The jailer’s daughter had not been mistaken; it was indeed Roland whom she had seen in the jail speaking to the captain of the gendarmerie. Neither was Amélie wrong in her terror. Roland was really in pursuit of Morgan.  
Although he avoided going to the Château des Noires-Fontaines, it was not that he had the slightest suspicion of the interest his sister had in the leader of the Companions of Jehu; but he feared the indiscretion of one of his servants. He had recognized Charlotte at the jail, but as the girl showed no astonishment², he believed she had not recognized him, all the more because, after exchanging a few words with the captain, he went out to wait for the latter on the Place du Bastion, which was always deserted³ at that hour.
 
His duties over, the captain of gendarmerie joined him. He found Roland impatiently walking back and forth⁴. Roland had merely made himself known at the jail, but here he proceeded to explain the matter, and to initiate⁵ the captain into the object of his visit.
 
Roland had solicited⁶ the First Consul⁷, as a favor to himself, that the pursuit of the Companions of Jehu be intrusted to him personally, a favor he had obtained without difficulty. An order from the minister of war placed at his disposal not only the garrison⁸ of Bourg, but also those of the neighboring towns. An order from the minister of police enjoined⁹ all the officers of the gendarmerie to render him every assistance.
 
He naturally applied¹⁰ in the first instance to the captain of the gendarmerie at Bourg, whom he had long known personally as a man of great courage and executive ability. He found what he wanted in him. The captain was furious against the Companions of Jehu, who had stopped diligences within a mile of his town, and on whom he was unable to lay his hand. He knew of the reports relating to the last three stoppages that had been sent to the minister of police, and he understood the latter’s anger. But Roland brought his amazement¹¹ to a climax¹² when he told him of the night he had spent at the Chartreuse of Seillon, and of what had happened to Sir John at that same Chartreuse during the succeeding night.
 
The captain had heard by common rumor¹³ that Madame de Montrevel’s guest had been stabbed; but as no one had lodged¹⁴ a complaint, he did not think he had the right to investigate circumstances which it seemed to him Roland wished to keep in the dark. In those troublous days more indulgence was shown to officers of the army than they might have received at other times.
 
As for Roland, he had said nothing because he wished to reserve for himself the satisfaction of pursuing the assassins and sham¹⁵ ghosts of the Chartreuse when the time came. He now arrived with full power to put that design into execution, firmly resolved not to return to the First Consul until it was accomplished¹⁶. Besides, it was one of those adventures he was always seeking, at once dangerous and picturesque¹⁷, an opportunity of pitting his life against men who cared little for their own, and probably less for his. Roland had no conception of Morgan’s safe-guard which had twice protected him from danger—once on the night he had watched at the Chartreuse, and again when he had fought against Cadoudal. How could he know that a simple cross was drawn¹⁸ above his name, and that this symbol of redemption guaranteed his safety from one end of France to the other?
 
For the rest, the first thing to be done was to surround the Chartreuse of Seillon, and to search thoroughly¹⁹ into its most secret places—a thing Roland believed himself perfectly²⁰ competent to do.
 
The night was now too far advanced to undertake the expedition, and it was postponed²¹ until the one following. In the meantime Roland remained quietly in hiding in the captain’s room at the barracks that no one might suspect his presence at Bourg nor its cause. The following night he was to guide the expedition. In the course of the morrow, one of the gendarmes²², who was a tailor, agreed to make him a sergeant²³’s uniform. He was to pass as a member of the brigade at Sons-le-Saulnier, and, thanks to the uniform, could direct the search at the Chartreuse without being recognized.
 
Everything happened as planned. Roland entered the barracks with the captain about one o’clock, ascended²⁴ to the latter’s room, where he slept on a bed on the floor like a man who has just passed two days and two nights in a post-chaise. The next day he restrained his impatience²⁵ by drawing a plan of the Chartreuse of Seillon for the captain’s instruction, with which, even without Roland’s help, that worthy²⁶ officer could have directed the expedition without going an inch astray.
 
As the captain had but eighteen men under him, and it was not possible to surround the monastery²⁷ completely with that number, or rather, to guard the two exits and make a thorough search through the interior, and, as it would have taken three or four days to bring in all the men of the brigade scattered²⁸ throughout the neighborhood, the officer, by Roland’s order, went to the colonel of dragoons, garrisoned²⁹ at Bourg, told him of the matter in hand, and asked for twelve men, who, with his own, made thirty in all.
 
The colonel not only granted the twelve men, but, learning that the expedition was to be commanded by Colonel Roland de Montrevel, aide-de-camp to the First Consul, he proposed that he himself should join the party at the head of his twelve men.
 
Roland accepted his co-operation, and it was agreed that the colonel (we employ the words colonel and chief of brigade indifferently, both being interchangeable terms indicating the same rank) and his twelve dragoons should pick up Roland, the captain, and his eighteen men, the barracks being directly on their road to the Chartreuse. The time was set for eleven that night.
 
At eleven precisely³⁰, with military punctuality, the colonel of dragoons and his twelve men joined the gendarmes, and the two companies, now united in one, began their march. Roland, in his sergeant’s uniform, made himself known to his brother colonel; but to the dragoons and gendarmes he remained, as agreed upon, a sergeant detached from the brigade at Sons-le-Saulnier. Only, as it might otherwise have seemed extraordinary that a sergeant, wholly unfamiliar³¹ with these localities, should be their guide, the men were told that Roland had been in his youth a novice³² at Seillon, and was therefore better acquainted than most persons with the mysterious nooks of the Chartreuse.
 
The first feeling of these brave soldiers had been a slight humiliation³³ at being guided by an ex-monk; but, on the other hand, as that ex-monk wore the three-cornered hat jauntily³⁴, and as his whole manner and appearance was that of a man who has completely forgotten that he formerly³⁵ wore a cowl, they ended by accepting the humiliation, and reserved their final judgment³⁶ on the sergeant until they could see how he handled the musket³⁷ he carried on his arm, the pistols he wore in his belt, and the sword that hung at his side.
 
The party was supplied with torches, and started in perfect silence. They were divided into three squads³⁹; one of eight men, led by the captain of gendarmerie, another of ten, commanded by the colonel, and the third of twelve men, with Roland at its head. On leaving the town they separated.
 
The captain of the gendarmerie, who knew the localities better than the colonel of dragoons, took upon himself to guard the window of La Correrie, giving upon the forest of Seillon, with his eight men. The colonel of dragoons was commissioned by Roland to watch the main entrance of the Chartreuse; with him were five gendarmes and five dragoons. Roland was to search the interior, taking with him five gendarmes and s............