Belle Rose: A Romance of the Cloak and Sword — page 162: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

148 DICE AND CARDS. Conrad threw the dice and lost; at the third throw he no longer had anything. ‘‘My officer,’’ said he to Monsieur de Villebrais, who was watching them with arms crossed upon his breast, ‘‘I also have a saber and a hand—do you wish them?’’ ‘‘Here are twenty ducats.”’ ‘‘Bargain concluded,’’ said Conrad, slipping the money into his pockets. ‘‘Conrad,’’ brusquely exclaimed a new-comer wearing the hussars’ uniform, ‘‘Jeanne has taken a fancy for a necklace to go with her gold cross; 1 have nothing except my horse left—do you want it?’’ ‘‘[ take the horse and give it to you,’’ said Monsieur de Villebrais. ‘You give me the money and the horse?’’ said the hussar, counting his gold-pieces. ‘*I give them to you, but on one condition.”’ ‘Only one?’’ “That is all; the horse and man will follow me every- where I go.’’ “They are ready.”’ At the end of a quarter of an hour Monsieur de Ville- brais had recruited his band. There was in the little troop which Monsieur de Villebrais conducted to the lodging assigned him a Lorraine, two Walloons, a native of Franc- Comtois, a Piedmontese, two Swiss, two Dutchmen, and a Bavarian. He ranged his new acolytes around him and examined them attentively. ‘*You have,’’ he said to them a moment after, ‘‘as wages half a pistole per day and a whole one on days when there is an expedition.”’ ‘*Bravo!’’ said the Piedmontese. ‘*Night service will receive double pay.”’ ‘‘Good,’’ said the native of Franc-Comtois, ‘‘I will sleep during the day.”’ ‘“‘At the first word ’tis necessary to be ready; at the first sign ‘tis necessary to leave; at the first order ’tis necessary to kill.”’ ‘If it is the order, it is done,’’ said the Bavarian. ‘‘Go, now; you, Conrad, remain.’’ The troop disappeared, and Conrad sat down in one corner, while Monsieur de Villebrais fumbled in his valise. ‘‘Listen,’’ said the lieutenant, who had just drawn a paper from the valise, ‘‘and keep well in mind what I am going to say to you.”’ ‘I am listening,’’ said the Lorraine, GComichooks.co t Ph