“We can’t know the truth till daylight,” said Peyrade. “The road is damp; I have ordered two gendarmes to barricade it top and bottom. We’ll examine it after daylight, and find out by the footsteps who went that way.”
“I see a hoof-mark,” said Corentin; “let us go to the stables.”
“How many horses do you keep?” said Peyrade, returning to the salon with Corentin, and addressing Monsieur d’Hauteserre and Goulard.
“Come, monsieur le maire, you know, answer,” cried Corentin, seeing that that functionary hesitated.
“Why, there’s the countess’s mare, Gothard’s horse, and Monsieur d’Hauteserre’s.”
“There is only one in the stable,” said Peyrade.
“Mademoiselle is out riding,” said Durieu.
“Does she often ride about at this time of night?” said the libertine Peyrade, addressing Monsieur d’Hauteserre.
“Often,” said the good man, simply. “Monsieur le maire can tell you that.”
“Everybody knows she has her freaks,” remarked Catherine; “she looked at the sky before she went to bed, and I think the glitter of your bayonets in the moonlight puzzled her. She told me she wanted to know if there was going to be another revolution.”
“There’s another horse missing,” said Corentin.
“The gendarmes--took it--away from me,” said Gothard.
“Where were you going?” said one of them.
“I was--following--my mistress to the farm,” sobbed the boy.
The gendarme looked towards Corentin as if expecting an order. But Gothard’s speech was evidently so true and yet so false, so perfectly innocent and so artful that the two Parisians again looked at each other as if to echo Peyrade’s former words: “They are not ninnies.”
Monsieur d’Hauteserre seemed incapable of a word; the mayor was bewildered; the mother, imbecile from maternal fears, was putting questions to the police agents that were idiotically innocent; the servants had been roused from their sleep. Judging by these trifling signs, and these diverse characters, Corentin came to the conclusion that his only real adversary was Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne. Shrewd and dexterous as the police may be, they are always under certain disadvantages. Not only are they forced to discover all that is known to a conspirator, but they must also suppose and test a great number of things before they hit upon the right one. The conspirator is always thinking of his own safety, whereas the police is only on duty at certain hours. Were it not for treachery and betrayals, nothing would be easier than to conspire successfully. The conspirator has more mind concentrated upon himself than the police can bring to bear with all its vast facilities of action. Finding themselves stopped short morally, as they might be physically by a door which they expected to find open being shut in their faces, Corentin and Peyrade saw they were tricked and misled, without knowing by whom.