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"That is true, as you say, I had forgotten the chaise. Well, but Claude, you may at least eat your supper here? That can make you lose very little time; and monsieur looks too kind-hearted to send you out with an empty stomach on such a bitter cold night as this is."
To this I readily assented, telling the postillion that my reaching Strasbourg the next day an hour or two later would be perfectly immaterial. He thanked me, and then leaving the cottage with Stephano, put up his horses in the woodman's stable. Baptiste followed them to the door, and looked out with anxiety.
"'Tis a sharp, biting wind," said he: "I wonder what detains my boys so long! Monsieur, I shall shew you two of the finest lads that ever stepped in shoe of leather: the eldest is three-and-twenty, the second a year younger: their equals for sense, courage, and activity, are not to be found within fifty miles of Strasbourg. Would they wereback
