'Come, my man.' He shrugged his shoulders, and stood still.
'Not I!' he answered, with an oath.

'No soldiers for me I have lain out one night, and I can lie out another.' I nodded indifferently, for I no longer wanted him; and we parted.

After this, twenty minutes' riding brought me to the entrance of the village, and here the change was great indeed.

Not one of the ordinary dwellers in the place was to be seen: either they had shut themselves up in their hovels, or, like Antoine, they had fled to the woods.

Their doors were closed, their windows shuttered.