They breathed again to see that the road as yet was clear, and they rang the bell.
Dr.Renard was a beaming, brown-bearded man, a good example of that silent but very busy professional class which France has preserved even more perfectly than England.

When the matter was explained to him he pooh-poohed the panic of the ex-Marquis altogether; he said, with the solid French scepticism, that there was no conceivable probability of a general anarchist rising.

"Anarchy," he said, shrugging his shoulders, "it is childishness!" "Et ca," cried out the Colonel suddenly, pointing over the other's shoulder, "and that is childishness, isn't it ?" They all looked round, and saw a curve of black cavalry come sweeping over the top of the hill with all the energy of Attila.

Swiftly as they rode, however, the whole rank still kept well together, and they could see the black vizards of the first line as level as a line of uniforms.
But although the main black square was the same, though travelling faster, there was now one sensational difference which they could see clearly upon the slope of the hill, as if upon a slanted map.

The bulk of the riders were in one block; but one rider flew far ahead of the column, and with frantic movements of hand and heel urged his horse faster and faster, so that one might have fancied that he was not the pursuer but the pursued.