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Twenty minutes later he re-entered the Chateau des Noires-Fontaines. Two persons were waiting for Roland's return; one in anguish, the other with impatience. These two persons were Amelie and Sir John. Neither of them had slept for an instant. Amelie displayed her anguish only by the sound of her door, which was furtively closed as Roland came up the staircase. Roland heard the sound.
"And now," said Bonaparte, "I presume you are in a hurry to be off to the Chateau des Noires-Fontaines. I won't detain you, but there is one condition I impose." "And that is, general?" "If I need you for another mission " "That is not a condition, citizen First Consul; it is a favor." Lord Tanlay bowed and withdrew. Bourrienne prepared to follow him, but Bonaparte called him back.
Impossible, he was too well known in Bourg; besides, his horse with its cavalry saddle-cloth would excite suspicion. It was one of the conditions of success that his presence at Bourg should remain unknown. He could hide at the Chateau des Noires-Fontaines and keep on the watch, but could he trust the servants?
I'll cut myself in quarters to amuse you, my dear guest, but there are two disadvantages against me: this region, which is not very amusing, and your nationality, which is not easily amused." "I have already told you, Roland," replied Lord Tanlay, offering his hand to the young man, "that I consider the Chateau des Noires-Fontaines a paradise."
Louis dismissed the two peasants, and they jostled each other at the door in their efforts to go through together. Nothing more was said that evening about the Chartreuse or the pavilion, nor of its supernatural tenants, spectres or phantoms who haunted them. At ten o'clock everyone was in bed at the Chateau des Noires-Fontaines, or, at any rate, all had retired to their rooms.
Madame de Montrevel, overwhelmed by the part she had been made to play at the crucial point of this drama, saw but one means of repairing the evil she had done, and that was to start at once for Paris and fling herself at the feet of the First Consul, imploring him to pardon the four condemned men. She did not even take time to go to the Chateau des Noires-Fontaines to see Amelie.
Then with the indifference to danger which a soldier generally feels for himself and his companions, Roland took his way back to the Chateau des Noires-Fontaines, as he had promised Sir John. The next day Roland, who had been unable to sleep till about two in the morning, woke about seven.
Michel was not to leave with the horses and dogs until eleven. The Chateau des Noires-Fontaines was just at the edge of the forest of Seillon, so the hunt could begin at its very gates. As the battue promised chiefly deer and hares, the guns were loaded with balls. Roland gave Edouard a simple little gun which he himself had used as a child.
When night came he put on a hunting-suit, and over it Michel's blouse, concealed his face beneath a broad-brimmed hat, slipped a pair of pistols in his knife-belt, hidden by the blouse, and boldly took the road from Noires-Fontaines to Bourg. He stopped at the barracks of the gendarmerie and asked to see the captain. The captain was in his room. Roland went up and made himself known.
Matters stood thus when Madame de Montrevel and Sir John arrived at Noires-Fontaines. Before leaving Paris, the First Consul had informed Madame de Montrevel, both through Josephine and Roland, that he approved of her daughter's marriage, and wished it to take place during his absence, and as soon as possible.
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