"If I have any knowledge of phiz--_what d'ye call it_," observed O'Brien, after she left us, "there is honesty in that woman, and I must trust her, but not yet; we must wait till the conscripts have gone." I agreed with O'Brien, and we remained talking until an hour afterwards, when the woman brought us our dinner.
"Louise Eustache; you might have read it on the letter."
"Oh yes, these six years. My husband is seldom at home; he is a Flushing pilot. A hard life, harder even than that of a soldier. Who is this lad?"
"He is my brother, who, if I go as a soldier, intends to volunteer as a drummer."
The cabaret was full of conscripts and other people, so that the hostess had enough to do. At night, we were shown by her into a small bed-room, adjoining the room we occupied. "You are quite alone here; the conscripts are to muster to-morrow, I find, in the _Place d'Armes_, at two o'clock; do you intend to go?"
"No," replied O'Brien: "they will think that I am behind. It is of no consequence."
"Well," replied the woman, "do as you please, you may trust me: but I am so busy, without any one to assist me, that until they leave the town, I can hardly find time to speak to you."
"That will be soon enough, my good hostess," replied O'Brien: "_au revoir_."
The next evening, the woman came in, in some alarm, stating that a conscript had arrived whose name had been given in before, and that the person who had given it in, had not mustered at the place. That the conscript had declared, that his pass had been stolen from him by a person with whom he had stopped at St Nicholas, and that there were orders for a strict search to be made through the town, as it was known that some English officers had escaped, and it was supposed that one of them had obtained the pass. "Surely you're not English?" inquired the woman, looking earnestly at O'Brien.
"Indeed, but I am, my dear," replied O'Brien: "and so is this lad with me: and the favour which your sister requires is, that you help us over the water, for which service there are one hundred louis ready to be paid upon delivery of us."
"Impossible!" replied O'Brien; "was that the answer I gave your sister in her trouble?"
"That's quite another concern; but with your husband a pilot, I should think a great part of the difficulty removed."