.

THE TRIAL.
"Well, I'll say as you did just now, we'll talk about it when I return, if I do." "Bless me!" exclaimed Bonaparte, "I'm not afraid; you'll kill him as you have the others; only this time, I must admit, I shall be sorry to have him die." "If you are going to feel so badly about it, general, I can easily be killed in his stead." "Don't do anything foolish, ninny!" cried Bonaparte; hastily; "I should feel still worse if I lost you." "Really, general, you are the hardest man to please that I know of," said Roland with his harsh laugh.
And this time he took his way to Chivasso without further delay.
Half an hour later, Roland was galloping along the road to Ivrae in a post-chaise.

He was to travel thus to Aosta, at Aosta take a mule, cross the Saint-Bernard to Martigny, thence to Geneva, on to Bourg, and from Bourg to Paris.
While he is galloping along let us see what has happened in France, and clear up the points in the conversation between Bonaparte and his aide-de-camp which must be obscure to the reader's mind.
The prisoners which Roland had made at the grotto of Ceyzeriat had remained but one night in the prison at Bourg.

They had been immediately transferred to that of Besancon, where they were to appear before a council of war.
It will be remembered that two of these prisoners were so grievously wounded that they were carried into Bourg on stretchers.

One of them died that same night, the other, three days after they reached Besancon.
The number of prisoners was therefore reduced to four; Morgan, who had surrendered himself voluntarily and who was safe and sound, and Montbar, Adler, and d'Assas, who were more or less wounded in the fight, though none of them dangerously.