Or I might be handed over to one of the savage bands, half smugglers, half brigands, that held the passes; or be delivered, worse fate of all, into the power of the French exiles, of whom some would be likely to recognise me and cut my throat.
'It is a long way into Spain,' I muttered, watching in a kind of fascination Clon handling his pistols.
'I think you will find the other road longer still,' the landlord answered grimly.

'But choose, and be quick about it.' They were three to one, and they had firearms.

In effect I had no choice.
'Well, if I must I must ?' I cried, making up my mind with seeming recklessness.

'VOGUE LA GALERE! Spain be it.

It will not be the first time I have heard the dons talk.' The men nodded, as much as to say that they had known what the end would be; the landlord released my rein; and in a trice we were riding down the narrow track, with our faces set towards the mountains.
On one point my mind was now more easy.