"It is I," came the reply. "I have important news for the captain."
"Oh, it is you, Marianne?" replied the man on guard. "I didn't know you
for an instant, you appeared so suddenly, without any noise."
I hastened to the gate and called, "Come, Marianne, what is it?"
She came up puffing and perspiring. So breathless was she that she had to
sit down on a bench in the courtyard before she could answer me.
"Oh, monsieur!" she said, when she had recovered some breath. "Look to
yourself! The governor of the province is at Clochonne!"
"The devil!" I said, and turned to see the effect of this news on
mademoiselle.
She was standing, trembling, as white as death, her one hand on the back
of the bench for support.
"Be not alarmed, mademoiselle," I said, "Clochonne is not Maury! They do
not know our hiding-place. How did you learn, Marianne, and what else do
you know?"
Mademoiselle stood perfectly still and fixed her eyes on Marianne,
awaiting the latter's answers with apparently as much interest as I
myself felt.
"Godeau went to Clochonne this morning with some eggs to sell, and
learned that the governor arrived last night and occupies the chateau,"
said Marianne.
"With how many men?" I asked.
"Godeau said that the courtyard of the chateau and the market-place of
the town were full of men-at-arms, but he did not wait to find out how
many there were.
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