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"I have come to you, M. d'Artagnan, for you are the only man who can get me out of my trouble." "In what way?" "You are acquainted with the Abbe d'Herblay and you know that he is a somewhat mysterious gentleman." "Yes." "Well, you can, perhaps, give me the address of his presbytery, for I have been to Noisy-le-Sec, and he is no longer there." "I should think not, indeed. He is Bishop of Vannes."
"For two days?" I repeated, greatly astonished. I was unable to believe so much time had passed since the battle of Vannes. I sought to recall my wandering memory. "Is it possible? What, I have been here two days?" "Yes, and you have been unconscious, in a delirium. The physician who dressed your wounds made you take several potions." "Now I recall it confusedly. And also a ride in a chariot?"
He could not be mistaken in that horse, however; it was the pacer. Certain of recovering the trail again, Roland retraced his steps. The two riders had separated at a road leading off to Vannes; one had taken that road, the other had skirted the village, which, as we have said, was on the road to Bourg.
The traveler comes from Vannes, and even further. He wishes to see you." "Why does he not step in?" "He is shaking off the snow that covers him from head to foot." "Good God, Gildas! Is the man a peddler?" "Roselyk, Roselyk, does not that also sound like mother? You are right, all mothers' hearts are alike." "No, Martha; the young man does not look like a peddler to me.
Then, the passage reconnoitred, I shall return on board to pilot the fleet even to the mouth of the harbor of Vannes." "I no longer suspect," answered the interpreter. "But according to Caesar's order, neither the soldier nor I may leave you a single instant." "Let it be as you wish," assented Albinik. A small boat was lowered from the galley.
"How many men are stationed along the road from here to La Roche-Bernard, which the gentleman followed in coming to see me?" "Six hundred on the Arzal moor, six hundred among the Marzan gorse, three hundred at Peaule, three hundred at Billiers." "Total, eighteen hundred. How many between Noyal and Muzillac?" "Four hundred." "Two thousand two hundred. How many between here and Vannes?"
At Vannes, where Hawke likewise has ships watching, are multifarious preparations; new Flat-bottoms, 18,000 troops, could Conflans and they only get to sea. At the long last, they did get; in manner following: "November 9th, a wild gale of wind had blown Hawke out of sight; away home to Torbay, for the moment.
"And what is the reason of it all, children?" asked Mamm' Margarid without leaving her distaff. "Four Roman officers, without any other escort than four soldiers and as calmly insolent as if they were in some enslaved country, came in yesterday and commanded the magistrates of the town to issue orders to all the neighboring tribes to send to Vannes ten thousand bags of wheat "
To levy these provisionings upon us and the neighboring tribes of Vannes; to force us to carry the requisitions to Touraine and Anjou with our oxen and horses which the Romans will surely keep also, and all that at the very season of the late sowing and of our autumn labors; to ruin next year's harvest; why, that is to reduce us to living upon the grass that would have fed the cattle that they rob us of!"
They entered almost at the same instant the faubourg; but scarcely had they gone a hundred paces when they were surprised to find the streets strewed with leaves and flowers. Against the old walls of Vannes, hung the oldest and the strangest tapestries of France. From over balconies fell long white sheets stuck all over with bouquets.
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