from their horses, flinging their bridles to their comrades,
and commanded the conductor to deliver up the money."

"Citizen," said the stout man astonished, "you describe the thing
as if you had seen it."

"Monsieur was there, perhaps," said one of the travellers, half
in jest, half in earnest.

"I do not know, citizen, whether in saying that you intend a
rudeness," carelessly observed the young man who had so pertinently
and obligingly come to the narrator's assistance, "but my political
opinions are such that I do not consider your suspicion an insult.
Had I had the misfortune to be among those attacked, or the honor
to be one of those who made the attack, I should admit it as
frankly in the one case as in the other. But yesterday at ten
o'clock, at precisely the moment when the diligence was stopped,
twelve miles from here, I was breakfasting quietly in this very
seat. And, by-the-bye, with the two citizens who now do me the
honor to sit beside me."

"And," asked the younger of the two travellers who had lately
joined the table, whom his companion called Roland, "how many
men were you in the diligence?"

"Let me think; we were--yes, that's it--we were seven men and
three women."

"Seven men, not including the conductor?" repeated Roland.