"Now then," continued the châtelain, "I hesitated a moment between the fear of breaking my bones if I accepted and of being considered a coward if I refused. 'After all,' I said to myself, 'this fellow doesn't look like a lunatic, and seems to have no reason for risking his life. I have no doubt he has a wonderful horse and an excellent wagon.' I took my place beside him, and we began to descend the precipice at a fast trot, without a single false step on the part of the horse, or a moment's loss of resolution and self-possession on the part of the master. He talked to me about this thing and that and asked me many questions about the province; and I confess that I answered a little crookedly, for I was not altogether easy in my mind. 'So far so good,' I said to him when we reached the bank of the Gargilesse without accident; 'we have come safely down the break-neck, but we can't cross the water here; it's as low as possible, but even so, it is not fordable at this point; we must go up a little way to the left.' "'Do you call this water?' said he, shrugging his shoulders; 'for my part I see nothing but stones and rushes. Nonsense! the idea of turning aside for a dry stream!' "'As you choose,' I rejoined, a little mortified. His scornful audacity stung me; I knew that he was going straight into a veritable gulf, and yet, as I am not naturally a coward, and as I did not like the idea of being called one, I declined his offer to allow me to get down. I would have liked him to be punished by having reason to be well frightened, even at the expense of having a dip in the river myself, although I don't like water. "But I had neither the satisfaction nor the mortification: the cabriolet did not founder. In the centre of the stream, which has dug out a channel with beveled edges, so to speak, in that spot, the horse was in up to his nostrils; the carriage was lifted up by the current. The gentleman in the green overcoat--for it was green, Janille--lashed the horse; she lost her footing, floundered, swam, and by a miracle landed us on the bank, with no other injury than a rather cool foot-bath. I did not lose my wits, I can swim as well as any man, but my companion admitted that he knew no more about it than a stick of wood; and yet he had neither faltered, nor swore, nor changed color. He's a plucky fellow, I thought, and his self-possession did not displease me, although there was something scornful in his perfect tranquillity as there is in the devil's laugh. "'If you are going to Gargilesse, we can go on together, for I am going there too,' I said. "'Very good,' he replied. 'Where is Gargilesse?' "'Oh! then you are not going there?' "'I am not going anywhere to-day,' said he, 'and I am ready to go anywhere.'