“Yes, lieutenant; perfectly. It was an old-seigneurie once; and though much dismantled, has a look of respectability still about it. I 've often been there to buy corn; but the gruff old farmer, they say, hates the military, and it 's not easy to get him to deal with us at all.” “What's the distance from here?” “Two leagues and a half, almost three; indeed you may count it as much, the road is so bad.” “Now then for the way. Describe it; be as brief as you can.” “You know the cross on the high road beyond Ypres?” “I do. Proceed.” “Passing the cross and the little shrine, go forward for a mile or something more, till you come to a small cabaret on the roadside, at the end of which you 'll find a 'chemin de traverse,' a clay road, which will lead you up the fields about half a league to a large pond where they water the cattle; cross this, and continue till you see the lights of a village to your left; the barking of the dogs will guide you if the lights be out; don't enter the village, but go on till you meet an old gateway covered with ivy,--enter there, and you are in the avenue of the château. The high road is full five leagues about, but you 'll easily find this way. There 's a mastiff there you should be on your guard against,--though you must not fire on him either; they were going to take my life once that I half drew a pistol from my holster against him, and I heard one of the fellows say to another that monseigneur's dog was well worth a bleu any day, whatever he meant by that.” Very few minutes sufficed to give my orders respecting the picket, and I was in my saddle and ready for the road; and although my departure excited no surprise among my men, coupled as it was with the orders I had just given, I overheard the troop sergeant mutter to another as I passed out, “Parbleu, I always suspected there was something wrong about that old château yonder; come what weather it would, they'd never let you take shelter within the walls of it.” The night was so dark that when I turned into the road I could not even distinguish my horse's head; heavy drifts of rain, too, went sweeping along, and the wind roared through the forest with a noise like the sea in a storm.