him of the robbers -- if he ever saw them; if he knew their haunts; if
they had been near these parts during the past days?

For a moment it seemed as though the old man was disappointed by the
questions asked him. He muttered something they did not rightly
comprehend about robbers worse than these, and a quick fierce look
passed across his face, and then died out again. The young Prince was
courteous and patient: he allowed the old man's slow wits time to get to
work; and when he did begin to speak he spoke to some purpose, and the
boys listened and questioned with the most eager attention.

It took some time to extract the necessary information, not from any
reluctance to speak on the old man's part, but from his inability to put
his thoughts into words. Still when this was by degrees achieved, the
information was of the highest possible importance.

The robbers, said the old man, were at that very moment not far away. He
had seen them sally forth on one of their nocturnal raids about dusk the
previous evening; and they had returned home laden with spoil two hours
before the dawn. He was of the opinion that they had carried off some
captive with them, for he had heard sounds as of bitter though stifled
weeping as they passed his hut on their return. Did he know where they
lay by day? Oh yes, right well he did! They had a hiding place in a cave
down in a deep dingle, so overgrown with brushwood that only those who
knew the path thither could hope to penetrate within it. Once there,
they felt perfectly safe, and would sleep away the day after one of
their raids, remaining safely hidden there till supplies were exhausted,
when they sallied forth again. The old woodman showed them the tracks of
the party that had passed by that morning, and to the eyes of the Gascon
brothers these tracks were plain enough, and they undertook to follow