"
"And no help-nearer than Gueret."
"Three leagues," he assented. "And from that we are cut off.
Fifty men in the gorge might hold it against five hundred.
Better man the courtyard here than that, tether the horses in the
gateway, and fight it out." "Perhaps so," I said; and we looked
at one another, hearing through the open door the men muttering
and whispering in the kitchen, and above their voices the dull
murmur of the stream, which seemed of a piece with the bleak
night outside, the ruined hamlet, and the danger that lurked
round us. Bitterly repenting the hardihood that had led me to
expose myself to such risks in breach of the King's commandment,
I found it difficult to direct my mind to the immediate question.
So many reflections connected with my mission at Chatelherault
and other affairs of state would intrude that I seemed to be
occupied rather with the results of my death at this juncture,
and particularly the injury which it must inflict on the King's
service, than with the question how I could escape.
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