The Last Vendée - or, the She-Wolves of Machecoul

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Title: The Last Vendée - or, the She-Wolves of Machecoul
Author: Dumas, Alexandre
Language: English
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Transcriber's Notes:
1. Page scan source: https://archive.org/details/lastvendeeorshe00duma
VOL I & II (University of California Libraries) Published 1894

2. The diphthong oe is represented by [oe]

[Frontispiece: Dumas]

Illustrated Sterling edition

THE LAST VENDÉE
SHE-WOLVES OF MACHECOUL

TWO VOLUMES IN ONE

ALEXANDRE DUMAS

ILLUSTRATED

BOSTON
DANA ESTES & COMPANY
PUBLISHERS

_Copyright, 1894_,
BY ESTES AND LAURIAT.

CONTENTS.

I. Charette's Aide-de-camp.
II. The Gratitude of Kings.
III. The Twins.
IV. How Jean Oullier, coming to see the Marquis
for an Hour, would be there still if they
had not both been in their Grave these ten
years.
V. A Litter of Wolves.
VI. The Wounded Hare.
VII. Monsieur Michel.
VIII. The Baronne de la Logerie.
IX. Galon-d'or and Allégro.
X. In which Things do not Happen precisely as
Baron Michel Dreamed they would.
XI. The Foster-father.
XII. Noblesse Oblige.
XIII. A Distant Cousin.
XIV. Petit-Pierre.
XV. An Unseasonable Hour.
XVI. Courtin's Diplomacy.
XVII. The Tavern of Aubin Courte-Joie.
XVIII. The Man from La Logerie.
XIX. The Fair at Montaigu.
XX. The Outbreak.
XXI. Jean Oullier's Resources.
XXII. Fetch! Pataud, fetch!
XXIII. To whom the Cottage belonged.
XXIV. How Marianne Picaut mourned her Husband.
XXV. In which Love lends Political Opinions to
those who have none.
XXVI. The Springs of Baugé.
XXVII. The Guests at Souday.
XXVIII. In which the Marquis de Souday bitterly regrets
that Petit-Pierre is not a Gentleman.
XXIX. The Vendéans of 1832.
XXX. The Warning.
XXXI. My Old Crony Loriot.
XXXII. The General eats a Supper which had not been
Prepared for him.
XXXIII. In which Maître Loriot's Curiosity is not
exactly satisfied.
XXXIV. The Tower Chamber.
XXXV. Which ends quite otherwise than as Mary
expected.
XXXVI. Blue and White.
XXXVII. Which shows that it is not for Flies only
that Spiders' Webs are dangerous.
XXXVIII. In which the Daintiest Foot of France and
of Navarre finds that Cinderella's Slipper
does not fit it as well as Seven-league Boots.
XXXIX. Petit-Pierre makes the best Meal he ever
made in his Life.
XL. Equality in Death.
XLI. The Search.
XLII. In which Jean Oullier speaks his mind
About young Baron Michel.
XLIII. Baron Michel becomes Bertha's Aide-de-camp.
XLIV. Maître Jacques and his Rabbits.
XLV. The Danger of Meeting bad Company in the Woods.
XLVI. Maître Jacques proceeds to keep the Oath
he made to Aubin Courte-Joie.

CONTENTS.

I. In which it appears that all Jews are not
from Jerusalem, nor all Turks from Tunis.
II. Maître Marc.
III. How Persons travelled in the Department
of the Lower Loire in May, 1832.
IV. A little History does no Harm.
V. Petit-Pierre resolves on keeping a Brave
Heart against Misfortune.
VI. How Jean Oullier proved that when the
Wine is drawn it is best to drink it.
VII. Herein is explained how and why Baron
Michel decided to go to Nantes.
VIII. The Sheep, returning to the Fold, tumbles
into a Pit-fall.
IX. Trigaud proves that if he had been Hercules
He would probably have accomplished
Twenty-four labors instead of twelve.
X. Giving the Slip.
XI. Mary is victorious after the Manner of
Pyrrhus.
XII. Baron Michel finds an Oak instead of a
Reed on which to lean.
XIII. The Last Knights of Royalty.
XIV. Jean Oullier lies for the Good of the
Cause.
XV. Jailer and Prisoner escape together.
XVI. The Battlefield.
XVII. After the Fight.
XVIII. The Chateau de la Pénissière.
XIX. The Moor of Bouaimé.
XX. The Firm of Aubin Courte-Joie & Co.
does Honor to its Partnership.
XXI. In which Succor comes from an Unexpected
Quarter.
XXII. On the Highway.
XXIII. What became of Jean Oullier.
XXIV. Maître Courtin's Batteries.
XXV. Madame la Baronne de la Logerie,
Thinking to serve her Son's interests,
serves those of Petit-Pierre.
XXVI. Marches and Counter-marches.
XXVII. Michel's Love Affairs seem to be taking
a Happier Turn.
XXVIII. Showing how there may be Fishermen
and Fishermen.
XXIX. Interrogatories and Confrontings.
XXX. We again meet the General, and find
he is not changed.
XXXI. Courtin meets with Another Disappointment.
XXXII. The Marquis de Souday drags for
Oysters and brings up Picaut.
XXXIII. That which happened in Two Dwellings.
XXXIV. Courtin fingers at last his Fifty Thousand
Francs.
XXXV. The Tavern of the Grand Saint-Jacques.
XXXVI. Judas and Judas.
XXXVII. An Eye for an Eye, and a Tooth for
a Tooth.
XXXVIII. The Red-Breeches.
XXXIX. A Wounded Soul.
XL. The Chimney-back.
XLI. Three Broken Hearts.
XLII. God's Executioner.
XLIII. Shows that a Man with Fifty Thousand
Francs about him may be much Embarrassed.

EPILOGUE

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

VOL. I.

Portrait of Dumas _Frontispiece_
Portrait of Charette
Castle Souday
Portrait of Louis XVIII.
Portrait of Dermoncourt

VOL. II.

Portrait of Louis Philippe
Cathedral of Nantes
Château of Nantes

THE LAST VENDÉE;

OR,

THE SHE-WOLVES OF MACHECOUL

VOLUME I.

THE LAST VENDÉE;

OR,

THE SHE-WOLVES OF MACHECOUL

----------

CHARETTE'S AIDE-DE-CAMP.

If you ever chanced, dear reader, to go from Nantes to Bourgneuf you
must, before reaching Saint-Philbert, have skirted the southern corner
of the lake of Grand-Lieu, and then, continuing your way, you arrived,
at the end of one hour or two hours, according to whether you were on
foot or in a carriage, at the first trees of the forest of Machecoul.

There, to left of the road, among a fine clump of trees belonging,
apparently, to the forest from which it is separated only by the main
road, you must have seen the sharp points of two slender turrets and
the gray roof of a little castle hidden among the foliage.

The cracked walls of this manor-house, its broken windows, and its
damp roofs covered with wild iris and parasite mosses, gave it, in
spite of its feudal pretensions and flanking turrets, so forlorn an
appearance that no one at a passing glance would envy its possessor,
were it not for its exquisite situation opposite to the noble trees of
the forest of Machecoul, the verdant billows of which rose on the
horizon as far as the eye could reach.

In 1831, this little castle was the property of an old nobleman named
the Marquis de Souday, and was called, after its owner, the château of
Souday.

Let us now make known the owner, having described the château.

The Marquis de Souday was the sole representative and last descendant
of an old and illustrious Breton family; for the lake of Grand-Lieu,
the forest of Machecoul, the town of Bourgneuf, situated in that part
of France now called the department of the Loire-Inférieure, was then
part of the province of Brittany, before the division of France into
departments. The family of the Marquis de Souday had been, in former
times, one of those feudal trees with endless branches which extended
themselves over the whole department; but the ancestors of the
marquis, in consequence of spending all their substance to appear with
splendor in the coaches of the king, had, little by little, become so
reduced and shorn of their branches that the convulsions of 1789
happened just in time to prevent the rotten trunk from falling into
the hands of the sheriff; in fact, they preserved it for an end more
in keeping with its former glory.

When the doom of the Bastille sounded, and the demolition of the old
house of the kings foreshadowed the overthrow of royalty, the Marquis
de Souday, having inherited, not great wealth,--for nothing of that
was left, as we have said, except the old manor-house,--but the name
and title of his father, was page to his Royal Highness, Monsieur le
Comte de Provence. At sixteen--that was then his time of life--events
are only accidental circumstances; besides, it would have been
extremely difficult for any youth to keep from being heedless and
volatile at the epicurean, voltairean, and constitutional court of the
Luxembourg, where egotism elbowed its way undisguisedly.

It was M. de Souday who was sent to the place de Grève to watch for
the moment when the hangman tightened the rope round Favras's neck,
and the latter, by drawing his last breath, restored his Royal
Highness to his normal peace of mind, which had been for the time
being disturbed. The page had returned at full speed to the
Luxembourg.

"Monseigneur, it is done," he said.

And monseigneur, in his clear, fluty voice, cried:--

"Come, gentlemen, to supper! to supper!"

And they supped as if a brave and honorable gentleman, who had given
his life a sacrifice, to his Royal Highness, had not just been hanged
as a murderer and a vagabond.

Then came the first dark, threatening days of the Revolution, the
publication of the Red Book, Necker's retirement, and the death of
Mirabeau.

One day--it was the 22d of February, 1791--a great crowd surrounded
the palace of the Luxembourg. Rumors were spread. Monsieur, it was
said, meant to escape and join the _émigrés_ on the Rhine. But
Monsieur appeared on the balcony, and took a solemn oath never to
leave the king.

He did, in fact, start with the king on the 21st of June, possibly to
keep his word never to leave him. But he did leave him, to secure his
own safety, and reached the frontier tranquilly with his companion,
the Marquis d'Avaray, while Louis XVI. and his family were arrested at
Varennes.

Our young page, de Souday, thought too much of his reputation as a man
of fashion to stay in France, although it was precisely there that the
monarchy needed its most zealous supporters. He therefore emigrated,
and as no one paid any heed to a page only eighteen years old, he
reached Coblentz safely and took part in filling up the ranks of the
musketeers who were then being remodelled on the other side of the
Rhine under the orders of the Marquis de Montmorin. During the first
royalist struggles he fought bravely under the three Condés, was
wounded before Thionville, and then, after many disappointments and
deceptions, met with the worst of all; namely, the disbanding of the
various corps of _émigrés_,--a measure which took the bread out of the
mouths of so many poor devils. It is true that these soldiers were
serving against France, and their bread was baked by foreign nations.

The Marquis de Souday then turned his eyes toward Brittany and La
Vendée, where fighting had been going on for the last two years. The
state of things in La Vendée was as follows:--

All the first leaders of the great insurrection were dead. Cathélineau
was killed at Vannes, Lescure at Tremblay, Bonchamps at Chollet;
d'Elbée had been, or was to be, shot at Noirmoutiers; and, finally,
what was called the Grand Army had just been annihilated in Le Mans.

This Grand Army had been defeated at Fontenay-le-Comte, at Saumur,
Torfou, Laval, and Dol. Nevertheless, it had gained the advantage in
sixty fights; it had held its own against all the forces of the
Republic, commanded successively by Biron, Rossignol, Kléber, and
Westermann. It had seen its homes burned, its children massacred, its
old men strangled. Its leaders were Cathélineau, Henri de la
Rochejaquelein, Stofflet, Bonchamps, Forestier, d'Elbée, Lescure,
Marigny, and Talmont. In spite of all vicissitudes it continued
faithful to its king when the rest of France abandoned him; it
worshipped its God when Paris proclaimed that there was no God. Thanks
to the loyalty and valor of this army, La Vendée won the right to be
proclaimed in history throughout all time "the land of giants."

Charette and la Rochejaquelein alone were left. Charette had a few
soldiers; la Rochejaquelein had none.

It was while the Grand Army was being slowly destroyed in Le Mans that
Charette, appointed commander-in-chief of Lower Poitou and seconded by
the Chevalier de Couëtu and Jolly, had collected his little army.
Charette, at the head of this army, and la Rochejaquelein, followed by
ten men only, met near Maulevrier. Charette instantly perceived that
la Rochejaquelein came as a general, not as a soldier; he had a strong
sense of his own position, and did not choose to share his command
with any one. He was therefore cold and haughty in manner, and went to
his own breakfast without even asking Rochejaquelein to share it with
him.

The same day eight hundred men left Charette's army and placed
themselves under the orders of la Rochejaquelein. The next day
Charette said to his young rival:--

"I start for Mortagne; you will follow me."

"I am accustomed," replied la Rochejaquelein, "not to follow, but to
be followed."

He parted from Charette, and left him to operate his army as he
pleased. It is the latter whom we shall now follow, because he is the
only Vendéan leader whose last efforts and death are connected with
our history.

Louis XVII. was dead, and on the 26th of June, 1795, Louis XVIII. was
proclaimed king of France at the headquarters at Belleville. On the
15th of August, 1795,--that is to say, two months after the date of
this proclamation,--a young man brought Charette a letter from the new
king. This letter, written from Verona, and dated July 8, 1795,
conferred on Charette the command of the royalist army.

Charette wished to reply by the same young messenger and thank the
king for the honor he had done him; but the young man informed the
general that he had re-entered France to stay there and fight there,
and asked that the despatch he had brought might serve as a
recommendation to the commander-in-chief. Charette immediately
attached him to his person.

This young messenger was no other than Monsieur's former page, the
Marquis de Souday.

As he withdrew to seek some rest, after doing his last sixty miles on
horseback, the marquis came upon a young guard, who was five or six
years older than himself, and was now standing, hat in hand, and
looking at him with affectionate respect. Souday recognized the son of
one of his father's farmers, with whom he had hunted as a lad with
huge satisfaction; for no one could head off a boar as well or urge on
the hounds after the animal was turned with such vigor.

"Hey! Jean Oullier," he cried; "is that you?"

"Myself in person, and at your service, monsieur le marquis," answered
the young peasant.

"Good faith! my friend, and glad enough, too. Are you still as keen a
huntsman?"

"Oh, yes, monsieur le marquis; only, just now it is other game than
boars we are after."

"Never mind that. If you are willing, we'll hunt this game together as
we did the other."

"That's not to be refused, but much the contrary, monsieur le
marquis," returned Jean Oullier.

From that moment Jean Oullier was attached to the Marquis de Souday,
just as the marquis was attached to Charette,--that is to say, that
Jean Oullier was the aide-de-camp of the aide-de-camp of the
commander-in-chief. Besides his talents as a huntsman he was a
valuable man in other respects. In camping he was good for everything.
The marquis never had to think of bed or victuals; in the worst
of times he never went without a bit of bread, a glass of water,
and a shake-down of straw, which in La Vendée was a luxury the
commander-in-chief himself did not always enjoy.

We should be greatly tempted to follow Charette, and consequently our
young hero, on one of the many adventurous expeditions undertaken by
the royalist general, which won him the reputation of being the
greatest partisan leader the world has seen; but history is a
seductive siren, and if you imprudently obey the sign she makes you to
follow her, there is no knowing where you will be led. We must
simplify our tale as much as possible, and therefore we leave to
others the opportunity of relating the expedition of the Comte
d'Artois to Noirmoutiers and the Île Dieu, the strange conduct of the
prince, who remained three weeks within sight of the French coast
without landing, and the discouragement of the royalist army when it
saw itself abandoned by those for whom it had fought so gallantly for
more than two years.

In spite of which discouragement, however, Charette not long after won
his terrible victory at Les Quatre Chemins. It was his last; for
treachery from that time forth took part in the struggle. De Couëtu,
Charette's right arm, his other self after the death of Jolly, was
enticed into an ambush, captured, and shot. In the last months of his
life Charette could not take a single step without his adversary,
whoever he was, Hoche or Travot, being instantly informed of it.

Surrounded by the republican troops, hemmed in on all sides, pursued
day and night, tracked from bush to bush, springing from ditch to
ditch, knowing that sooner or later he was certain to be killed in
some encounter, or, if taken, to be shot on the spot,--without
shelter, burnt up with fever, dying of thirst, half famished, not
daring to ask at the farmhouses he saw for a little water, a little
bread, or a little straw,--he had only thirty-two men remaining with
him, among whom were the Marquis de Souday and Jean Oullier, when, on
the 25th of March, 1796, the news came that four republican columns
were marching simultaneously against him.

