About noon
After this , it was no use to say anything to him , though his officiousness would have justified the keenest reproaches . I swallowed my resentment , therefore , and we went on amicably enough , though the valley of the Creuse , in its upper and wilder part , through which our road now wound , offered no objects of a kind to soften my anger against the governor . I saw enough of ruins , of blocked defiles , and overgrown roads ; but of returning prosperity and growing crops , and the King 's peace , I saw no sign -- not so much as one dead robber . About noon we alighted to eat a little at a wretched tavern by one of the innumerable fords . A solitary traveller who was here before us , and for a time kept aloof , wearing a grand and mysterious manner with a shabby coat , presently moved ; edging himself up to me where I sat a little apart , eating with Parabere and my gentlemen . `` Sir , '' he said , on a sudden and without preface , `` I see that you are the leader of this party . '' As I was more plainly dressed than Parabere , and had been giving no orders , I wondered how he knew ; but I answered , without any remark , `` Well , sir ; and what of that ? ''