Had he hypnotized the corporal and the six soldiers?
Or had he murdered them all ?" said the Duke.
"Corporal?
There wasn't any corporal, and there weren't any soldiers.
The corporal was Lupin, and the soldiers were part of his gang," said Germaine.
"I don't understand," said the Duke.

"The colonel promised your father a corporal and six men.

Didn't they come ?" "They came to the railway station all right," said Germaine.

"But you know the little inn half-way between the railway station and the chateau?
They stopped to drink there, and at eleven o'clock next morning one of the villagers found all seven of them, along with the footman who was guiding them to the chateau, sleeping like logs in the little wood half a mile from the inn.

Of course the innkeeper could not explain when their wine was drugged.