"Very good," said he; "then it is here, on this spot, that we must
fight to the death and sell our lives dearly."

The spot was La Prélinière, in the parish of Saint-Sulpice. But with
thirty-two men Charette did not choose to await the enemy; he went to
meet them. At La Guyonnières he met General Valentin with two hundred
grenadiers and chasseurs. Charette's position was a good one, and he
intrenched it. There, for three hours, he sustained the charges and
fire of two hundred republicans. Twelve of his men fell around him.
The Army of the Chouannerie, which was twenty-four thousand strong
when M. le Comte d'Artois lay off the Île Dieu without landing, was
now reduced to twenty men.

These twenty men stood firmly around their general; not one even
thought of escape. To make an end of the business, General Valentin
took a musket himself, and at the head of the hundred and eighty men
remaining to him, he charged at the point of the bayonet.

Charette was wounded by a ball in his head, and three fingers were
taken off by a sabre-cut. He was about to be captured when an
Alsatian, named Pfeffer, who felt more than mere devotion to Charette,
whom he worshipped, took the general's plumed hat, gave him his, and
saying, "Go to the right; they'll follow me," sprang to the left
himself. He was right; the republicans rushed after him savagely,
while Charette sprang in the opposite direction with his fifteen
remaining men.

He had almost reached the wood of La Chabotière when General Travot's
column appeared. Another and more desperate fight took place, in which
Charette's sole object was to get himself killed. Losing blood from
three wounds, he staggered and fell. A Vendéan, named Bossard, took
him on his shoulders and carried him toward the wood; but before
reaching it, Bossard himself was shot down. Then another man,
Laroche-Davo, succeeded him, made fifty steps, and he too fell in the
ditch that separates the wood from the plain.

Then the Marquis de Souday lifted Charette in his arms, and while Jean
Oullier with two shots killed two republican soldiers who were close
at their heels, he carried the general into the wood, followed by the
seven men still living. Once fairly within the woods, Charette
recovered his senses.

"Souday," he said, "listen to my last orders."

The young man stopped.

"Put me down at the foot of that oak."

Souday hesitated to obey.

"I am still your general," said Charette, imperiously. "Obey me."

The young man, overawed, did as he was told and put down the general
at the foot of the oak.

[Illustration: Portrait of Charette.]

"There! now," said Charette, "listen to me. The king who made me
general-in-chief must be told how his general died. Return to his
Majesty Louis XVIII., and tell him all that you have seen; I demand
it."

Charette spoke with such solemnity that the marquis did not dream of
disobeying him.

"Go!" said Charette, "you have not a minute to spare; here come the
Blues. Fly!"

As he spoke the republicans had reached the edge of the woods. Souday
took the hand which Charette held out to him.

"Kiss me," said the latter.

The young man kissed him.

"That will do," said the general; "now go."

Souday cast a look at Jean Oullier.

"Are you coming?" he said.

But his follower shook his head gloomily.

"What have I to do over there, monsieur le marquis?" he said. "Whereas
here--"

"Here, what?"

"I'll tell you that if we ever meet again, monsieur le marquis."

So saying, he fired two balls at the nearest republicans. They fell.
One of them was an officer of rank; his men pressed round him. Jean
Oullier and the marquis profited by that instant to bury themselves in
the depths of the woods.

But at the end of some fifty paces Jean Oullier, finding a thick bush
at hand, slipped into it like a snake, with a gesture of farewell to
the Marquis de Souday.

The marquis continued his way alone.

II.

THE GRATITUDE OF KINGS.

The Marquis de Souday gained the banks of the Loire and found a
fisherman who was willing to take him to Saint-Gildas. A frigate hove
in sight,--an English frigate. For a few more louis the fisherman
consented to put the marquis aboard of her. Once there, he was safe.

Two or three days later the frigate hailed a three-masted merchantman,
which was heading for the Channel. She was Dutch. The marquis asked to
be put aboard of her; the English captain consented. The Dutchman
landed him at Rotterdam. From Rotterdam he went to Blankenbourg, a
little town in the duchy of Brunswick, which Louis XVIII. had chosen
for his residence.

The marquis now prepared to execute Charette's last instructions. When
he reached the château Louis XVIII. was dining; this was always a
sacred hour to him. The ex-page was told to wait. When dinner was over
he was introduced into the king's presence.

He related the events he had seen with his own eyes, and, above all,
the last catastrophe, with such eloquence that his Majesty, who was
not impressionable, was enough impressed to cry out:--

"Enough, enough, marquis! Yes, the Chevalier de Charette was a brave
servant; we are grateful to him."

He made the messenger a sign to retire. The marquis obeyed; but as he
withdrew he heard the king say, in a sulky tone:--

"That fool of a Souday coming here and telling me such things after
dinner! It is enough to upset my digestion!"

The marquis was touchy; he thought that after exposing his life for
six months it was a poor reward to be called a fool by him for whom he
had exposed it. One hundred louis were still in his pocket, and he
left Blankenbourg that evening, saying to himself:--

"If I had known that I should be received in that way I wouldn't have
taken such pains to come."

He returned to Holland, and from Holland he went to England. There
began a new phase in the existence of the Marquis de Souday. He was
one of those men who are moulded by circumstances,--men who are strong
or weak, brave or pusillanimous, according to the surroundings among
which fortune casts them. For six months he had been at the apex of
that terrible Vendéan epic; his blood had stained the gorse and the
moors of upper and lower Poitou; he had borne with stoical fortitude
not only the ill-fortune of battle, but also the privations of that
guerilla warfare, bivouacking in snow, wandering without food, without
clothes, without shelter, in the boggy forests of La Vendée. Not once
had he felt a regret; not a single complaint had passed his lips.

And yet, with all these antecedents, when isolated in the midst of
that great city of London, where he wandered sadly regretting the
excitements of war, he felt himself without courage in presence of
enforced idleness, without resistance under ennui, without energy to
overcome the wretchedness of exile. This man, who had bravely borne
the attacks and pursuits of the infernal columns of the Blues, could
not bear up against the evil suggestions which came of idleness. He
sought pleasure everywhere to fill the void in his existence caused by
the absence of stirring vicissitudes and the excitements of a deadly
struggle.

Now such pleasures as a penniless exile could command were not of a
high order; and thus it happened that, little by little, he lost his
former elegance and the look and manner of gentleman as his tastes
deteriorated. He drank ale and porter instead of champagne, and
contented himself with the bedizened women of the Haymarket and Regent
Street,--he who had chosen his first loves among the duchesses.

Soon the looseness of his principles and the pressure of his needs
drove him into connections from which his reputation suffered. He
accepted pleasures when he could not pay for them; his companions in
debauchery were of a lower class than himself. After a time his own
class of _émigrés_ turned away from him, and by the natural drift of
things, the more the marquis found himself neglected by his rightful
friends, the deeper he plunged into the evil ways he had now entered.

He had been leading this existence for about two years, when by chance
he encountered, in an evil resort which he frequented, a young
working-girl, whom one of those infamous women who infest London had
enticed from her poor home and produced for the first time. In spite
of the changes which ill-luck and a reckless life had produced in the
marquis, the poor girl perceived the remains of a gentleman still in
him. She flung herself at his feet, and implored him to save her from
an infamous life, for which she was not meant, having always been good
and virtuous till then.

The young girl was pretty, and the marquis offered to take her with
him. She threw herself on his neck and promised him all her love and
the utmost devotion. Without any thought of doing a good action the
marquis defeated the speculation on Eva's beauty,--the girl was named
Eva. She kept her word, poor, faithful creature that she was; the
marquis was her first and last and only love.

The matter was a fortunate thing for both of them. The marquis was
getting very tired of cock-fights and the acrid fumes of beer, not to
speak of frays with constables and loves at street-corners. The
tenderness of the young girl rested him; the possession of the pure
child, white as the swans which are the emblem of Brittany, his own
land, satisfied his vanity. Little by little, he changed his course of
life, and though he never returned to the habits of his own class, he
did adopt a life which was that of a decent man.

He went to live with Eva on the upper floor of a house in Piccadilly.
She was a good workwoman, and soon found employment with a milliner.
The marquis gave fencing-lessons. From that time they lived on the
humble proceeds of their employments, finding great happiness in a
love which had now become powerful enough to gild their poverty.
Nevertheless, this love, like all things mortal, wore out in the end,
though not for a long time. Happily for Eva, the emotions of the
Vendéan war and the frantic excitements of London hells had used up
her lover's superabundant sap; he was really an old man before his
time. The day on which the marquis first perceived that his love for
Eva was waning, the day when her kisses were powerless, not to satisfy
him but to rouse him, habit had acquired such an influence over him
that even had he sought distractions outside his home he no longer had
the force or the courage to break a connection in which his
selfishness still found the monotonous comforts of daily life.

The former _viveur_, whose ancestors had possessed for three centuries
the power of life and death in their province, the ex-_brigand_, the
aide-de-camp to the _brigand_ Charette, led for a dozen years the
dull, precarious, drudging life of a humble clerk, or a mechanic more
humble still.

Heaven had long refrained from blessing this illegitimate marriage;
but at last the prayers which Eva had never ceased to offer for twelve
years were granted. The poor woman became pregnant, and gave birth to
twin daughters. But alas! a few hours of the maternal joys she had so
longed for were all that were granted to her. She died of puerperal
fever.

Eva's tenderness for the Marquis de Souday was as deep and warm at the
end of twelve years' devotion as it was in the beginning of their
intercourse; yet her love, great as it was, did not prevent her from
recognizing that frivolity and selfishness were at the bottom of her
lover's character. Therefore she suffered in dying not only the
anguish of bidding an eternal farewell to the man she had loved so
deeply, but the terror of leaving the future of her children in his
hands.

This loss produced impressions upon the marquis which we shall
endeavor to reproduce minutely, because they seem to us to give a
distinct idea of the nature of the man who is destined to play an
important part in the narrative we are now undertaking.

He began by mourning his companion seriously and sincerely. He could
not help doing homage to her good qualities and recognizing the
happiness which he owed to her affection. Then, after his first grief
had passed away, he felt something of the joy of a schoolboy when he
gets out of bounds. Sooner or later his name, rank, and birth must
have made it necessary for him to break the tie. The marquis felt
grateful to Providence for relieving him of a duty which would
certainly have distressed him.

This satisfaction, however, was short-lived. Eva's tenderness, the
continuity, if we may say so, of the care and attention she had given
him, had spoilt the marquis; and those cares and attentions, now that
he had suddenly lost them, seemed to him more essential to his
happiness than ever. The humble chambers in which they had lived
became, now that the Englishwoman's fresh, pure voice no longer
enlivened them, what they were in reality,--miserable lodging-rooms;
and, in like manner, when his eyes sought involuntarily the silky hair
of his companion lying in golden waves upon the pillow, his bed was
nothing more than a wretched pallet. Where could he now look for the
soft petting, the tender attention to all his wants, with which, for
twelve good years, Eva had surrounded him. When he reached this stage
of his desolation the marquis admitted to himself that he could never
replace them. Consequently, he began to mourn poor Eva more than ever,
and when the time came for him to part with his little girls, whom he
sent into Yorkshire to be nursed, he put such a rush of tenderness
into his grief that the good country-woman, their foster-mother, was
sincerely affected.

After thus separating from all that united him with the past, the
Marquis de Souday succumbed under the burden of his solitude; he
became morose and taciturn. As his religious faith was none too solid,
he would probably have ended, under the deep disgust of life which now
took possession of him, by jumping into the Thames, if the catastrophe
of 1814 had not happened just in time to distract him from his
melancholy thoughts. Re-entering France, which he had never hoped to
see again, the Marquis de Souday very naturally applied to Louis
XVIII., of whom he had asked nothing during his exile in return for
the blood he had shed for him. But princes often seek pretexts for
ingratitude, and Louis XVIII. was furnished with three against his
former page: first, the tempestuous manner in which he had announced
to his Majesty Charette's death,--an announcement which had in fact
troubled the royal digestion; secondly, his disrespectful departure
from Blankenbourg, accompanied by language even more disrespectful
than the departure itself; and thirdly (this was the gravest pretext),
the irregularity of his life and conduct during the emigration.

Much praise was bestowed upon the bravery and devotion of the former
page; but he was, very gently, made to understand that with such
scandals attaching to his name he could not expect to fulfil any
public functions. The king was no longer an autocrat, they told him;
he was now compelled to consider public opinion; after the late period
of public immorality it was necessary to introduce a new and more
rigid era of morals. How fine a thing it would be if the marquis were
willing to sacrifice his own personal ambitions to the necessities of
the State.

In short, they persuaded him to be satisfied with the cross of
Saint-Louis, the rank and pension of a major of cavalry, and to take
himself off to eat the king's bread on his estate at Souday,--the sole
fragment recovered by the poor _émigré_ from the wreck of the enormous
fortune of his ancestors.

What was really fine about all this was that these excuses and
hypocrisies did not hinder the Marquis de Souday from doing his
duty,--that is, from leaving his poor castle to defend the white flag
when Napoleon made his marvellous return from Elba. Napoleon fell
again, and for the second time the marquis re-entered Paris with the
legitimate princes. But this time, wiser than he was in 1814, he
merely asked of the restored monarchy for the place of Master of
Wolves to the arrondissement of Machecoul,--an office in the royal
gift which, being without salary or emolument, was willingly accorded
to him.

Deprived during his youth of a pleasure which in his family was an
hereditary passion, the marquis now devoted himself ardently to
hunting. Always unhappy in a solitary life, for which he was totally
unfitted, yet growing more and more misanthropic as the result of his
political disappointments, he found in this active exercise a
momentary forgetfulness of his bitter memories. Thus the position of
Master of Wolves, which gave him the right to roam the State forests
at will, afforded him far more satisfaction than his ribbon of
Saint-Louis or his commission as major of cavalry.

So the Marquis de Souday had been living for two years in the mouldy
little castle we lately described, beating the woods day and night
with his six dogs (the only establishment his slender means
permitted), seeing his neighbors just enough to prevent them from
considering him an absolute bear, and thinking as little as he could
of his past wealth and his past fame, when one morning, as he was
starting to explore the north end of the forest of Machecoul, he met
on the road a peasant woman carrying a child three or four years old
on each arm.

The marquis instantly recognized the woman and blushed as he did so.
It was the nurse from Yorkshire, to whom he had regularly for the last
thirty-six months neglected to pay the board of her two nurslings. The
worthy woman had gone to London, and there made inquiries at the
French legation. She had now reached Machecoul with the assistance of
the French minister, who of course did not doubt that the Marquis de
Souday would be most happy to recover his two children.

The singular part of it is that the ambassador was not entirely
mistaken. The little girls reminded the marquis so vividly of his poor
Eva that he was seized with genuine emotion; he kissed them with a
tenderness that was not assumed, gave his gun to the Englishwoman,
took his children in his arms, and returned to the castle with this
unlooked-for game, to the utter stupefaction of the cook, who
constituted his whole household, and who now overwhelmed him with
questions as to the singular accession thus made to the family.

These questions alarmed the marquis. He was only thirty-nine years of
age, and vague ideas of marriage still floated in his head; he
regarded it as a duty not to let a name and house so illustrious as
that of Souday come to an end in his person. Moreover, he would not
have been sorry to turn over to a wife the management of his household
affairs, which was odious to him. But the realization of that idea
would, of course, be impossible if he kept the little girls in his
house.

He saw this plainly, paid the Englishwoman handsomely, and the next
day despatched her back to her own country.

During the night he had come to a resolution which, he thought, would
solve all difficulties. What was that resolution? We shall now see.

III.

THE TWINS.

The Marquis de Souday went to bed repeating to himself the old
proverb, "Night brings counsel." With that hope he fell asleep. When
asleep, he dreamed.

He dreamed of his old wars in La Vendée with Charette,--of the days
when he was aide-de-camp; and, more especially, he dreamed of Jean
Oullier, his attendant, of whom he had never thought since the day
when they left Charette dying, and parted in the wood of Chabotière.

