Yesterday morning, therefore, I sent to him."
"And he is here?" I said drily.
Parabere admitted with a blush that he was not. His messenger
had found Bareilles on the point of starting against a band of
plunderers who had ravaged the country for a twelvemonth. He had
sent me the most; civil messages therefore--but he had not come.
"However, he will be at Gueret to-morrow," Parabere added
cheerfully.
"Will he?" I said.
"I will answer for it," he answered. "In the meantime, he has
done what he can for our comfort."
"How?" I said,
"He bids us not to attempt the last three leagues to Gueret to-
night; the road is too bad. But to stay at Saury, where there is
a good inn, and to-morrow morning he will meet us there."
"If the brigands have not proved too much for him," I said.
"Yes," Parabere answered, with a simplicity almost supernatural.
"To be sure."
After this, it was no use to say anything to him, though his
officiousness would have justified the keenest reproaches. I
swallowed my resentment, therefore, and we went on amicably
enough, though the valley of the Creuse, in its upper and wilder
part, through which our road now wound, offered no objects of a
kind to soften my anger against the governor.
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