Belle-Rose — page 319: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

308 OVER HILLS AND ACROSS VALLEYS. The coachman confided his horses to the first valet he met, and hastened to shut himself up with Déroute. The pasty was uncovered, the bottles uncorked, and the narra- tive began. While Déroute was treating the coachman, Grippard, who had his instructions, was treating a groom. As to Belle-Rose, he was writing a letter to Suzanne. Toward evening the bishop’s conveyances were prepared . for departure; the ecclesiastics mounted within, and the lackeys held themselves ready. At this moment Déroute ran to seek Belle-Rose. “Hey! captain,’’? he said to him, ‘‘the trick is ‘iaweds make haste. ”’ Belle-Rose entered the sergeant’s reom. The coachman, all undressed, was sleeping like a log upon Déroute’s bed, who was laughing with all his heart. The clothes were spread out upon a chair. ‘‘He is drunk asa -Swiss,’’ said the sergeant, ‘‘and in order that the fantasy to wake should not take him, I have mixed an effusion of poppy in my Orleans wine.”’ Belle-Rose dressed himself quickly; the coachman was almost of his size and blonde like him; he pulled the hat down over his eyes and descended the stair-way. He was being called when he appeared in the court; he took his way toward the bishop’s carriage and climbed upon the seat as if he had done nothing else than this all his life. As Belle-Rose_ left, Grippard entered Déroute’s apartment. ‘It is finished,’’ he said to him. Déroute thanked him and disappeared. The bishop had — mounted within his carriage, Belle-Rose touched the horses with the whip, and the team started. Ata quarter of a league from the abbey Belle-Rose remarked upon the side of the road some ill-looking persons who looked curiously at the procession. He recalled the warnings of Monsieur de Pomereux, applied a cut of the whip to his horses, and passed without being disturbed; the bishop’s livery pro- tected him. They relayed at Meulan, and toward midnight they reached Mantes. The first person whom Belle-Rose perceived in the court of the episcopal palace was Déroute descending from a horse in the costume of a groom. ‘‘¥t is still you!’’ he exclaimed, not knowing if he ought to laugh or scold. “Still me. When I saw you leave, my legs refused to stay there; they have entered all alone into great boots which were close by; my arms, on their part, have stuffed themselves into the stable-coat of a groom who was sleep- ing in the fashion of the coachman whom you know; I comicbooks.co