As well as he could remember, Jean Oullier before joining Charette's
army had lived in the village of La Chevrolière, near the lake of
Grand-Lieu. The next morning the Marquis de Souday sent a man of
Machecoul, who did his errands, on horseback with a letter, ordering
him to go to La Chevrolière and ascertain if a man named Jean Oullier
was still living and whether he was in the place. If he was, the
messenger was to give him the letter and, if possible, bring him back
with him. If he lived at a short distance the messenger was to go
there. If the distance was too great he was to obtain every
information as to the locality of his abode. If he was dead the
messenger was to return at once and say so.

Jean Oullier was not dead; Jean Oullier was not in distant parts; Jean
Oullier was in the neighborhood of La Chevrolière; in fact, Jean
Oullier was in La Chevrolière itself.

Here is what had happened to him after parting with the marquis on the
day of Charette's last defeat. He stayed hidden in the bush, from
which he could see all and not be seen himself. He saw General Travot
take Charette prisoner and treat him with all the consideration a man
like General Travot would show to a man like Charette. But,
apparently, that was not all that Jean Oullier expected to see, for
after seeing the republicans lay Charette on a litter and carry him
away, Jean Oullier still remained hidden in his bush.

It is true that an officer with a picket of twelve men remained in the
wood. What were they there for?

About an hour later a Vendéan peasant passed within ten paces of Jean
Oullier, having answered the challenge of the sentinel with the word
"Friend,"--an odd answer in the mouth of a royalist peasant to a
republican soldier. The peasant next exchanged the countersign with
the sentry and passed on. Then he approached the officer, who, with an
expression of disgust which it is quite impossible to represent, gave
him a bag that was evidently full of gold. After which the peasant
disappeared, and the officer with his picket guard also departed,
showing that in all probability they had only been stationed there to
await the coming of the peasant.

In all probability, too, Jean Oullier had seen what he wanted to see,
for he came out of his bush as he went into it,--that is to say,
crawling; and getting on his feet, he tore the white cockade from his
hat, and, with the careless indifference of a man who for the last
three years had staked his life every day on a turn of the dice, he
buried himself still deeper in the forest.

The same night he reached La Chevrolière. He went straight to his own
home. On the spot where his house had stood was a blackened ruin,
blackened by fire. He sat down upon a stone and wept.

In that house he had left a wife and two children.

Soon he heard a step and raised his head. A peasant passed. Jean
Oullier recognized him in the darkness and called:--

"Tinguy!"

The man approached.

"Who is it calls me?" he said.

"I am Jean Oullier," replied the Chouan.

"God help you," replied Tinguy, attempting to pass on; but Jean
Oullier stopped him.

"You must answer me," he said.

"Are you a man?"

"Yes."

"Then question me and I will answer."

"My father?"

"Dead."

"My wife?"

"Dead."

"My two children?"

"Dead."

"Thank you."

Jean Oullier sat down again, but he no longer wept. After a few
moments he fell on his knees and prayed. It was time he did, for he
was about to blaspheme. He prayed for those who were dead.

Then, restored by that deep faith that gave him hope to meet them in a
better world, he bivouacked on those sad ruins.

The next day, at dawn, he began to rebuild his house, as calm and
resolute as though his father were still at the plough, his wife
before the fire, his children at the door. Alone, and asking no help
from any one, he rebuilt his cottage.

There he lived, doing the humble work of a day laborer. If any one had
counselled Jean Oullier to ask a reward from the Bourbons for doing
what he, rightly or wrongly, considered his duty, that adviser ran
some risk of insulting the grand simplicity of the poor peasant.

It will be readily understood that with such a nature Jean Oullier, on
receiving the letter in which the marquis called him his old comrade
and begged him to come to him, he did not delay his going. On the
contrary, he locked the door of his house, put the key in his pocket,
and then, as he lived alone and had no one to notify, he started
instantly. The messenger offered him his horse, or, at any rate, to
take him up behind him; but Jean Oullier shook his head.

"Thank God," he said, "my legs are good."

Then resting his hand on the horse's neck, he set the pace for the
animal to take,--a gentle trot of six miles an hour. That evening Jean
Oullier was at the castle. The marquis received him with visible
delight. He had worried all day over the idea that Jean Oullier might
be absent, or dead. It is not necessary to say that the idea of that
death worried him not for Jean Oullier's sake but for his own. We have
already informed our readers that the Marquis de Souday was slightly
selfish.

The first thing the marquis did was to take Jean Oullier apart and
confide to him the arrival of his children and his consequent
embarrassment.

Jean Oullier, who had had his own two children massacred, could not
understand that a father should voluntarily wish to part with his
children. He nevertheless accepted the proposal made to him by the
marquis to bring up the little girls till such a time as they were of
age to go to school. He said he would find some good woman at La
Chevrolière who would be a mother to them,--if, indeed, any one could
take the place of a mother to orphaned children.

Had the twins been sickly, ugly, or disagreeable, Jean Oullier would
have taken them all the same; but they were, on the contrary, so
prepossessing, so pretty, so graceful, and their smiles so engaging,
that the good man instantly loved them as such men do love. He
declared that their fair and rosy faces and curling hair were so like
those of the cherubs that surrounded the Madonna over the high altar
at Grand-Lieu before it was destroyed, that he felt like kneeling to
them when he saw them.

It was therefore decided that on the morrow Jean Oullier should take
the children back with him to La Chevrolière.

Now it so happened that, during the time which had elapsed between the
departure of the nurse and the arrival of Jean Oullier, the weather
had been rainy. The marquis, confined to the castle, felt terribly
bored. Feeling bored, he sent for his daughters and began to play with
them. Putting one astride his neck, and perching the other on his
back, he was soon galloping on all fours round the room, like Henri of
Navarre. Only, he improved on the amusement which his Majesty afforded
his progeny by imitating with his mouth not only the horn of the
hunter, but the barking and yelping of the whole pack of hounds. This
domestic sport diverted the Marquis de Souday immensely, and it is
safe to say that the little girls had never laughed so much in their
lives.

Besides, the little things had been won by the tenderness and the
petting their father had lavished upon them during these few hours, to
appease, no doubt, the reproaches of his conscience at sending them
away from him after so long a separation. The children, on their side,
showed him a frantic attachment and a lively gratitude, which were not
a little dangerous to the fulfilment of his plan.

In fact, when the carriole came, at eight o'clock in the morning, to
the steps of the portico, and the twins perceived that they were about
to be taken away, they set up cries of anguish. Bertha flung herself
on her father, clasped his knees, clung to the garters of the
gentleman who gave her sugar-plums and made himself such a capital
horse, and twisted her little hands into them in such a manner that
the poor marquis feared to bruise her wrists by trying to unclasp
them.

As for Mary, she sat down on the steps and cried; but she cried with
such an expression of real sorrow that Jean Oullier felt more touched
by her silent grief than by the noisy despair of her sister. The
marquis employed all his eloquence to persuade the little girls that
by getting into the carriage, they would have more pleasure and more
dainties than by staying with him; but the more he talked, the more
Mary cried and the more Bertha quivered and passionately clung to him.

The marquis began to get impatient. Seeing that persuasion could do
nothing, he was about to employ force when, happening to turn his
eyes, he caught sight of the look on Jean Oullier's face. Two big
tears were rolling down the bronzed cheeks of the peasant into the
thick red whiskers which framed his face. Those tears acted both as a
prayer to the marquis and as a reproach to the father. Monsieur de
Souday made a sign to Jean Oullier to unharness the horse; and while
Bertha, understanding the sign, danced with joy on the portico, he
whispered in the farmer's ear:--

"You can start to-morrow."

As the day was very fine, the marquis desired to utilize the presence
of Jean Oullier by taking him on a hunt; with which intent he carried
him off to his own bedroom to help him on with his sporting-clothes.
The peasant was much struck by the frightful disorder of the little
room; and the marquis continued his confidences with bitter complaints
of his female servitor, who, he said, might be good enough among her
pots and pans, but was odiously careless as to all other household
comforts, particularly those that concerned his clothes. On this
occasion it was ten minutes before he could find a waistcoat that was
not widowed of its buttons, or a pair of breeches not afflicted with a
rent that made them more or less indecent. However, he was dressed at
last.

Wolf-master though he was, the marquis, as we have said, was too poor
to allow himself the luxury of a huntsman, and he led his little pack
himself. Therefore, having the double duty of keeping the hounds from
getting at fault, and firing at the game, it was seldom that the poor
marquis, passionate sportsman that he was, did not come home at night
tired out.

With Jean Oullier it was quite another thing. The vigorous peasant, in
the flower of his age, sprang through the forest with the agility of a
squirrel; he bounded over bushes when it took too long to go round
them, and, thanks to his muscles of steel, he never was behind the
dogs by a length. On two or three occasions he supported them with
such vigor that the boar they were pursuing, recognizing the fact that
flight would not shake off his enemies, ended by turning and standing
at bay in a thicket, where the marquis had the happiness of killing
him at one blow,--a thing that had never yet happened to him.

The marquis went home light-hearted and joyful, thanking Jean Oullier
for the delightful day he owed to him. During dinner he was in fine
good-humor, and invented new games to keep the little girls as gay as
himself.

At night, when he went to his room, the marquis found Jean Oullier
sitting cross-legged in a corner, like a Turk or a tailor. Before him
was a mound of garments, and in his hand he held a pair of old velvet
breeches which he was darning vigorously.

"What the devil are you doing there?" demanded the marquis.

"The winter is cold in this level country, especially when the wind is
from the sea; and after I get home my legs will be cold at the very
thought of a norther blowing on yours through these rents," replied
Jean Oullier, showing his master a tear which went from knee to belt
in the breeches he was mending.

"Ha! so you're a tailor, too, are you?" cried the marquis.

"Alas!" said Jean Oullier, "one has to be a little of everything when
one lives alone as I have done these twenty years. Besides, an old
soldier is never at a loss."

"I like that!" said the marquis; "pray, am not I a soldier, too?"

"No; you were an officer, and that's not the same thing."

The Marquis de Souday looked at Jean Oullier admiringly. Then he went
to bed and to sleep, and snored away, without in the least
interrupting the work of his old Chouan. In the middle of the night he
woke up. Jean Oullier was still at work. The mound of garments had not
perceptibly diminished.

"But you can never finish them, even if you work till daylight, my
poor Jean," said the marquis.

"I'm afraid not."

"Then go to bed now, old comrade; you needn't start till you have
mended up all my old rags, and we can have another hunt to-morrow."

IV.

HOW JEAN OULLIER, COMING TO SEE THE MARQUIS FOR AN HOUR,
WOULD BE THERE STILL IF THEY HAD NOT BOTH BEEN IN THEIR
GRAVE THESE TEN YEARS.

The next morning, before starting for the hunt, it occurred to the
marquis to kiss his children. He therefore went up to their room, and
was not a little astonished to find that the indefatigable Jean
Oullier had preceded him, and was washing and brushing the little
girls with the conscientious determination of a good governess. The
poor fellow, to whom the occupation recalled his own lost young ones,
seemed to be taking deep satisfaction in the work. The marquis changed
his admiration into respect.

For eight days the hunts continued without interruption, each finer
and more fruitful than the last. During those eight days Jean Oullier,
huntsman by day, steward by night, not only revived and restored his
master's wardrobe, but he actually found time to put the house in
order from top to bottom.

The marquis, far from urging his departure, now thought with horror of
parting from so valuable a servitor. From morning till night, and
sometimes from night till morning, he turned over in his mind which of
the Chouan's qualities was most serviceable to him. Jean Oullier had
the scent of a hound to follow game, and the eye of an Indian to
discover its trail by the bend of the reeds or the dew on the grass.
He could even tell, on the dry and stony roads about Machecoul,
Bourgneuf, and Aigrefeuille, the age and sex of a boar, when the trail
was imperceptible to other eyes. No huntsman on horseback had ever
followed up the hounds like Jean Oullier on his long and vigorous
legs. Moreover, on the days when rest was actually necessary for the
little pack of hounds, he was unequalled for discovering the places
where snipe abounded, and taking his master to the spot.

"Damn marriage!" cried the marquis to himself, occasionally, when he
seemed to be thinking of quite other things. "Why do I want to row in
that boat when I have seen so many good fellows come to grief in it?
Heavens and earth! I'm not so young a man--almost forty; I haven't any
illusions; I don't expect to captivate a woman by my personal
attractions. I can't expect to do more than tempt some old dowager
with my three thousand francs a year,--half of which dies with me. I
should probably get a scolding, fussy, nagging wife, who might
interfere with my hunting, which that good Jean manages so well; and I
am sure she will never keep the house in such order as he does.
Still," he added, straightening himself up, and swaying the upper part
of his body, "is this a time to let the old races, the supporters of
monarchy, die out? Wouldn't it be very pleasant to see my son restore
the glory of my house? Besides, what would be thought of me,--who am
known to have had no wife, no legitimate wife,--what will my neighbors
say if I take the two little girls to live with me?"

When these reflections came, which they ordinarily did on rainy days,
when he could not be off on his favorite pastime, they cast the
Marquis de Souday into painful perplexity, from which he wriggled, as
do all undecided temperaments and weak natures,--men, in short, who
never know how to adopt a course,--by making a provisional
arrangement.

At the time when our story opens, in 1831, Mary and Bertha were
seventeen, and the provisional arrangement still lasted; although,
strange as it may seem, the Marquis de Souday had not yet positively
decided to keep his daughters with him.

Jean Oullier, who had hung the key of his house at La Chevrolière to a
nail, had never, in fourteen years, had the least idea of taking it
down. He had waited patiently till his master gave him the order to go
home. But as, ever since his arrival, the château had been neat and
clean; as the marquis had never once missed a button; as the
hunting-boots were always properly greased; as the guns were kept with
all the care of the best armory at Nantes; as Jean Oullier, by means
of certain coercive proceedings, of which he learned the secret from a
former comrade of the "brigand army," had, little by little, brought
the cook not to vent her ill-humor on her master; as the hounds were
always in good condition, shiny of coat, neither fat nor thin, and
able to bear a long chase of eight or ten hours, ending mostly in a
kill; as the chatter and the pretty ways of his children and their
expansive affection varied the monotony of his existence; as his talks
and gossip with Jean Oullier on the stirring incidents of the old war,
now passed into a tradition (it was thirty-six years distant),
enlivened his dull hours and the long evenings and the rainy
days,--the marquis, finding once more the good care, the quiet ease,
the tranquil happiness he had formerly enjoyed with Eva, with the
additional and intoxicating joys of hunting,--the marquis, we say, put
off from day to day, from month to month, from year to year, deciding
on the separation.

As for Jean Oullier, he had his own reasons for not provoking a
decision. He was not only a brave man, but he was a good one. As we
have said, he at once took a liking to Bertha and Mary; this liking,
in that poor heart deprived of its own children, soon became tender
affection, and the tenderness fanaticism. He did not at first perceive
very clearly the distinction the marquis seemed to make between their
position and that of other children whom he might have by a legitimate
marriage to perpetuate his name. In Poitou, when a man gets a worthy
girl into trouble he knows of no other reparation than to marry her.
Jean Oullier thought it natural, inasmuch as his master could not
legitimatize the connection with the mother, that he should at least
not conceal the paternity which Eva in dying had bequeathed to him.
Therefore, after two months' sojourn at the castle, having made these
reflections, weighed them in his mind, and ratified them in his heart,
the Chouan would have received an order to take the children away with
very ill grace; and his respect for Monsieur de Souday would not have
prevented him from expressing himself bluffly on the subject.

Fortunately, the marquis did not betray to his dependant the
tergiversations of his mind; so that Jean Oullier did really regard
the provisional arrangement as definitive, and he believed that the
marquis considered the presence of his daughters at the castle as
their right and also as his own bounden duty.

At the moment when we issue from these preliminaries, Bertha and Mary
were, as we have said, between seventeen and eighteen years of age.
The purity of race in their paternal ancestors had done marvels when
strengthened with the vigorous Saxon blood of the plebeian mother.
Eva's children were now two splendid young women, with refined and
delicate features, slender and elegant shapes, and with great
distinction and nobility in their air and manner. They were as much
alike as twins are apt to be; only Bertha was dark, like her father,
and Mary was fair, like her mother.

Unfortunately, the education of these beautiful young creatures, while
developing to the utmost their physical advantages, did not
sufficiently concern itself with the needs of their sex. It was
impossible that it should be otherwise, living from day to day beside
their father, with his natural carelessness and his determination to
enjoy the present and let the future take care of itself.

