The dreary emptiness of the rain-washed yard afforded them more than ample confirmation.
"Where is your pig of an ostler, Mother Capoulade ?" demanded the angry Captain.
Quivering with terror, she answered him that the rascal should be in the shed by the stables, where it was his wont to sleep.

Out into the rain, despite the scantiness of his attire, went Charlot, followed closely by La Boulaye and one or two stragglers.

The shed proved empty, as Caron could have told him--and so, too, did the stables.

Here, at the spot where Madame de Bellecour's coachman had been left bound, the Captain turned to La Boulaye and those others that had followed him.
"It is the ostler's work," he announced.

"There was knavery and treachery writ large upon his ugly face.