I cannot trust another to do you that service.

Do quickly what I tell you." The priest gave his orders to Mr.Gerzson with imperious brevity, but that gentleman, even in his present situation, could not divest himself of his homely humour, and as he was donning the parson's long cassock and pressed the broad brimmed clerical hat down upon his head, he fell a laughing at the odd figure he cut.
"Deuce take it!" he cried, "I never imagined that I should ever be turned into a parson." But the priest was angry at the untimely jest and turning savagely upon Squire Gerzson, said: "Sir, this is no time for jesting, we are both of us standing on the very threshold of death." Gerzson was no coward, nor did he trouble himself very much about death, but the emphatic tone of the parson at least induced him, at last, to take the matter seriously.
"Then according to that you also are in danger on my account ?" "Ask no questions! I knew what would happen when I gave you a night's lodging." Then he took out of a drawer a packet of letters and bade Gerzson put them in the pocket of his cassock as the coat he was wearing had no pockets.
"Why do you take these with you ?" "Because I fear to leave them here, and also because I believe I shall never return to this house any more.

I have one request to make of you and that is that you will read these letters and keep the contents to yourself." Gerzson promised to do so.
It was just as the descending moon seemed to be resting on the summits of the mountains that the priest and his guest quitted the quiet little house by way of the garden.

The night which covered the retreat of the fugitives was pitch dark.

Nobody but one who had been accustomed to that district for years and knew all its ins and outs could have found a path through those wooded gorges.
By the morning light the fugitives perceived the little posting station on the high road.