"They'll be snug for a week." Returning to the salon, the girl was beset with mute questions in the eyes of all, each of whom looked at her with as much admiration as eagerness.
"But have you really seen them ?" cried Madame d'Hauteserre.
The countess put a finger on her lips and smiled; then she left the room and went to bed; her triumph sure, utter weariness had overtaken her.
The shortest road from Cinq-Cygne to Michu's lodge was that which led from the village past the farm at Bellache to the _rond-point_ where the Parisian spies had first seen Michu on the preceding evening.

The gendarme who was driving Corentin took this way, which was the one the corporal of Arcis had taken.

As they drove along, the agent was on the look-out for signs to show why the corporal had been unhorsed.

He blamed himself for having sent but one man on so important an errand, and he drew from this mistake an axiom for the police Code, which he afterwards applied.
"If they have got rid of the corporal," he said to himself, "they have done as much by Violette.

Those five horses have evidently brought the four conspirators and Michu from the neighborhood of Paris to the forest.