But the argument, though sound, availed me little, and in the end I was forced--for all that I am a man accustomed to please myself--to hurriedly end my repast, and pronounce myself ready to start.
As Andrea had with him some store of baggage--since his sojourn at Blois was likely to be of some duration--he travelled in a coach.

Into this coach, then, we climbed--he and I.His valet, Silvio, occupied the seat beside the coachman, whilst my stalwart Michelot rode behind leading my horse by the bridle.

In this fashion we set out, and ere long the silence of my thoughtful companion, the monotonous rumbling of the vehicle, and, most important of all factors, the good dinner that I had consumed, bred in me a torpor that soon became a sleep.
From a dream that, bound hand and foot, I was being dragged by St.Auban and Malpertuis before the Cardinal, I awakened with a start to find that we were clattering already through the streets of Etrechy; so that whilst I had slept we had covered some six leagues.

Twilight had already set in, and Andrea lay back idly in the carriage, holding a book which it was growing too dark to read, and between the leaves of which he had slipped his forefinger to mark the place where he had paused.
His eyes met mine as I looked round, and he smiled.

"I should not have thought, Gaston," he said, "that a man with so seared a conscience could have slept thus soundly." "I have not slept soundly," I grumbled, recalling my dream.
"Pardieu! you have slept long, at least." "Out of self-protection; so that I might not hear the name of Genevieve de Canaples.