"
"How do you know that?" asked Mathilde, a dull light in her eyes.
"I--I know where it came from," replied Barlasch, with an odd smile.
"Allez! you may take it from me." And he muttered to himself in the
patois of the Cotes du Nord.
"And they were safe and well at Vilna?" asked Mathilde.
"Yes--and they had their treasure. They had good fortune, or else
they were more clever than other men; for they had the Imperial
treasure to escort, and could take any man's horse for the carriages
in which also they had placed their own treasure. It was Captain
Darragon who held the appointment, and the other--the Colonel--had
attached himself to him as volunteer. For it was at Vilna that the
last thread of discipline was broken, and every man did as he
wished."
"They did not come to Kowno?" asked Mathilde, who had a clear mind,
and that grasp of a situation which more often falls to the lot of
the duller sex.
"They did not come to Kowno. They would turn south at Vilna. It
was as well. At Kowno the soldiers had broken into the magazines--
the brandy was poured out in the streets. The men were lying there,
the drunken and the dead all confused together on the snow. But
there would be no confusion the next morning; for all would be
dead."
"Was it at Kowno that you left Monsieur d'Arragon?" asked Desiree,
in a sharp voice.
"No--no. We quitted Kowno together, and parted on the heights above
the town.
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