Jean Oullier was the only tutor of Eva's children, as he was formerly
their only nurse. The worthy Chouan taught them all he knew
himself,--namely, to read, write, cipher, and pray with tender and
devout fervor to God and the Virgin; also to roam the woods, scale the
rocks, thread the tangle of holly, reeds, and briers without fatigue,
without fear or weakness of any kind; to hit a bird on the wing, a
squirrel on the leap, and to ride bareback those intractable horses of
Mellerault, almost as wild on their plains and moors as the horses of
the gauchos on the pampas.

The Marquis de Souday had seen all this without attempting to give any
other direction to the education of his daughters, and without having
even the idea of counteracting the taste they were forming for these
manly exercises. The worthy man was only too delighted to have such
valiant comrades in his favorite amusement, uniting, as they did, with
their respectful tenderness toward him a gayety, dash, and ardor for
the chase, which doubled his own pleasure from the time they were old
enough to share it.

And yet, in strict justice, we must say that the marquis added one
ingredient of his own to Jean Oullier's instructions. When Bertha and
Mary were fourteen years old, which was the period when they first
followed their father into the forest, their childish games, which had
hitherto made the old castle so lively in the evenings, began to lose
attraction. So, to fill the void he was beginning to feel, the Marquis
de Souday taught Bertha and Mary how to play whist.

On the other hand, the two children had themselves completed mentally,
as far as they could, the education Jean Oullier had so vigorously
developed physically. Playing hide-and-seek through the castle, they
came upon a room which, in all probability, had not been opened for
thirty years. It was the library. There they found a thousand volumes,
or something near that number.

Each followed her own bent in the choice of books. Mary, the gentle,
sentimental Mary, preferred novels; the turbulent and determined
Bertha, history. Then they mingled their reading in a common fund;
Mary told Paul and Virginia and Amadis to Bertha, and Bertha told
Mèzeray and Velly to Mary. The result of such desultory reading was,
of course, that the two young girls grew up with many false notions
about real life and the habits and requirements of a world they had
never seen, and had, in truth, never heard of.

At the time they made their first communion the vicar of Machecoul,
who loved them for their piety and the goodness of their heart, did
risk a few remarks to their father on the peculiar existence such a
bringing-up must produce; but his friendly remarks made no impression
on the selfish indifference of the Marquis de Souday. The education we
have described was continued, and such habits and ways were the result
that, thanks to their already false position, poor Bertha and her
sister acquired a very bad reputation throughout the neighborhood.

The fact was, the Marquis de Souday was surrounded by little newly
made nobles, who envied him his truly illustrious name, and asked
nothing better than to fling back upon him the contempt with which his
ancestors had probably treated theirs. So when they saw him keep in
his own house, and call his daughters, the children of an illegitimate
union, they began to trumpet forth the evils of his life in London;
they exaggerated his wrong-doing and made poor Eva (saved by a miracle
from a life of degradation) a common woman of the town. Consequently,
little by little, the country squires of Beauvoir, Saint-Leger,
Bourgneuf, Saint-Philbert, and Grand-Lieu, avoided the marquis, under
pretence that he degraded the nobility,--a matter about which, taking
into account the mushroom character of their own rank, they were very
good to concern themselves.

But soon it was not the men only who disapproved of the Marquis de
Souday's conduct. The beauty of the twin sisters roused the enmity of
the mothers and daughters in a circuit of thirty miles, and that was
infinitely more alarming. If Bertha and Mary had been ugly the hearts
of these charitable ladies and young ladies, naturally inclined to
Christian mercy, would perhaps have forgiven the poor devil of a
father for his improper paternity; but it was impossible not to be
shocked at the sight of two such spurious creatures, crushing by their
distinction, their nobility, and their personal charm, the well-born
young ladies of the neighborhood. Such insolent superiority deserved
neither mercy nor compassion.

The indignation against the poor girls was so general that even if
they had never given any cause for gossip or calumny, gossip and
calumny would have swept their wings over them. Imagine, therefore,
what was likely to happen, and did actually happen, when the masculine
and eccentric habits of the sisters were fully known! One universal
hue-and-cry of reprobation arose from the department of the
Loire-Inférieure and echoed through those of La Vendée and the
Maine-et-Loire; and if it had not been for the sea, which bounds the
coast of the Loire-Inférieure, that reprobation would, undoubtedly,
have spread as far to the west as it did to the south and east. All
classes, bourgeois and nobles, city-folk and country-folk, had their
say about it. Young men, who had hardly seen Mary and Bertha, and did
not know them, spoke of the daughters of the Marquis de Souday with
meaning smiles, expressive of hopes, if not of memories. Dowagers
crossed themselves on pronouncing their names, and nurses threatened
little children when they were naughty with goblin tales of them.

The most indulgent confined themselves to attributing to the twins the
three virtues of Harlequin, usually regarded as the attributes of the
disciples of Saint-Hubert,--namely, love, gambling, and wine. Others,
however, declared that the little castle of Souday was every night the
scene of orgies such as chronicles of the regency alone could show. A
few imaginative persons went further, and declared that one of
its ruined towers--abandoned to the innocent loves of a flock of
pigeons--was a repetition of the famous Tour de Nesle, of licentious
and homicidal memory.

In short, so much was said about Bertha and Mary that, no matter what
had been and then was the purity of their lives and the innocence of
their actions, they became an object of horror to the society of the
whole region. Through the servants of private houses, through the
workmen employed by the bourgeoisie, this hatred and horror of society
filtered down among the peasantry, so that the whole population in
smocks and wooden shoes (if we except a few old blind men and helpless
women to whom the twins had been kind) echoed far and wide the absurd
stories invented by the big-wigs. There was not a woodman, not a
laborer in Machecoul, not a farmer in Saint-Philbert and Aigrefeuille
that did not feel himself degraded in raising his hat to them.

The peasantry at last gave Bertha and Mary a nickname; and this
nickname, starting from the lower classes, was adopted by acclamation
among the upper, as a just characterization of the lawless habits
and appetites attributed to the young girls. They were called the
she-wolves (a term, as we all know, equivalent to _sluts_),--the
she-wolves of Machecoul.

A LITTER OF WOLVES.

The Marquis de Souday was utterly indifferent to all these signs of
public animadversion; in fact, he seemed to ignore their existence.
When he observed that his neighbors no longer returned the few visits
that from time to time he felt obliged to pay to them, he rubbed his
hands with satisfaction at being released from social duties, which he
hated and only performed when constrained and forced to do so either
by his daughters or by Jean Oullier.

Every now and then some whisper of the calumnies that were circulating
about Bertha and Mary reached him; but he was so happy with his
factotum, his daughters, and his hounds, that he felt he should be
compromising the tranquillity he enjoyed if he took the slightest
notice of such absurd reports. Accordingly, he continued to course the
hares daily and hunt the boar on grand occasions, and play whist
nightly with the two poor calumniated ones.

Jean Oullier was far from being as philosophical as his master; but
then it must be said that in his position he heard much more than the
marquis did. His affection for the two young girls had now become
fanaticism; he spent his life in watching them, whether they sat,
softly smiling, in the salon of the château, or whether, bending
forward on their horses' necks, with sparkling eyes and animated
faces, they galloped at his side, with their long locks floating in
the wind from beneath the broad brims of their felt hats and
undulating feathers. Seeing them so brave and capable, and at the same
time so good and tender to their father and himself, his heart swelled
with pride and happiness; he felt himself as having a share in the
development of these two admirable creatures, and he wondered why all
the world should not be willing to kneel down to them.

Consequently, the first persons who risked telling him of the rumors
current in the neighborhood were so sharply rebuked for it that they
were frightened and warned others; but Bertha and Mary's true father
needed no words to inform him what was secretly believed of the two
dear objects of his love. From a smile, a glance, a gesture, a sign,
he guessed the malicious thoughts of all with a sagacity that made him
miserable. The contempt that poor and rich made no effort to disguise
affected him deeply. If he had allowed himself to follow his impulses
he would have picked a quarrel with every contemptuous face, and
corrected some by knocking them down, and others by a pitched battle.
But his good sense told him that Bertha and Mary needed another sort
of support, and that blows given or received would prove absolutely
nothing in their defence. Besides, he dreaded--and this was, in fact,
his greatest fear--that the result of some quarrel, if he provoked it,
might be that the young girls would be made aware of the public
feeling against them.

Poor Jean Oullier therefore bowed his head before this cruelly unjust
condemnation, and tears and fervent prayers to God, the supreme
redressor of the cruelties and injustices of men, alone bore testimony
to his grief; but in his heart he fell into a state of profound
misanthropy. Seeing none about him but the enemies of his two dear
children, how could he help hating mankind? And he prepared himself
for the day when some future revolution might enable him to return
evil for evil.

The revolution of 1830 had just occurred, but it had not given Jean
Oullier the opportunity he craved to put these evil designs into
execution. Nevertheless, as rioting and disturbances were not yet
altogether quelled in the streets of Paris, and might still be
communicated to the provinces, he watched and waited.

On a fine morning in September, 1831, the Marquis
de Souday, his daughters, Jean Oullier, and the
pack--which, though frequently renewed since we made its acquaintance,
had not increased in numbers--were hunting in the forest of Machecoul.

It was an occasion impatiently awaited by the marquis, who for the
last three months had been expecting grand sport from it,--the object
being to capture a litter of young wolves, which Jean Oullier had
discovered before their eyes were opened, and which he had, being a
faithful and knowing huntsman to a Master of Wolves, watched over and
cared for for several months. This last statement may demand some
explanations to those of our readers who are not familiar with the
noble art of venery.

When the Duc de Biron (beheaded, in 1602, by order of Henri IV.) was a
youth, he said to his father at one of the sieges of the religious
wars, "Give me fifty cavalry; there's a detachment of two hundred men,
sallying out to forage. I can kill every one of them, and the town
must surrender." "Suppose it does, what then?" "What then? Why, I say
the town will surrender." "Yes; and the king will have no further need
of us. We must continue _necessary_, you ninny!" The two hundred
foragers were not killed. The town was not taken, and Biron and his
son continued "necessary;" that is to say, being necessary they
retained the favor and the wages of the king.

Well, it is with wolves as it was with those foragers spared by the
Duc de Biron. If there were no longer any wolves how could there be a
Wolf-master? Therefore we must forgive Jean Oullier, who was, as we
may say, a corporal of wolves, for showing some tender care for the
nurslings and not slaying them, them and their mother, with the stern
rigor he would have shown to an elderly wolf of the masculine sex.

But that is not all. Hunting an old wolf in the open is impracticable,
and in a battue it is monotonous and tiresome; but to hunt a young
wolf six or seven months old is easy, agreeable, and amusing. So, in
order to procure this charming sport for his master, Jean Oullier, on
finding the litter, had taken good care not to disturb or frighten the
mother; he concerned himself not at all for the loss of sundry of the
neighbors' sheep, which she would of course inevitably provide for her
little ones. He had paid the latter several visits, with touching
solicitude, during their infancy, to make sure that no one had laid a
disrespectful hand upon them, and he rejoiced with great joy when he
one day found the den depopulated and knew that the mother-wolf had
taken off her cubs on some excursion.

The day had now come when, as Jean Oullier judged, they were in fit
condition for what was wanted of them. He therefore, on this grand
occasion, hedged them in to an open part of the forest, and loosed the
six dogs upon one of them.

The poor devil of a cub, not knowing what all this trumpeting and
barking meant, lost his head and instantly quitted the covert, where
he left his mother and brothers and where he still had a chance to
save his skin. He took unadvisedly to another open, and there, after
running for half an hour in a circuit like a hare, he became very
tired from an exertion to which he was not accustomed, and feeling his
big paws swelling and stiffening he sat down artlessly on his tail and
waited.

He did not have to wait long before he found out what was wanted of
him, for Domino, the leading hound, a Vendéan, with a rough gray coat,
came up almost immediately and broke his back with one crunch of his
jaw.

Jean Oullier called in his dogs, took them back to the starting-point,
and ten minutes later a brother of the deceased was afoot, with the
hounds at his heels. This one however, with more sense than the other,
did not leave the covert, and various sorties and charges, made
sometimes by the other cubs and sometimes by the mother-wolf, who
offered herself voluntarily to the dogs, delayed for a time his
killing. But Jean Oullier knew his business too well to let such
actions compromise success. As soon as the cub began to head in a
straight line with the gait of an old wolf, he called off his dogs,
took them to where the cub had broken, and put them on the scent.

Pressed too closely by his pursuers, the poor wolfling tried to
double. He returned upon his steps, and left the wood with such
innocent ignorance that he came plump upon the marquis and his
daughters. Surprised, and losing his head, he tried to slip between
the legs of the horses; but M. de Souday, leaning from his saddle,
caught him by the tail, and flung him to the dogs, who had followed
his doubling.

These successful kills immensely delighted the marquis, who did not
choose to end the matter here. He discussed with Jean Oullier whether
it was best to call in the dogs and attack at the same place, or
whether, as the rest of the cubs were evidently afoot, it would not be
best to let the hounds into the wood pell-mell to find as they
pleased.

But the mother-wolf, knowing probably that they would soon be after
the rest of her progeny, crossed the road not ten steps distant from
the dogs, while the marquis and Jean Oullier were arguing. The moment
the little pack, who had not been re-coupled, saw the animal, they
gave one cry, and, wild with excitement, rushed upon her traces.
Calls, shouts, whips, nothing could hold them, nothing stop them. Jean
Oullier made play with his legs, and the marquis and his daughters put
their horses to a gallop for the same purpose; but the hounds had
something else than a timid, ignorant cub to deal with. Before them
was a bold, vigorous, enterprising animal, running confidently, as if
sure of her haven, in a straight line, indifferent to valleys, rocks,
mountains, or water-courses, without fear, without haste, trotting
along at an even pace, sometimes surrounded by the dogs, whom she
mastered by the power of an oblique look and the snapping of her
formidable jaws.

The wolf, after crossing three fourths of the forest, broke out to the
plain as though she were making for the forest of Grand'Lande. Jean
Oullier had kept up, thanks to the elasticity of his legs, and was now
only three or four hundred steps behind the dogs. The marquis and his
daughters, forced by the ditches to follow the curve of the paths,
were left behind. But when they reached the edge of the woods and had
ridden up the slope which overlooks the little village of Marne, they
saw, over a mile ahead of them, between Machecoul and La Brillardière,
in the midst of the gorse which covers the ground near those villages
and La Jacquelerie, Jean Oullier, his dogs, and his wolf, still in the
same relative positions, and following a straight line at the same
gait.

The success of the first two chases and the rapidity of the ride
stirred the blood of the Marquis de Souday.

"Morbleu!" he cried; "I'd give six years of life to be at this moment
between Saint-Étienne de Mermorte and La Guimarière and send a ball
into that vixen of a wolf."

"She is making for the forest of Grand'Lande," said Mary.

"Yes," said Bertha; "but she will certainly come back to the den, so
long as the cubs have not left it. She won't forsake her own wood
long."

"I think it would be better to go back to the den," said Mary. "Don't
you remember, papa, that last year we followed a wolf which led us a
chase of ten hours, and all for nothing; and we had to go home with
our horses blown, the dogs lame, and all the mortification of a dead
failure?"

"Ta, ta, ta!" cried the marquis; "that wolf wasn't a she-wolf. You can
go back, if you like, mademoiselle; as for me, I shall follow the
hounds. Corbleu! it shall never be said I wasn't in at the death."

"We shall go where you go, papa," cried both girls together.

"Very good; forward, then!" cried the marquis, vigorously spurring his
horse, and galloping down the slope. The way he took was stony and
furrowed with the deep ruts of which Lower Poitou keeps up the
tradition to this day. The horses stumbled repeatedly, and would soon
have been down if they had not been held up firmly; it was evidently
impossible to reach the forest of Grand'Lande before the game.

Monsieur de Souday, better mounted than his daughters, and able to
spur his beast more vigorously, had gained some rods upon them.
Annoyed by the roughness of the road, he turned his horse suddenly
into an open field beside it, and made off across the plain, without
giving notice to his daughters. Bertha and Mary, thinking that they
were still following their father, continued their way along the
dangerous road.

