The roads north and south
being occupied, and the river enclosing us on the west, there
remained only one direction in which escape seemed possible; but,
as we knew nothing of the country, and the brigands everything,
the desperate idea of plunging into it blindly, at night, and
with pursuers at our heels, was dismissed as soon as formed.
Parabere interrupted these calculations by drawing me aside into
the room in which we had supped, where, after rallying me on the
whimsical notion of the Grand Master of the Ordnance and Governor
of the Bastile being besieged in a paltry inn, he confessed that
he had been wrong, and that the adventure was likely to prove
serious. "Ten to one this is the very band that Bareilles is
pursuing," he said.
"Very likely," I answered bluntly; "but the question is how are
we to evade them. Are we to fight or fly?"
"Well, for lighting," he replied coolly; "the front gate lies in
the road, there are no shutters to half the windows, the door is
crazy, and there is a thatched pent-house against one wall.
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