As an officer in uniform, he was able to re-enter the town after the gates were closed, the rules being by no means strict, as, during the reign of Louis the 14th, France, though engaged in frequent wars abroad, was free from domestic troubles.
Presently, he passed a lonely house of some size, standing back from the road and surrounded by a high wall.

As he did so, he heard a scream in a female voice, followed by angry exclamations from two male voices, while loudly rose a woman's cries for help.
"There is bad work of some sort going on in there," he said to Mike.

"We had better see what it is all about.

Do you go round the wall by the right, and I will go round by the left, and see if there is any way by which we can climb over." They met at the back of the house.

The wall was unbroken, save by the gates in front.
"The wall is too high for us to climb, Mike," Desmond said.