In about fifteen minutes from the time they lost sight of their father
they came to a place where the road was deeply sunken between two
slopes, at the top of which were rows of trees, the branches meeting
and interlacing above their heads. There they stopped suddenly,
thinking that they heard at a little distance the well-known barking
of their dogs. Almost at the same moment a gun went off close beside
them, and a large hare, with bloody hanging ears, ran from the hedge
and along the road before them, while loud cries of "Follow! follow!
tally-ho! Tally-ho!" came from the field above the narrow roadway.[1]

---------------

[Footnote 1: The English cry "tally-ho" comes from the French cry
_taillis au_,--"to the copse," or "covert."]

---------------

The sisters thought they had met the hunt of some of their neighbors,
and were about to discreetly disappear, when from the hole in the
hedge through which the hare had forced her way, came Rustaud, one of
their father's dogs, yelping loudly, and after Rustaud, Faraud,
Bellaude, Domino, and Fanfare, one after another, all in pursuit of
the wretched hare, as if they had chased that day no higher game.

The tail of the last dog was scarcely through the opening before
a human face appeared there. This face belonged to a pale,
frightened-looking young man, with touzled head and haggard eyes, who
made desperate efforts to bring his body after his head through the
narrow passage, calling out, as he struggled with the thorns and
briars, "Tally-ho! tally-ho!" in the same voice Bertha and Mary had
heard about five minutes earlier.

VI.

THE WOUNDED HARE.

Among the hedges of Lower Poitou (constructed, like the Breton hedges,
with bent and twisted branches interlacing each other) it is no
reason, because a hare and six hounds have passed through, that
the opening they make should be considered in the light of a
_porte-cochère_; on the contrary, the luckless young man was held fast
as though his neck were in the collar of the guillotine. In vain he
pushed and struggled violently, and tore his hands and face till both
were bloody; it was impossible for him to advance one inch.

And yet he did not lose courage; he fought on with might and main,
until suddenly two peals of girlish laughter arrested his struggles.
He looked round, and saw the two riders bending over the pommels of
their saddles, and making no effort either to restrain their amusement
or conceal the cause of it.

Ashamed of being laughed at by two such pretty girls (he was only
twenty), and perceiving how really grotesque his appearance must be,
the young man tried to withdraw his head from the hole; but it was
written above that that unlucky hedge should be fatal to him either
way. The thorns hooked themselves into his clothing and the branches
into his game-bag, so that it was literally impossible for him to get
back. There he was, caught in the hedge as if in a trap; and this
second misfortune only increased the convulsive hilarity of the two
spectators.

The luckless youth no longer used mere vigorous energy to free himself
from the thicket. His struggles became furious, almost frenzied, and
in this last and desperate attempt his face assumed an expression of
such pitiable despair that Mary, the gentle one, felt touched.

"We ought not to laugh, Bertha," she said; "don't you see it hurts
him?"

"Yes, I see," replied Bertha; "but how can we help it? I can't stop
myself."

Then, still laughing, she jumped off her horse and ran to the poor
fellow to help him.

"Monsieur," she said, "I think a little assistance may be useful in
getting you out of that hedge. Pray accept the help my sister and I
are most ready to offer."

But the girl's laughter had pricked the vanity of the youth even more
than the thorns had pricked his body; so that no matter how
courteously Bertha worded her proposal, it did not make the
unfortunate captive forget the hilarity of which he had been the
object. So he kept silence; and, with the air of a man resolved to get
out of his troubles without the help of any one, he made a last and
still more strenuous effort.

He lifted himself by his wrists and endeavored to propel himself
forward by the sort of diagonal motion with the lower part of his body
that all animals of the snake genus employ. Unluckily, in making this
movement his forehead came in contact with the branch of a wild
apple-tree, which the shears of the farmer who made the hedge had
sharpened like the end of a pike. This branch cut and scraped the skin
like a well-tempered razor; and the young man, feeling himself
seriously wounded, gave a cry as the blood, spurting freely, covered
his whole face.

When the sisters saw the accident, of which they were involuntarily
the cause, they ran to the young man, seized him by the shoulders, and
uniting their efforts, with a vigor and strength not to be met with
among ordinary women, they managed to drag him through the hedge and
seat him on the bank. Mary, who could not know that the wound was
really a slight one, and only judged by appearances, became very pale
and trembling, as for Bertha, less impressionable than her sister, she
did not lose her head for a single moment.

"Run to that brook," she said to Mary, "and wet your handkerchief, so
that I may wash off the blood that is blinding the poor fellow."

When Mary had done as she was told and had returned with the moistened
handkerchief, she asked the young man in her gentle way:--

"Do you suffer much, monsieur?"

"Excuse me, mademoiselle," replied the young man, "but I have so much
on my mind at this moment that I do not know whether I suffer most on
the inside or the outside of my head." Then suddenly bursting into
sobs, with difficulty restrained till then, he cried out, "Ah! the
good God has punished me for disobeying mamma!"

Although the youth who spoke was certainly young,--for, as we have
said, he was only twenty,--there was something so infantine in his
accent and so ludicrously out of keeping with his height and his
huntsman's dress in his words, that the sisters, in spite of their
compassion for his wound, could not restrain another peal of laughter.

The poor lad cast a look of entreaty and reproach, upon them, while
two big tears rolled down his cheeks; then he tore from his head,
impatiently, the handkerchief wet with water from the brook, which
Mary had laid upon his forehead.

"Don't do that!" said Bertha.

"Let me alone!" he cried. "I don't choose to receive attentions I have
to pay for in ridicule. I am sorry now I did not follow my first idea
and run away, at the risk of getting a worse wound."

"Yes; but as you had the sense not to do so," said Mary, "have sense
enough now to let me put that bandage back upon your head."

Picking up the handkerchief she went to him with such a kindly
expression of interest that he, shaking his head, not in sign of
refusal but of utter depression, said:--

"Do as you please, mademoiselle."

"Oh! oh!" exclaimed Bertha, who had not lost a single expression on
the countenance of the young man; "for a hunter you seem to me rather
easily upset, monsieur."

"In the first place, mademoiselle, I am not a hunter, and after what
has just happened to me I don't wish ever to become one."

"I beg your pardon," said Bertha, in the same laughing tone which had
already provoked the youth, "but judging by the fury with which you
assaulted the briers and thorns, and especially by the eagerness with
which you urged on our dogs, I think I had every right to at least
imagine you a hunter."

"Oh, no, mademoiselle; I am not a hunter. I was carried away by a
momentary excitement, which I cannot now at all understand. At present
I am perfectly cool, and I know how right my mother was to call the
amusement of hunting, which consists in finding pleasure and gratified
vanity in the agony and death of a poor, defenceless, dumb animal,
ridiculous and degrading."

"Take care, monsieur!" cried Bertha. "To us, who are ridiculous and
degraded enough to like that amusement, you seem a good deal like the
fox in the fable."

Just then Mary, who had gone a second time to the brook to wet her
handkerchief, was about to re-bandage the young man's forehead. But he
pushed her away from him angrily.

"In Heaven's name, mademoiselle," he cried, "spare me your attentions!
Don't you hear how your sister continues to laugh at me?"

"No, let me tie this on, I beg of you," said Mary.

But he, not allowing himself to be persuaded by the sweetness of her
voice, rose to his knees, with the evident intention of escaping
altogether. Such obstinacy, which was more that of a child than of a
man, exasperated the irascible Bertha; and her irritation, though
inspired by the purest feelings of humanity, was none the less
expressed in rather too energetic a way for one of her sex.

"Confound it!" she cried, as her father might have done under similar
circumstances, "the provoking little fellow won't hear reason! Put on
the bandage, Mary; I'll hold his hands, and we'll see if he stirs
then."

And Bertha, seizing the young man's wrists with a muscular strength
which paralyzed all his efforts to get away, managed to facilitate
Mary's task so that she was able to bind the wound and tie the
handkerchief, which she did with a nicety that might have done honor
to a pupil of Dupuytren or Jobert.

"Now, monsieur," said Bertha, "you are in a fit state to go home, and
get away from us, as you are longing to do, without so much as thank
you. You can go."

But in spite of this permission and his restored liberty, the youth
did not budge. He seemed surprised and also deeply humiliated at
having fallen into the hands of two such strong women; his eyes turned
from Bertha to Mary and from Mary to Bertha, and still he was unable
to find a word to say. At last, seeing no other way out of his
embarrassment, he hid his face in his hands.

"Oh!" said Mary, kindly; "do you feel ill?"

The youth made no answer. Bertha gently moved his hands from his face,
and finding that he was really weeping, she became as compassionate
and gentle as her sister.

"You are more hurt than you seemed to be; is it the pain that makes
you cry?" she said. "If so, get on my horse or my sister's, and we
will take you home."

But to this the young man eagerly made a sign in the negative.

"Come," said Bertha, "enough of this childish nonsense! We have
affronted you; but how could we know that the skin of a girl was under
your hunting-jacket. Nevertheless, we were wrong; we admit it, and we
beg your pardon. You may not think we do so in a proper manner; but
remember the situation, and say to yourself that sincerity is all you
can expect from two girls so neglected by Heaven as to spend their
time in the ridiculous amusement which your mother unfortunately
disapproves. Now, do you mean to be unforgiving?"

"No, mademoiselle," replied the youth; "it is only with myself that I
am annoyed."

"Why so?"

"I can hardly tell you. Perhaps it is that I am ashamed to be weaker
than you,--I, a man; perhaps, too, I am all upset at the thought of
going home. What can I say to my mother to explain this wound?"

The two girls looked at each other. Women as they were, they would
have cared little for such a trifle; but they refrained from laughing,
strong as the temptation was, seeing by this time the extreme nervous
susceptibility of the young man.

"Well, then," said Bertha, "if you are no longer angry with us, let us
shake hands and part friends."

And she held out her hand as a man might have done. The youth was
about to reply with a like gesture, when Mary made a sign to call
their attention, by lifting her finger in the air.

"Hush!" said Bertha, listening as her sister did, one hand half
extended toward that of the young man.

In the distance, but coming rapidly nearer, they heard the sharp,
eager, prolonged yelping of hounds,--of hounds that were scenting
game. It was the Marquis de Souday's pack, still in pursuit of the
wounded hare, which had now doubled on them. Bertha pounced on the
young man's gun, the right barrel of which was still loaded. He made a
gesture as if to stop a dangerous imprudence, but the young girl only
smiled at him. She ran the ramrod hastily down the loaded barrel, as
all prudent hunters do when about to use a gun they have not loaded
themselves, and finding that the weapon was in proper condition, she
advanced a few steps, handling the gun with an ease which showed she
was perfectly familiar with the use of it.

Almost at the same moment the hare darted from the hedge, evidently
with the intention of returning the way it came; then, perceiving the
three persons who stood there, it made a rapid somersault and doubled
back. Quick as the movement was Bertha had time to aim; she fired, and
the animal, shot dead, rolled down the bank into the middle of the
road.

Mary had, meantime, advanced like her sister to shake hands with the
young man, and the two stood looking on at what was happening with
their hands clasped. Bertha picked up the hare, and returning to the
unknown young man who still held Mary's hand, she said, giving him the
game:--

"There, monsieur, there's an excuse for you."

"How so?" he asked.

"You can tell your mother that the hare ran between your legs and your
gun went off without your knowledge; and you can swear, as you did
just now, that it shall never happen again. The hare will plead
extenuating circumstances."

The young man shook his head in a hopeless way.

"No," he said, "I should never dare tell my mother I have disobeyed
her."

"Has she positively forbidden you to hunt?"

"Oh, dear, yes!"

"Then you are poaching!" said Bertha; "you begin where others finish.
Well, you must admit you have a vocation for it."

"Don't joke, mademoiselle. You have been so good to me I don't want to
get angry with you; I should only be twice as unhappy then."

"You have but one alternative, monsieur," said Mary; "either tell a
lie--which you will not do, neither do we advise it--or acknowledge
the whole truth. Believe me, whatever your mother may think of your
amusing yourself in defiance of her wishes, your frankness will disarm
her. Besides, it is not such a great crime to kill a hare."

"All the same I should never dare to tell her."

"Is she so terrible as all that?" inquired Bertha.

"No, mademoiselle; she is very kind and tender. She indulges all my
wishes and foresees my fancies; but on this one matter of guns she is
resolute. It is natural she should be," added the young man, sighing;
"my father was killed in hunting."

"Then, monsieur," said Bertha, gravely, "our levity has been all the
more misplaced, and we regret it extremely. I hope you will forget it
and remember only our regrets."

"I shall only remember, mademoiselle, the kind care you have bestowed
upon me; and I, in turn, hope you will forget my silly fears and
foolish susceptibility."

"No, no, we shall remember them," said Mary, "to prevent ourselves
from ever hurting the feelings of others as we hurt yours; for see
what the consequences have been!"

While Mary was speaking Bertha had mounted her horse. Again the youth
held out his hand, though timidly, to Mary. She touched it with the
points of her fingers and sprang into her own saddle. Then, calling in
the dogs, who came at the sound of their voices, the sisters gave rein
to their horses and rode rapidly away.

The youth stood looking after them, silent and motionless, until they
had disappeared round a curve of the road. Then he dropped his head on
his breast and continued thoughtful. We will remain a while with this
new personage, for we ought to become fully acquainted with him.

VII.

MONSIEUR MICHEL.

What had just happened produced such a powerful impression on the
young man's mind that after the girls had disappeared he fancied it
must have been a dream.

He was, in fact, at that period of life when even those who are
destined to become later the most practical of men pay tribute to the
romantic; and this meeting with two young girls, so different from
those he was in the habit of seeing, transported him at once into the
fantastic world of youth's first dreams, where the imagination wanders
as it pleases among the castles built by fairy hands, which topple
over beside the path of life as we advance along it.

We do not mean to say, however, that our young man had got as far as
falling in love with either of the two amazons, but he felt himself
spurred to the keenest curiosity; for this strange mixture of
distinction, beauty, elegance of manner, and cavalier virility struck
him as extraordinary. He determined to see these girls again, or, at
any rate, to find out who they were.

Heaven seemed disposed to satisfy his curiosity at once. He had hardly
started on his way home, and was not more than a few hundred steps
from the spot where the young girls had left him, when he met an
individual in leather gaiters, with a gun and a hunting-horn slung
over his blouse and across his shoulders, and a whip in his hand. The
man walked fast and seemed much out of temper. He was evidently the
huntsman who belonged to the young women. Accordingly the youth,
assuming his most gracious and smiling manner, accosted him.

"Friend," he said, "you are searching for two young ladies, I
think,--one on a brown-bay horse, the other on a roan mare."

"In the first place, I am not your friend, for I don't know you," said
the man, gruffly. "I am looking for my dogs, which some fool turned
off the scent of a wolf they were after and put on that of a hare,
which he missed killing, like the blunderer that he is."

The young man bit his lips. The man in the blouse, whom our readers no
doubt recognize as Jean Oullier, went on to say:--

"Yes, I saw it all from the heights of Benaste, which I was coming
down when our game doubled, and I'd willingly have given the premium
which the Marquis de Souday allows me on the hunt if I could have had
that lubber within reach of my whip."

The youth to whom he spoke thought it advisable to make no sign that
he was concerned in the affair; he listened, therefore, to Jean
Oullier's allocution as if it were absolutely of no interest to him,
and said merely:--

"Oh! do you belong to the Marquis de Souday?"

Jean Oullier looked askance at his blundering questioner.

"I belong to myself," said the old Chouan. "I lead the hounds of the
Marquis de Souday, as much for my pleasure as for his."

"Dear me!" said the young man, as if speaking to himself, "Mamma never
told me the marquis was married."

"Well then," interrupted Oullier, "I tell it you now, my good sir; and
if you have anything to say against it, I'll tell you something else,
too. Do you hear me?"

Having said these words in a threatening tone, which his hearer seemed
not to understand, Jean Oullier, without further concerning himself as
to what the other might be thinking, turned on his heel and walked off
rapidly in the direction of Machecoul.

