestion; and, soon after the morning meal had been prepared, I heard the arrival of the courier himself, and learned that he had passed a small band of horse, whether troops of Lossac or not he could not tell. They amounted not to more than six or seven persons, he said, and were apparently moving back towards Cercon. These tidings having been obtained, I had nothing farther to detain me at Cubzac; and, paying the host his reckoning, I mounted to my chamber, clothed myself in my good suit of steel, and, after calling loudly, but in vain, for Andriot, to make the rest of my goods and chattels into as small packages as possible, that it might be carried more easily, I descended to the courtyard to see what had become of my young attendant and my new follower, the latter of whom I had not seen during the whole morning.