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CELEBRATED CRIMES VOLUME 7, Part 2

By Alexander Dumas, Pere




THE COUNTESS DE SAINT-GERAN



About the end of the year 1639, a troop of horsemen arrived, towards

midday, in a little village at the northern extremity of the province
of Auvergne, from the direction of Paris. The country folk assembled
at the noise, and found it to proceed from the provost of the mounted
police and his men. The heat was excessive, the horses were bathed
in sweat, the horsemen covered with dust, and the party seemed on its
return from an important expedition. A man left the escort, and
asked an old woman who was spinning at her door if there was not an
inn in the place. The woman and her children showed him a bush
hanging over a door at the end of the only street in the village, and
the escort recommenced its march at a walk. There was noticed, among
the mounted men, a young man of distinguished appearance and richly
dressed, who appeared to be a prisoner. This discovery redoubled the
curiosity of the villagers, who followed the cavalcade as far as the
door of the wine-shop. The host came out, cap in hand, and the
provost enquired of him with a swaggering air if his pothouse was
large enough to accommodate his troop, men and horses. The host
replied that he had the best wine in the country to give to the
king's servants, and that it would be easy to collect in the
neighbourhood litter and forage enough for their horses. The provost
listened contemptuously to these fine promises, gave the necessary
orders as to what was to be done, and slid off his horse, uttering an
oath proceeding from heat and fatigue. The horsemen clustered round
the young man: one held his stirrup, and the provost deferentially
gave way to him to enter the inn first. No, more doubt could be
entertained that he was a prisoner of importance, and all kinds of

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