Left to himself the young man took a few more steps in the path he had
taken when the young girls left him; then turning to the left he went
into a field. In that field was a peasant ploughing. The peasant was a
man about forty years of age, who was distinguishable from the
peasants of Poitou by a shrewd and sly expression of countenance
peculiarly Norman. He was ruddy in complexion, his eyes were keen and
piercing; but his constant effort seemed to be to diminish, or rather
to conceal, their keenness by perpetually blinking them. He probably
thought that proceeding gave a look of stupidity, or at least of good
humor, which checked the distrust of others; but his artful mouth,
with its corners sharply defined, and curling up like those of an
antique Pan, betrayed, in spite of him, that he was one of those
wonderful products that usually follow the crossing of Mans and Norman
blood.

Although the young man made directly for him, he did not stop his
work; he knew the cost of the effort to his horses to start the plough
when its motion was arrested in that tough and clayey soil. He
therefore continued his way as though he were alone, and it was only
at the end of the furrow, when he had turned his team and adjusted his
instrument to continue the work, that he showed a willingness to enter
into conversation while his horses recovered their wind.

"Well," he said, in a tone that was almost familiar, "have you had
good sport, Monsieur Michel?"

The youth, without replying, took the game bag from his shoulder, and
dropped it at the peasant's feet. The latter, seeing through the thick
netting the yellowish, silky fur of a hare, exclaimed:--

"Ho, ho! pretty good for your first attempt, Monsieur Michel."

So saying, he took the animal from the bag, and examined it knowingly,
pressing its belly as if he were not very sure of the precautions so
inexperienced a sportsman as Monsieur Michel might have taken.

"Ha! _sapredienne!_" he cried; "the fellow is worth three francs and a
half, if he is a farthing. You made a fine shot there, Monsieur
Michel; do you know it? You must have found out by this time that it
is more amusing to be out with a gun than reading a book, as you are
always doing."

"No, upon my word, Courtin, I prefer my books to your gun," said the
youth.

"Well, perhaps you are right," replied Courtin, whose face expressed
some slight disappointment. "If your late father had thought as you do
it might have been better for him, too. But all the same, if I had
means and were not a poor devil obliged to work for a living twelve
hours out of the twenty-four, I would spend more than my nights in
hunting."

"Do you still hunt at night, Courtin?"

"Yes, Monsieur Michel, now and then, for amusement."

"The gendarmes will catch you some night."

"Pooh! they're do-nothings, those fellows; they don't get up early
enough in the morning to catch me." Then, allowing his face to express
all its natural cunning, he added, "I know a thing more than they,
Monsieur Michel; there are not two Courtins in this part of the
country. The only way to prevent me from poaching is to make me a
game-keeper like Jean Oullier."

Monsieur Michel made no reply to this indirect proposal, and as he was
totally ignorant of who Jean Oullier might be, he did not notice the
last part of the sentence any more than the beginning of it.

"Here is your gun, Courtin," he said, holding out the weapon. "Thank
you for your idea of lending it to me; you meant well, and it isn't
your fault if I don't find as much amusement in hunting as other
people do."

"You must try again, Monsieur Michel, and get a liking for it; the
best dogs are those that show points last. I've heard men who will eat
thirty dozen oysters at a sitting say they couldn't even bear to look
at them till they were past twenty. Leave the château with a book, as
you did this morning; Madame la baronne won't suspect anything. You'll
find me at work about here, and my gun is always at your service.
Besides, if I am not too busy, I'll beat the bushes for you. Meantime
I'll put the tool in the rack."

Courtin's "rack" was merely the hedge which divided his field from his
neighbors. He slipped the gun into it and drew the twigs and briers
together, so as to hide the place from a passing eye, and also to keep
his piece from rain and moisture,--two things, however, to which a
true poacher pays little attention, so long as he still has
candle-ends and a bit of linen.

"Courtin," said Monsieur Michel, endeavoring to assume a tone of
indifference, "did you know that the Marquis de Souday was married?"

"No, that I didn't," said the peasant.

"And has two daughters?" continued Michel.

Courtin, who was still finishing his work of concealment by twisting a
few rebellious branches, raised his head quickly and looked at the
young man with such fixedness that although the latter had only asked
his question out of vague curiosity he blushed to the very whites of
his eyes.

"Have you met the she-wolves?" asked Courtin. "I thought I heard that
old Chouan's horn."

"Whom do you call the she-wolves?" said Michel.

"I call those bastard girls of the Marquis de Souday the she-wolves,"
replied Courtin.

"Do you mean to say you call those two young girls by such a name?"

"Damn it! that's what they're called in all the country round. But
you've just come from Paris, and so you don't know. Where did you meet
the sluts?"

The coarseness with which Courtin spoke of the young ladies frightened
the timid youth so much that, without exactly knowing why, he lied.

"I have not met them," he said.

By the tone of his answer Courtin doubted his words.

"More's the pity for you," he answered. "They are pretty slips of
girls, good to see and pleasant to hug." Then, looking at Michel and
blinking as usual, he added, "They say those girls are a little too
fond of fun; but that's the kind a jolly fellow wants, doesn't he,
Monsieur Michel?"

Without understanding the cause of the sensation, Michel felt his
heart more and more oppressed as the brutal peasant spoke with
insulting approval of the two charming amazons he had just left under
a strong impression of gratitude and admiration. His annoyance was
reflected in his face.

Courtin no longer doubted that Michel had met the
she-wolves, as he called them, and the youth's denial made the man's
suspicions as to what the truth might be go far beyond reality. He was
certain that the marquis had been within an hour or two close to La
Logerie, and it seemed quite probable that Monsieur Michel should have
seen Bertha and Mary, who almost always accompanied their father when
he hunted. Perhaps the young man might have done more than see them,
perhaps he had spoken with them; and, thanks to the estimation in
which the sisters were held, a conversation with the Demoiselles de
Souday would only mean the beginning of an intrigue.

Going from one deduction to another, Courtin, who was logical in mind,
concluded that his young master had reached that point. We say "his
young master," because Courtin tilled a farm which belonged to
Monsieur Michel. The work of a farmer, however, did not please him;
what he coveted was the place of keeper or bailiff to the mother and
son. For this reason it was that the artful peasant tried by every
possible means to establish a strong relation of some kind between
himself and the young man.

He had evidently just failed of his object in persuading Michel to
disobey his mother in the matter of hunting. To share the secrets of a
love affair now struck him as a part very likely to serve his
interests and his low ambitions. The moment he saw the cloud on
Monsieur Michel's brow he felt he had made a mistake in echoing the
current calumnies, and he looked about him to recover his ground.

"However," he said, with well-assumed kindliness, "there are always
plenty of people to find more fault, especially in the matter of
girls, than there is any occasion for. Mademoiselle Bertha and
Mademoiselle Mary--"

"Mary and Bertha! Are those their names?" asked the young man,
eagerly.

"Mary and Bertha, yes. Mademoiselle Bertha is the dark one, and
Mademoiselle Mary the fair one."

He looked at Monsieur Michel with all the acuteness of which his eyes
were capable, and he thought the young man slightly blushed as he
named the fair one.

"Well, as I was saying," resumed the persistent peasant, "Mademoiselle
Mary and Mademoiselle Bertha are both fond of hunting and hounds and
horses; but that doesn't prevent them from being very good girls. Why,
the late vicar of Benaste, who was a fine sportsman, didn't say mass
any the worse because his dog was in the vestry and his gun behind the
altar."

"The fact is," said Monsieur Michel, forgetting that he gave the lie
to his own words,--"the fact is, they both look sweet and good,
particularly Mademoiselle Mary."

"They are sweet and good, Monsieur Michel. Last year, during that
damp, hot weather, when the fever came up from the marshes and so many
poor devils died of it, who do you think nursed the sick without
shirking, when even some of the doctors and the veterinaries deserted
their posts? Why, the she-wolves, as they call them. They didn't do
their charity in church, no! They went to the sick people's houses;
they sowed alms and reaped blessings. Though the rich hate them, and
the nobles are jealous of them, I make bold to say that the poor folk
are on their side."

"Why should any one think ill of them?" asked Michel.

"Who knows? Nobody gives any real reason. Men, don't you see, Monsieur
Michel, are like birds. When one is sick and in the dumps all the
others come about him and pluck out his feathers. What is really true
in all this is that people of their own rank fling mud and stones at
those poor young ladies. For instance, there's your mamma, who is so
good and kind,--isn't she, Monsieur Michel? Well, if you were to ask
her she would tell you, like all the rest of the world, 'They are bad
girls.'"

But, in spite of this change of front on Courtin's part, Monsieur
Michel did not seem disposed to enter into the subject farther. As for
Courtin himself, he thought enough had been said to pave the way for
future confidences. As Monsieur Michel seemed ready to leave him, he
started his horses and accompanied him to the end of the field. He
noticed, as they went along, that the young man's eyes were often
turned on the sombre masses of the Machecoul forest.

VIII.

THE BARONNE DE LA LOGERIE.

Courtin was respectfully lowering for his young master the bars which
divided his field from the road when a woman's voice, calling Michel,
was heard beyond the hedge. The young man stopped short and trembled
at the sound.

At the same moment the owner of the voice appeared on the other side
of the hedge fence which separated Courtin's field from that of his
neighbor. This person, this lady, may have been forty to forty-five
years of age. We must try to _explain_ her to the reader.

Her face was insignificant, and without other character than an air of
haughtiness which contrasted with her otherwise common appearance. She
was short and stout; she wore a silk dress much too handsome for the
fields, and a gray cambric hat, the floating ends of which fell upon
her forehead and neck. The rest of her apparel was so choice that she
might have been paying a visit in the Chaussée-d'Antin or the faubourg
Saint-Honoré. This was, apparently, the person of whose reproaches the
young man stood so much in awe.

"What!" she exclaimed, "you here, Michel? Really, my son, you are very
inconsiderate, and you show very little regard for your mother. The
bell has been ringing more than an hour to call you in to dinner. You
know how I dislike to be kept waiting, and how particular I am that
our meals should be regular; and here I find you tranquilly talking to
a peasant."

Michel began to stammer an excuse; but, almost at the same instant his
mother's eye beheld what Courtin had either not noticed or had not
chosen to remark upon,--namely, that the young man's head was bound up
with a handkerchief, and that the handkerchief had blood-stains upon
it, which his straw hat, although its brim was wide, did not
effectually conceal.

"Good God!" she cried, raising a voice, which in its ordinary key was
much too high. "You are wounded! What has happened to you? Speak,
unfortunate boy! don't you see that I am dying of anxiety?"

Climbing the fence with an impatience, and, above all, an agility
which could scarcely have been expected of one of her age and
corpulence, the mother of the youth came up to him, and before he
could prevent her, took the hat and the handkerchief from his head.

The wound, thus disturbed by the tearing away of the bandage, began to
bleed again. Monsieur Michel, as Courtin called him, unprepared for
the explanation he so much dreaded, and which was now forced upon him
suddenly, stood silent and confused, unable to reply. Courtin came to
his aid. The wily peasant saw at once that the youth, fearing to tell
his mother that he had disobeyed her, was also unwilling to tell a
lie. As he himself had no scruples on that point, he resolutely
burdened his conscience with the sin that, in his innocence, Michel
dared not commit.

"Oh! Madame la baronne need not be anxious; it is nothing, absolutely
nothing."

"But I wish to know how it happened. Answer for him yourself, Courtin,
if monsieur is determined to keep silence."

The young man was still dumb.

"It is easily told, Madame la baronne," replied Courtin. "I had a
bundle of branches I took off last autumn; it was so heavy I couldn't
lift it on to my shoulders alone, and Monsieur Michel had the kindness
to help me. One branch of the cursed thing got loose and scratched him
on the forehead, as you see."

"Scratch! that's more than a scratch! you came near putting his eye
out. Another time, Maître Courtin, get your equals to load your
fagots; do you hear me? It was a very improper proceeding in itself,
besides nearly maiming my son."

Courtin humbly bowed his head, as if recognizing the enormity of his
offence; but that did not prevent him from giving the hare, which lay
near the game-bag, a vigorous kick, which threw it out of sight under
the hedge.

"Come, Monsieur Michel," said the baroness, who seemed appeased by the
peasant's submissiveness, "you must go and see the doctor about that
wound." Then turning back, after she had taken a few steps, she added,
"By the bye, Courtin, you have not paid your mid-summer rent, and yet
your lease expires at Easter. Remember that. I am determined not to
keep tenants who are not regular in their payments."

Courtin's expression of countenance was more humble than ever; but it
changed when the mother, getting over the fence with less agility than
before, left the son free to whisper to Courtin:--

"I'll be here to-morrow."

In spite of the threat just made to him, Courtin seized the handle of
his plough with more gayety than usually belonged to his disposition,
and started upon a new furrow, while his betters returned to the
château. For the rest of the day's work he enlivened his horses by
singing to them "La Parisienne," a patriotic song then much in vogue.

While Courtin sings the above-mentioned hymn, much to the satisfaction
of his steeds, let us say a few words as to the Michel family. You
have seen the son, my dear readers, and you have seen the mother. The
mother was the widow of one of those government purveyors who had
made, at the cost of the State, rapid and considerable fortunes out of
the Imperial armies; the soldiers nicknamed them "Rice-bread-salt."

The family name of this purveyor was Michel. He came originally from
the department of Mayenne, and was the son of a peasant and the nephew
of a village schoolmaster. The latter, by adding a few notions of
arithmetic to the reading and writing he imparted to him gratuitously,
did actually decide his nephew's future career.

Taken by the first draft, in 1794, Michel the peasant joined the 22d
brigade with very little enthusiasm. This man, who later became a
distinguished accountant, had already calculated his chances of being
killed and of becoming a general. The result of his calculation did
not altogether satisfy him, and he therefore, with much adroitness,
made the most of his fine handwriting (also due to his uncle, the
schoolmaster) to get a place as clerk in the quartermaster's
department. He felt as much satisfaction in obtaining that position as
another man would have felt at promotion.

It was there, at the base of supplies, that Michel, the father, went
through the campaigns of 1792 and 1793. Toward the middle of the
latter year General Rossignol, who was sent to either pacify or
exterminate La Vendée, having accidentally come across Michel, the
clerk, in one of the offices, and hearing from him that he was a
native of those regions and that all his friends were in the Vendéan
ranks, bethought himself of utilizing this providential circumstance.
He gave Michel an indefinite furlough, and sent him home with no other
instructions than to take service among the Chouans and do for him,
from time to time, what Monsieur de Maurepas did for His Majesty Louis
XV.,--that is to say, give him the _news of the day_. Michel, who
found great pecuniary advantages in this commission, fulfilled it with
scrupulous fidelity, not only for General Rossignol but for all his
successors.

This anecdotical correspondence was at its height, when General Travot
was sent to La Vendée. We all know the result of his operations; they
were the subject of the opening chapters of this book. Here is a
recapitulation of them: the Vendéan army defeated, Jolly killed,
Couëtu enticed into an ambush and taken by a traitor whose name has
never been known, Charette made prisoner in the woods of La Chabotière
and shot in the market-place of Nantes.

What part did Michel play in the successive vicissitudes of that
terrible drama? We may find an answer to that question later; it is
certain that soon after the last bloody episodes Michel, still
recommended for his beautiful handwriting and his infallible
arithmetic, entered, as clerk, the office of a very celebrated army
contractor.

There he made rapid progress, for in 1805 we find him contracting on
his own account to supply forage to the army of Germany. In 1806 his
shoes and gaiters took an active part in the heroic campaign of
Prussia. In 1809 he obtained the entire victualling of the army that
entered Spain. In 1810 he married the only daughter of another
contractor and doubled his fortune with her dowry.

Besides all this, he changed his name,--or rather lengthened
it,--which was, for those whose names were too short, the great
ambition of that period. This is how the coveted addition was managed.

The father of Monsieur Michel's wife was named Baptiste Durand. He
came from the little village of La Logerie, and to distinguish him
from another Durand who often crossed his path, he called himself
Durand de la Logerie. At any rate, that was the pretext he gave. His
daughter was educated at one of the best schools in Paris, where she
was registered on her arrival as Stéphanie Durand de la Logerie. Once
married to this daughter of his brother contractor, Monsieur Michel
thought that his name would look better if his wife's name were added
to it. He accordingly became Monsieur Michel de la Logerie.

Finally, at the Restoration, a title of the Holy Roman Empire, bought
for cash, enabled him to call himself the Baron Michel de la Logerie,
and to take his place, once for all, in the financial and territorial
aristocracy of the day.

