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they dressed him as a woman. He was not sufficiently pretty for them not
to cover his face with a thick veil. They put the brave and sturdy hands
of the combatant in a muff. Thus veiled and a little filled out with
padding, Préveraud made a charming woman. He became Madame Terrier, and
his brother-in-law took him away. They crossed Paris peaceably, and
without any other adventure than an imprudence committed by Préveraud,
who, seeing that the shaft-horse of a wagon had fallen down, threw aside
his muff, lifted his veil and his petticoat, and if Terrier, in dire
alarm, had not stopped him, he would have helped the carter to raise his
horse. Had a sergent de ville been there, Préveraud would have been
captured. Terrier hastened to thrust Préveraud into a carriage, and at
nightfall they left for Brussels. They were alone in the carriage, each
in a corner and face to face. All went well as far as Amiens. At Amiens
station the door was opened, and a gendarme entered and seated himself
by the side of Préveraud. The gendarme asked for his passport, Terrier
showed it him; the little woman in her corner, veiled and silent, did
not stir, and the gendarme found all in due form. He contented himself
with saying, "We shall travel together, I am on duty as far as the
frontier."
The train, after the ordinary delay of a few minutes, again started. The
night was dark. Terrier had fallen asleep. Suddenly Préveraud felt a
knee press against his, it was the knee of the policeman. A boot placed
itself softly on his foot, it was a horse-soldier's boot. An idyll had
just germinated in the gendarme's soul. He first tenderly pressed
Préveraud's knee, and then emboldened by the darkness of the hour and by
the slumbering husband, he ventured his hand as far as her dress, a
circumstance foreseen by Molière, but the fair veiled one was virtuous.
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