Fortunately, I met no one between the house and the village, and was able to enter my host's with an air of the most complete innocence.
Short as had been my absence, however, I found things altered there.
Round the door lounged three strangers--stout, well-armed fellows, whose bearing, as they loitered and chattered, suggested a curious mixture of smugness and independence.

Half a dozen pack-horses stood tethered to the post in front of the house; and the landlord's manner, from being rude and churlish only, had grown perplexed and almost timid.

One of the strangers, I soon found, supplied him with wine; the others were travelling merchants, who rode in the first one's company for the sake of safety.

All were substantial men from Tarbes--solid burgesses; and I was not long in guessing that my host, fearing what might leak out before them, and, particularly, that I might refer to the previous night's disturbance, was on tenter-hooks while they remained.
For a time this did not suggest anything to me.

But when we had all taken our seats for supper, there came an addition to the party.