A few years after the return of the Bourbons,--that is to say, about
1819 or 1820,--Baron Michel de la Logerie lost his father-in-law,
Monsieur Durand de la Logerie. The latter left to his daughter, and
consequently to her husband, his estate at La Logerie, standing, as
the details given in preceding chapters will have told the reader,
about fifteen miles from the forest of Machecoul. The Baron Michel de
la Logerie, like the good landlord and seigneur that he was, went to
take possession of his estate and show himself to his vassals. He was
a man of sense; he wanted to get into the Chamber. He could do that
only by election, and his election depended on the popularity he might
gain in the department of the Lower Loire.

He was born a peasant; he had lived twenty-five years of his life
among peasants (barring the two or three years he was in the
quartermaster's office), and he knew exactly how to deal with
peasants. In the first place, he had to make them forgive his
prosperity. He made himself what is called "the good prince," found a
few old comrades of the Vendéan days, shook hands with them, spoke
with tears in his eyes of the deaths of poor Monsieur Jolly and dear
Monsieur Couëtu and the worthy Monsieur Charette. He informed himself
about the needs of the village, which he had never before visited, had
a bridge built to open important communication between the department
of the Lower Loire and that of La Vendée, repaired three county roads
and rebuilt a church, endowed an orphan asylum and a home for old men,
received so many benedictions, and found such pleasure in playing this
patriarchal part that he expressed the intention of living only six
months of the year in Paris and the other six at his Château de la
Logerie.

Yielding, however, to the entreaties of his wife, who, being unable to
understand the violent passion for country life which seemed to have
come over him, wrote letter after letter from Paris to hasten his
return, he yielded, we say, to her so far as to promise to return on
the following Monday. Sunday was to be devoted to a grand battue of
wolves in the woods of La Pauvrière and the forest of Grand'Lande,
which were infested by those beasts. It was, in fact, another
philanthropic effort on the part of Baron Michel de la Logerie.

At the battue Baron Michel still continued to play his part of a rich,
good fellow. He provided refreshments for all, ordered two barrels of
wine to be taken on handcarts after the trail, that every one might
drink who would; he ordered a positive banquet for the whole party to
be ready at an inn on their return, refused the post of honor at the
battue, expressed the wish to be treated as the humblest huntsman, and
his ill-luck in drawing lots having bestowed upon him the worst place
of all, bore his misfortune with a good-humor that delighted
everybody.

The battue was splendid. From every covert the beasts came; on all
sides guns resounded with such rapidity that the scene resembled a
little war. Bodies of wolves and boars were piled up beside the
handcarts bearing the wine-barrels, not to speak of contraband game,
such as hares and squirrels, which were killed in this battue, as at
other battues, under the head of _vermin_, and carefully hidden away,
to be fetched during the night.

The intoxication of success was such that the hero of the day was
forgotten. It was not until after the last beating-up was over that
Baron Michel was missed. Inquiries were made. No one had seen him
since the morning; in fact, not since he had drawn the lot which gave
him the worst place at the extreme end of the hunt. On making this
discovery, it was supposed that finding his chance of amusement very
slight, and being solicitous for the entertainment of his guests, he
had gone back to the little town of Légé, where the feast was to be
given.

But when the huntsmen arrived at Légé they found that the baron was
not there. Most of them being tired and hungry sat down to the supper
table without him; but a few--five or six--others, feeling uneasy,
returned to the woods of La Pauvrière with torches and lanterns and
began to search for him.

At the end of two hours' fruitless effort, he was found dead in the
ditch of the second covert they had drawn. He was shot through the
heart.

This death caused great excitement and many rumors. The police of
Nantes investigated it. The huntsman whose place was directly below
that of the baron was arrested. He declared that, although he was
distant only one hundred and fifty steps from the baron, a corner of
the wood concealed them from each other, and he had seen and heard
nothing. It was also proved that this man's gun had not been fired
that day; moreover, from the place where he stood he could only have
hit Baron Michel on the right, whereas the latter had, as a matter of
fact, been shot on the left.

The inquiry, therefore, went no farther. The death of the
ex-contractor was attributed to accident; it was supposed that a stray
ball had struck him (as sometimes happens when game is driven),
without evil intention on the part of whoever fired it. And yet, in
spite of this explanation, a vague rumor got about of some
accomplished revenge. It was said--but said in the lowest whisper, as
if each tuft of gorse still concealed the gun of a Chouan--it was said
that a former soldier of Jolly or Couëtu or Charette had made the
unfortunate purveyor expiate the betrayal and death of those
illustrious leaders; but there were too many persons interested in the
secret to let it ever be openly asserted.

The Baronne Michel de la Logerie was left a widow, with one son. She
was one of those women of negative virtues of which the world is full.
Of vices she did not possess a spark; of passions she was so far
ignorant of their very name. Harnessed at seventeen to the marriage
plough, she had plodded along in the conjugal furrow without swerving
to the right nor yet to the left, and never so much as asking herself
if there were any other road. The idea had never crossed her mind that
a woman could revolt against the goad. Relieved of the yoke, she was
frightened by her liberty, and instinctively looked about her for new
chains. These chains religion gave her; and then, like all narrow
minds, she took to vegetating in false, exaggerated, and, at the same
time, conscientious devotion.

Madame la Baronne Michel sincerely believed herself a saint; she went
regularly to church, kept all the fasts, and was faithful to all the
injunctions of the Church. Had any one told her that she sinned seven
times a day she would have been greatly astonished. Yet nothing was
more true. It is certain that if the humility of Madame la Baronne de
la Logerie had been dissected she would have been found at every hour
of the day to disobey the precepts of the Saviour of men; for (little
ground as she had for it) her pride of rank amounted to mania. We have
seen how the sly peasant Courtin, who called the son Monsieur Michel,
never failed to give the mother her title of baroness.

Naturally, Madame de la Logerie held the world and the epoch in holy
horror; she never read a police report in her newspaper without
accusing both (the world and the epoch) of the blackest immorality. To
hear her, one would suppose the Iron age dated from 1800. Her utmost
care was therefore directed to save her son from the contagion of the
ideas of the day by bringing him up at a distance from the world and
all its dangers. Never would she listen to the idea of his entering
any sort of public school; even those of the Jesuits were dangerous in
her eyes, from the readiness of the good fathers to accommodate
themselves to the social obligations of the young men confided to
their care. Though the heir of all the Michels received some lessons
from masters, which, so far as arts and sciences go, were
indispensable to the education of a young man it was always in
presence of the mother and on a plan approved by her; for she alone
directed the course of ideas and instruction, especially on the moral
side, which were given to her son.

A strong infusion of intelligence, which by great good luck nature had
placed in the youth's brain, was needed to bring him safe and sound
out of the torture to which she had subjected him for over ten years.
He did come through it, as we have seen, though feeble and undecided,
and with nothing of the strength and resolution which should
characterize a man,--the representative of vigor, decision, and
intellect.

IX.

GALON-D'OR AND ALLÉGRO.

As Michel had foreseen and feared, his mother scolded him vigorously.
She was not duped by Courtin's tale; the wound on her son's forehead
was by no means a scratch made by a thorn. Ignorant of what interest
her son could have in concealing the matter from her, and quite
convinced that even if she questioned him she should not get at the
truth, she contented herself by fixing her eyes steadily from time to
time on the mysterious wound, and shaking her head with a sigh and a
scowl of the maternal forehead.

During the whole dinner Michel was ill at ease, lowering his eyes and
scarcely eating; but it must be said that his mother's incessant
examination was not the only thing that troubled him. Hovering between
his lowered eyelids and his mother's suspecting eyes were two forms,
two visions. These visions were the twin shadows of Bertha and of
Mary.

Michel thought of Bertha with some slight irritation. Who was this
Amazon who handled a gun like a trained huntsman, who bandaged wounds
like a surgeon, and who, when she found her patient refractory,
twisted his wrists with her white and womanly hands as Jean Oullier
might have done with his hard and calloused ones?

But on the other hand, how charming was Mary, with her fine blond hair
and her beautiful blue eyes! how sweet her voice, how persuasive its
accents! With what gentleness she had touched his wound, washed off
the blood, and bound the bandage! Michel scarcely regretted the wound,
for without it there was no reason why the young ladies should have
spoken to him or, indeed, have taken any notice of him.

It was true that his mother's displeasure and the doubts he had raised
in her mind were really the more serious matter; but he persuaded
himself that her anger would soon pass off, whereas the thing that
would not pass was the impression left on his heart during the few
seconds when he held Mary's hand clasped closely in his own. All
hearts when they begin to love and yet are not aware of it crave
solitude; and for this reason no sooner was dinner over than,
profiting by a moment when his mother was discoursing with a servant,
he left the room, not hearing or not heeding the words with which she
called after him.

And yet those words were important. Madame de la Logerie forbade her
son to go near the village of Saint-Christophe-du-Ligneron, where, as
she had learned from a servant, a bad fever was raging. She at once
put the château under quarantine, and forbade that any one from the
infected village should approach it. The order was enforced
immediately in the case of a young girl who came to ask assistance of
the baroness for her father, just attacked by the fever.

If Michel's mind had not been so pre-occupied he would undoubtedly
have paid attention to his mother's words, for the sick man was his
foster-father, a farmer named Tinguy, and the girl who had come to ask
help was his foster-sister, Rosine, for whom he had the greatest
affection. But at this moment his thoughts were all rushing toward
Souday, and more especially to that charming creature who bore the
name of Mary.

He buried himself in the remotest woodland of the park, taking with
him a book as an excuse; but though he read the book attentively till
he reached the edge of the forest he would have been puzzled to tell
you the name of it had you asked him. Once hidden from his mother's
eyes he sat down on a bench and reflected.

What was he reflecting about? Easy to answer. He was thinking how he
could contrive to see Mary and her sister again. Chance had thrown
them together once, but chance had taken her time about it, for he had
been over six months in the neighborhood. If it pleased chance to be
another six months without giving the young baron a second meeting
with his new friends the time would be too long for the present state
of his heart.

On the other hand, to open communications with the château de Souday
himself was hardly feasible. There had never been any sympathy between
the Marquis de Souday, an _émigré_ of 1790, and the Baron de la
Logerie, a noble of the Empire. Besides, Jean Oullier, in the few
words he had exchanged with him, had shown plainly there was no
disposition to make his acquaintance.

But the young girls, they who had shown him such interest, masterful
in Bertha, gentle in Mary, how could he reach the young girls? This
indeed was difficult, for though they hunted two or three times a
week, they were always in company of their father and Jean Oullier.

Michel resolved to read all the novels in the library of the château,
hoping to discover from them some ingenious method which, as he began
to fear, his own mind, limited to its own inspirations, could never
furnish. At this stage of his reflections a touch was laid upon his
shoulder; looking round with a quiver he saw Courtin; the farmer's
face expressed a satisfaction he did not take any pains to conceal.

"Beg pardon, excuse me, Monsieur Michel," said the man; "seeing you as
still as a milestone, I thought it was your statue instead of
yourself."

"Well, you see it is I, Courtin."

"And I'm glad of it, Monsieur Michel; I was anxious to hear what
passed between you and Madame la baronne."

"She scolded me a little."

"Oh! I was sure of that. Did you tell her anything about the hare?"

"I took good care not to."

"Or the wolves?"

"What wolves?" asked the young man not ill-pleased to bring the
conversation to this point.

"The she-wolves of Machecoul; I told you that was the nickname for the
young ladies at Souday."

"Of course I did not tell her; you know that, Courtin. I don't think
the Souday hounds and those of La Logerie can hunt together."

"In any case," replied Courtin, in the sneering tone which, in spite
of his best efforts, he was sometimes unable to conceal, "if your
hounds won't hunt with the Souday pack you, as it seems, can hunt with
theirs."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Look!" pulling toward him and, as it were, bringing on the stage two
coupled hounds which he held in a leash.

"What are they?" asked the young baron.

"They? Why, Galon-d'Or and Allégro, to be sure."

"I don't know who Galon-d'Or and Allégro are."

"The dogs of that brigand Jean Oullier."

"Why did you take his dogs?"

"I didn't take them; I simply put them in the pound."

"By what right?"

"By two rights: land-owner's rights, and mayor's rights."

Courtin was mayor of the village of La Logerie, which contained about
a score of houses, and he was very proud of the title.

"Please explain those rights, Courtin."

"Well, in the first place, Monsieur Michel, I confiscate them as mayor
because they hunt at an illegal season."

"I did not know there was an illegal season for hunting wolves;
besides as Monsieur de Souday is Master of wolves--"

"That's very true; as Master of wolves he can hunt wolves in the
forest of Machecoul, but not on the plain. Besides, as you know
yourself," continued Courtin, with a sneering smile, "as you saw
yourself, he was not hunting a wolf at all, but a hare--and moreover,
that hare was shot by one of his own _cubs_."

The young man was on the point of telling Courtin that the word _cub_
applied to the Demoiselles de Souday was offensive to him, and of
requesting him not to use it again, but he dared not make so firm a
remonstrance.

"It was Mademoiselle Bertha who killed it, Courtin," he said, "but I
had previously wounded it; so I am the guilty person."

"Pshaw! what do you mean by that? Would you have fired on the hare if
the hounds were not already coursing it? No, of course not. It is the
fault of the dogs that you fired, and that Mademoiselle Bertha killed
the game; and it is therefore the dogs that I punish as mayor for
pursuing hares under pretence of hunting wolves. But that's not all;
after punishing them as mayor I punish them as--proprietor. Do you
suppose I gave Monsieur le marquis' dogs the right to hunt over my
land?"

"Your land, Courtin!" said Michel, laughing; "you are a trifle
mistaken; it was over my land, or rather my mother's, that they were
trespassing."

"That's no matter, Monsieur le baron, inasmuch as I farm it. You must
remember that we are no longer in 1789, when the great lords had a
right to ride with their hounds over the harvests of the poor peasants
and trample everything down without paying for it; no, no, no, indeed!
this is the year 1832, Monsieur Michel; every man is master of the
soil he lives on, and game belongs to him who supports it. The hare
coursed by the dogs of the marquis is my hare, for it has fed on the
wheat in the fields I hire from Madame la baronne, and it is I alone
who have the right to eat that hare which you wounded and the she-wolf
killed."

Michel made an impatient movement which Courtin detected out of the
corner of his eye; but the youth did not dare to further express his
displeasure.

"There is one thing that surprises me," he said, "and that is why
those dogs that are straining so at the leash ever allowed you to
catch them."

"Oh!" said Courtin, "that did not give me any trouble. After I left
you and Madame la baronne at the bars, I came back and found these
gentlemen at dinner."

"At dinner?"

"Yes, in the hedge, where I left the hare; they found it and they were
dining. It seems they are not properly fed at the château de Souday.
Just see the state my hare is in."

So saying, Courtin took from the huge pocket of his jacket the
hindquarters of the hare, which formed the incriminating proof of the
misdemeanor; the head and shoulders were eaten off.

"And to think," said Courtin, "that they did it in just that minute of
time while I was with you and madame! Ah! you scamps, you'll have to
help me kill a good many to make me forget that."

"Courtin, let me tell you something," said the young baron.

"Tell away, don't be backward, Monsieur Michel."

"It is that as you are a mayor you ought to respect the laws."

"Laws! I wear them on my heart. Liberty! Public order! Don't you know
those words are posted over the door of the mayor's office, Monsieur
Michel?"

"Well, so much the more reason why I should tell you that what you are
doing is not legal, and threatens liberty and public order."

"What!" exclaimed Courtin. "Shall the hounds of those she-wolves hunt
over my land at a prohibited season, and I not be allowed to put them
in the pound?"

"They were not disturbing public order, Courtin; they were simply
injuring private interests; you have the right to lodge a complaint
against them, but not to put them in the pound."

"Oh! that's too round-about a way; if hounds are to be allowed to run
where they like and we can only lodge complaints against them, then it
isn't men who have liberty, but dogs."

"Courtin," said the youth, with, a touch of the assumption observable
in men who get a smattering of the Code, "you make the mistake that a
great many persons make; you confound liberty with independence;
independence is the liberty of men who are not free, my friend."

"Then what is liberty, Monsieur Michel?"

