"It's very likely,--unless, in addition to your secret method of recruiting soldiers, you have a secret method of making them invulnerable." "Oh! it's not that; but before they are killed I would like to have them paid for." "Didn't you tell me that you had received ten thousand livres?" "Yes, on account. Ask Monsieur Lenet; he is a man of method, and I am sure he will remember our agreement." The duke turned to Lenet. "It is true, Monsieur le Duc," said the straightforward counsellor; "we gave Monsieur Cauvignac ten thousand livres by way of advance for the first outlay; but we promised him a hundred crowns per man." "In that case," said the duke, "we owe the captain thirty-five thousand francs?" "Just so, monseigneur." "They will be given you." "Might it not be done now, Monsieur le Duc?" "No, impossible." "Why so?" "Because you are one of us, and strangers must be settled with first of all. You understand that only those people we fear have to be coaxed." "An excellent maxim!" said Cauvignac; "in all bargains, however, it is customary to fix a time for payment." "Very well, let us say a week," said the duke. "A week it is," said Cauvignac. "But suppose that when the week has elapsed we have not paid?" suggested Lenet. "In that case I resume control of my men." "That is no more than fair," the duke agreed. "And I can do what I choose with them?" "Of course, as they belong to you." "But--" Lenet began. "Nonsense!" said the duke in a low tone,--"when we have them safely shut up in Vayres!" "I don't like this sort of bargain," said Lenet, shaking his head. "They are very common in Normandy," said Cauvignac; "they are called conditional sales." "Is it agreed?" asked the duke. "It is," Cauvignac replied. "When will your men start?" "At once, if you so order." "I do so order." "Then they are off, monseigneur." The captain went down into the street and said two words in Ferguzon's ear, and the Cauvignac company, followed by all the idlers whom its strange appearance had attracted, marched away toward the harbor, where the three boats were waiting which were to transport it up the Dordogne to Vayres, while its commander, faithful to the principle of freedom of action just enunciated by him to Monsieur de La Rochefoucauld, stood watching his men affectionately as they moved away. Meanwhile the viscountess in her own apartments was sobbing and praying. "Alas!" she moaned, "I could not save his honor unimpaired, but I will at least save the appearance of honor. He must not be conquered by force; for I know him so well that I know that he would die in defence of the place; it must be made to seem to him that he is overcome by treason. Then, when he knows what I have done for him, and, above all, my object in doing it, beaten as he is, he will bless me still."