at the masked man's throat, in which purpose he had certainly not
failed had he been alone; but the elder, who seemed to possess
not only the habit but the right of command, contented himself by
regrasping his coat, and saying, in an imperious, almost harsh
tone: "Sit down, Roland!" And the young man had resumed his seat.

But one of the guests had remained, in appearance at least, the
most impassible during this scene. He was a man between thirty-three
and thirty-four years of age, with blond hair, red beard, a calm,
handsome face, with large blue eyes, a fair skin, refined and
intelligent lips, and very tall, whose foreign accent betrayed
one born in that island of which the government was at that time
waging bitter war against France. As far as could be judged by
the few words which had escaped him, he spoke the French language
with rare purity, despite the accent we have just mentioned. At
the first word he uttered, in which that English accent revealed
itself, the elder of the two travellers started. Turning to his
companion, he asked with a glance, to which the other seemed
accustomed, how it was that an Englishman should be in France
when the uncompromising war between the two nations had naturally
exiled all Englishmen from France, as it had all Frenchmen from
England. No doubt the explanation seemed impossible to Roland,
for he had replied with his eyes, and a shrug of the shoulders: "I
find it quite as extraordinary as you; but if you, mathematician
as you are, can't solve the problem, don't ask me!"

It was evident to the two young men that the fair man with the
Anglo-Saxon accent was the traveller whose comfortable carriage
awaited him harnessed in the courtyard, and that this traveller
hailed from London, or, at least, from some part of Great Britain.