"They have gone to bed and put out their lights, your excellency."

Before Rostov had had time to consider and determine the distance of that firing, Count Ostermann-Tolstoy`s adjutant came galloping from Vitebsk with orders to advance at a trot along the road.

‘I may not get at her at all,’ replied Ralph, ‘but I’ll try. I have hunted people in this city, before now, who have been better hid than she; and I know quarters in which a guinea or two, carefully spent, will often solve darker riddles than this. Ay, and keep them close too, if need be! I hear my man ringing at the door. We may as well part. You had better not come to and fro, but wait till you hear from me.’