It had taken place on the same road which they had just followed, and the narrator, the wine merchant of Bordeaux, had been one of the principal actors in the scene on the highroad.

Those who seemed the most curious to hear the details were the travellers in the diligence which had just arrived and was soon to depart.

The other guests, who belonged to the locality, seemed sufficiently conversant with such catastrophes to furnish the details themselves instead of listening to them.
"So, citizen," said a stout gentleman against whom a tall woman, very thin and haggard, was crowding in her terror.

"You say that the robbery took place on the very road by which we have just come ?" "Yes, citizen, between Lambesc and Pont-Royal.

Did you notice the spot where the road ascends between two high banks?
There are a great many rocks there." "Yes, yes, my friend," said the wife, pressing her husband's arm, "I noticed it; I even said, as you must remember, 'Here is a bad place; I would rather pass here by day than at night.'" "Oh! madame," said a young man whose voice affected to slur his r's after the fashion of the day, and who probably assumed to lead the conversation at the table d'hote, on ordinary occasions, "you know the Companions of Jehu know no day or night." "What! citizen," asked the lady still more alarmed, "were you attacked in broad daylight ?" "In broad daylight, citizeness, at ten o'clock in the morning." "And how many were there ?" asked the stout gentleman.
"Four, citizen." "Ambushed beside the road ?" "No; they were on horseback, armed to the teeth and masked." "That's their custom," said the young frequenter of the table d'hote, "and they said, did they not: 'Do not defend yourself, we will not harm you.