"Liberty, my dear Courtin, is the sacrifice that each man makes of his
personal independence for the good of all. It is from the general fund
of independence that each man draws his liberty; we are free, Courtin,
but not independent."

"Oh, as for me," said Courtin, "I don't know anything about all that.
I am a mayor and the holder of land; and I have captured the best
hounds of the Marquis de Souday's pack, Galon-d'Or and Allégro, and I
shall not give them up. Let him come after them, and when he does I
shall ask him what he has been doing in certain meetings at Torfou and
Montaigu."

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, I know what I mean."

"Yes, but I don't."

"There is no reason why you should know; you are not a mayor."

"No, but I am an inhabitant of the place and I have an interest in
knowing what happens."

"As for that, it is easy to see what is happening; these people are
conspiring again."

"What people?"

"Why, the nobles! the--but I'd better hold my tongue, though you are
not exactly their style of nobility, you."

Michel reddened to the whites of his eyes.

"You say the nobles are conspiring, Courtin?"

"If not, why do they have these secret meetings at night. If they meet
in the daytime, the lazy fellows, to eat and drink, that's all well
enough; the law allows it and there's nothing to be said. But when
they meet at night it is for no good end, you may be sure. In any case
they had better look out; I've got my eye upon them, and I'm the
mayor; I may not have the right to put the dogs in the pound, but I
have the right to put the men in prison; I know the Code plain enough
as to that."

"And you say Monsieur de Souday frequents those meetings?"

"Goodness! do you suppose he doesn't?--an old Chouan and a former
aide-de-camp of Charette like him! Let him come and claim his dogs;
yes, let him come! and I'll send him to Nantes, him and his cubs; they
shall be made to explain what they are about, roaming the woods as
they do at night."

"But," exclaimed Michel, with an eagerness there was no mistaking,
"you told me yourself, Courtin, that if they went about at night it
was to help the poor sick people."

Courtin stepped back a pace and pointing his finger at his young
master he said with his sneering laugh:--

"Ha! ha! I've caught you."

"Me!" said the young man, coloring, "how have you caught me?"

"Well, they've caught you."

"Caught me!"

"Yes, yes, yes! And I don't blame you either; whatever else these
young ladies may be, I must say they are pretty. Come, you needn't
blush that way; you are not just out of a seminary; you are neither a
priest, nor a deacon, nor a vicar; you are a handsome lad of twenty.
Go ahead, Monsieur Michel; they'll have very poor taste if they don't
like you when you like them."

"But, my dear Courtin," said Michel, "even supposing what you say were
true, which it is not, I don't know these young ladies; I don't know
the marquis. I can't go and call there just because I have happened to
meet those young girls once on horseback."

"Oh, yes, I understand," said Courtin, in his jeering way; "they
haven't a penny, but they've fine manners. You want a pretext, an
excuse for going there, don't you? Well, look about and find one; you,
who talk Greek and Latin and have studied the Code, you ought to be
able to find one."

Michel shook his head.

"Oh!" said Courtin, "then you have been looking for one?"

"I did not say so," said the young baron, hastily.

"No, but I say so; a man isn't so old at forty that he can't remember
what he was at twenty."

Michel was silent and kept his head lowered; the peasant's eye weighed
heavily upon him.

"So you couldn't find a way? Well, I've found one for you."

"You!" cried the youth eagerly, looking up. Then, recognizing that he
had let his secret thoughts escape him, he added, shrugging his
shoulders: "How the devil do you know that I want to go to the
castle?"

"Well, the way to do it," said Courtin, seeing that his master made no
attempt to deny his wish, "the way is this--"

Michel affected indifference, but he was listening with all his ears.

"You say to me, 'Père Courtin, you are mistaken as to your rights; you
cannot, either as mayor or the holder of property put the Marquis de
Souday's dogs in the pound; you have a right to an indemnity, but this
indemnity must be amicably agreed upon.' To which I, Père Courtin,
reply: 'If you are concerned in it, Monsieur Michel, I agree; I know
your generosity.' On which you say: 'Courtin, you must give me those
dogs; the rest is my affair.' And I reply: 'There are the dogs,
Monsieur Michel; as for the indemnity, hang it! a gold piece or two
will play the game, and I don't want the death of the sinner.' Then,
don't you see? you write a bit of a note to the marquis; you have
found the dogs, and you send them back by Rousseau or La Belette, for
fear he should be anxious. He can't help thanking you and inviting you
to call and see him. Perhaps, however, to make quite sure, you had
better take the dogs back yourself."

"That will do, Courtin," said the young baron. "Leave the dogs with
me; I'll send them to the marquis, not to make him invite me to the
castle, for there's not a word of truth in all you have been
supposing, but because, between neighbors, it is a courteous thing to
do."

"Very good,--so be it; but, all the same, they are two pretty slips,
those girls. As for the indemnity--"

"Ah, yes," said the young baron, laughing, "that's fair; you want the
indemnity for the injury the hounds did you by passing over my land
and eating up half the hare which Bertha killed."

And he gave the farmer what he happened to have in his pocket, which
was three or four louis. It was lucky for him there was no more, for
he was so delighted at finding a way to present himself at the château
de Souday that he would willingly have given the farmer ten times that
sum if by chance it had been in his purse.

Courtin cast an appreciative eye on the golden louis he had just
received under the head of "indemnity," and putting the leash in the
hand of the young man he went his way.

But after going a few steps he turned round and came back to his
master.

"Don't mix yourself up too much with those people, Monsieur Michel,"
he said. "You know what I told you just now about those _messieurs_ at
Torfu and Montaigu; it is all true, and mark my words, in less than
fifteen days there'll be a fine row."

This time he departed for good, singing "La Parisienne," for the words
and tune of which he had a great predilection.

The young man was left alone with the two dogs.

IN WHICH THINGS DO NOT HAPPEN PRECISELY AS BARON
MICHEL DREAMED THEY WOULD.

Our lover's first idea was to follow Courtin's original advice and
send the dogs back to the Marquis de Souday by Rousseau and La
Belette, two serving-men belonging partly to the château and partly to
the farm, who owed the nicknames by which Courtin has presented them
to the reader, one to the ruddy color of his hair, the other to the
resemblance of his face to that of a weasel whose obesity La Fontaine
has celebrated in one of his prettiest fables.

But after due reflection the young man feared that the Marquis de
Souday might content himself with sending a simple letter of thanks
and no invitation. If, unfortunately, the marquis should act thus, the
occasion was lost; he would have to wait for another; and one so
excellent as this could not be expected to happen every day. If, on
the contrary, he took the dogs back himself he must infallibly be
received; a neighbor would never be allowed to bring back valuable
strayed dogs in person, over a distance of ten or a dozen miles,
without being invited in to rest, and possibly, if it was late, to
pass the night at the castle.

Michel pulled out his watch; it was a little after six. We think we
mentioned that Madame la Baronne Michel had preserved, or rather had
taken a habit of dining at four o'clock. In her father's house Madame
la baronne had dined at mid-day. The young baron had therefore ample
time to go to the castle.

But it was a great resolution to take; and decision of character was
not, as we have already informed the reader, the predominating feature
in Monsieur Michel's character. He lost a quarter of an hour in
hesitation. Fortunately, in these May days the sun did not set till
eight o'clock. Besides, he could properly present himself as late as
nine.

But then--perhaps the young ladies after a hunting-day would go to bed
early? It was not, of course, the marquis whom the baron wanted to
see. He wouldn't have gone a mile for that purpose; whereas to see
Mary he felt he could march a hundred. So at last he decided to start
at once.

Only, and this was indeed a hindrance, he suddenly perceived that he
had no hat. To get it he must return to the château, at the risk of
encountering his mother and all her cross-questioning,--whose dogs
were those? where was he going? etc.

But did he really want a hat? The hat, that is, the lack of it, would
be set down to neighborly eagerness; or else the wind had taken it; or
else a branch had knocked it down a ravine, and he could not follow it
on account of the dogs. At any rate, it was worse to encounter his
mother than to go without his hat; accordingly he started, hatless,
leading the dogs in the leash.

He had hardly made a dozen steps before he discovered that it would
not take him the seventy-five minutes he had calculated to get to
Souday. No sooner were the hounds aware of the direction in which
their new leader was taking them than it was all he could do to hold
them back. They smelt their kennel, and dragged at the leash with all
their might; if harnessed to a light carriage they would have made the
distance in half an hour. The young man, forced to keep up with them
at a trot, would certainly do it in three-quarters.

After twenty minutes of this lively gait Michel reached the forest of
Machecoul, intending to make a short cut through it. It was necessary
to mount a rather steep slope before entering the wood, and when he
reached the top he halted to get his breath. Not so with the dogs, who
got their breath while running and wanted to keep on their way. The
baron opposed this desire by planting himself firmly on his feet and
leaning back while they dragged him forward. Two equal forces
neutralize each other,--that is one of the first principles of
mechanics. The young baron was the stronger, therefore he neutralized
the force of the two dogs.

This done, and quiet resulting, he took out his handkerchief to mop
his forehead. While he did so, enjoying the cool freshness of the
breeze as it breathed on his face from the invisible lips of evening,
he fancied he heard a cry wafted upon that breeze. The dogs heard it
too, and they answered it with that long, mournful cry of a lost
animal. Then they began to pull at their chain with fresh energy.

The baron was now rested and his forehead was mopped; he was therefore
quite as ready as Galon-d'Or and Allégro to continue the way; instead
of leaning back he leaned forward, and his little jog-trot was
resumed.

He had scarcely gone a few hundred steps before the same cry, or
rather call, was repeated, but very much nearer and therefore more
distinct than the first. The dogs answered by a long howl and a more
determined drag on their collars. The young man now felt certain that
the cry proceeded from some one in search of the dogs, and he bawled
to them (_hauler_). We beg pardon of our readers for using so
unacademic a word, but it is the one our peasants use to represent the
peculiar shout of a huntsman calling in his dogs. It has the advantage
of being expressive; and besides (for a last and better reason), I
know no other.

About six hundred paces farther on the same cry was repeated for the
third time by the seeking man and the missing hounds. This time
Galon-d'Or and Allégro tore along with such vigor that their conductor
was almost carried off his feet, and was forced to make his jog-trot a
quick trot and his quick trot a gallop.

He had scarcely kept along at that pace for three minutes before a man
appeared among the trees, jumped the ditch beside the road, and barred
the baron's way. The man was Jean Oullier.

"Ah, ha!" he cried; "so it's you, my pretty man, who not only turn my
dogs off the trail of the wolf I am hunting to that of a hare you're
after, but actually couple them, and lead 'em in a leash!"

"Monsieur," said the young man, all out of breath, "if I have coupled
them and led them it is to have the honor of returning them to
Monsieur le Marquis de Souday myself."

"Ho! yes, that's a likely story,--with no hat on your head! You
needn't trouble yourself any further, my good sir. Now you've met me
I'll take them back myself."

So saying, and before Monsieur Michel had time to oppose or even guess
his intention, Jean Oullier wrenched the chain from his hand and threw
it on the necks of the hounds, very much as we throw a bridle on the
neck of a horse. Finding themselves at liberty the dogs darted at full
speed in the direction of the castle, followed by Jean Oullier, whose
pace was equal to theirs as he cracked his whip and shouted:--

"Kennel! kennel, scamps!"

The whole scene was so rapid that dogs and man were nearly out of
sight before the young baron recovered himself. He stopped short
helplessly in the roadway, and must have been there ten minutes,
gazing, with his mouth open, in the direction Jean Oullier and the
dogs had taken, when the soft and caressing voice of a young girl said
close beside him:--

"Gracious goodness! Monsieur le baron, what are you doing here at this
hour, bareheaded?"

What he was doing, the young man would have been rather puzzled to
say; in point of fact he was following his hopes, which had flown away
in the direction of the castle, whither he dared not follow them. He
turned round to see who spoke to him, and recognized his
foster-sister, the daughter of the farmer Tinguy.

"Oh, it is you, Rosine, is it?" he said; "what are you doing here
yourself?"

"Monsieur le baron," said the girl, in a tearful voice, "I have just
come from the château de la Logerie, where Madame la baronne treated
me very unkindly."

"Why so, Rosine? You know my mother loves you and takes care of you."

"Yes, as a general thing; but not to-day."

"Why not to-day?"

"She has just had me turned out of the house."

"Why didn't you ask for me?"

"I did ask for you, Monsieur le baron, but they said yon were not at
home."

"I was at home; I have only just come out, my dear; for fast as you
may have come, I'll answer for it I came faster!"

"Maybe; it is likely enough, Monsieur le baron; for when Madame was so
cruel to me I thought I would come and ask the wolves to help me, but
couldn't decide at once to do so."

"What help can the _wolves_ give you?"

Michel forced himself to utter the word.

"The help I wanted Madame la baronne to give me, for my poor father
who is very ill."

"What is the matter with him?"

"A fever he caught in the marshes."

"A fever?" repeated Michel; "is it a malignant fever,--intermittent or
typhoid?"

"I don't know, Monsieur le baron."

"What does the doctor say?"

"Oh, goodness! the doctor lives at Palluau; he won't trouble himself
to come here under five francs, and we are not rich enough to pay five
francs for a doctor's visit."

"And didn't my mother give you any money?"

"Why, I told you she wouldn't even see me! 'A fever!' she said; 'and
Rosine dares to come to the château when her father has a fever? Send
her away.'"

"Oh, impossible!"

"I heard her, Monsieur le baron, she spoke so loud; besides, the proof
is that they turned me out of the house."

"Wait, wait!" cried the young man eagerly, "I'll give you the money."
He felt in his pockets. Then he remembered that he had given Courtin
all he had with him. "Confound it! I haven't a penny on me," he said.
"Come back with me to the château, Rosine, and I'll give you all you
want."

"No, no!" said the young girl; "I wouldn't go back for all the gold in
the world! No, my resolution is taken: I shall go to the wolves; they
are charitable; they won't turn away a poor girl who wants help for a
dying father."

"But--but," said the young man, hesitating, "I am told they are not
rich."

"Who are not rich?"

"The Demoiselles de Souday."

"Oh! it isn't money people ask of them,--it isn't alms they give; it
is something better than that, and God knows it."

"What is it, then?"

"They go themselves when people are sick; and if they can't cure them,
they comfort them in dying, and mourn with those who are left."

"Yes," said the young man, "that may be for ordinary illness, but when
it is a dangerous fever--"

"They wouldn't mind that,--not they! There's nothing dangerous to kind
hearts. I shall go to them, and you'll see they'll come. If you stay
here ten minutes more you'll see me coming back with one or other of
the sisters, who will help me nurse my father. Good-bye, Monsieur
Michel. I never would have thought Madame la baronne could be so
cruel! To drive away like a thief the daughter of the woman who nursed
you!"

The girl walked on and the young man made no answer; there was nothing
he could say. But Rosine had dropped a word which remained in his
mind: "If you stay here ten minutes you will see me coming back with
one or other of the sisters." He resolved to stay. The opportunity he
had lost in one direction came back to him from another. Oh! if only
Mary should be the one to come out with Rosine!

But how could he suppose that a young girl of eighteen, the daughter
of the Marquis de Souday, would leave her home at eight o'clock at
night and go five miles to nurse a poor peasant ill of a dangerous
fever? It was not only improbable, but it was actually impossible.
Rosine must have made the sisters better than they were, just as
others made them worse.

Besides, was it believable that his mother, noted for her piety and
claiming all the virtues, could have acted in this affair just the
reverse of two young girls of whom so much evil was said in the
neighborhood? But if things should happen as Rosine said, wouldn't
that prove that these young girls had souls after God's own heart? Of
course, however, it was quite certain that neither of them would come.

The young man was repeating this for the tenth time in as many minutes
when he saw, at the angle of the road round which Rosine had
disappeared, the shadows of two women. In spite of the coming darkness
he saw that one was Rosine; but as for the person with her, it was
impossible to recognize her identity, for she was wrapped in a large
mantle.

Baron Michel was so perplexed in mind, and his heart above all was so
agitated, that his legs failed him, and he stood stock-still till the
girls came up to him.

"Well, Monsieur le baron," said Rosine, with much pride, "what did I
tell you?"

"What did you tell him?" said the girl in the mantle.

Michel sighed. By the firm and decided tone of voice he knew she was
Bertha.

"I told him that I shouldn't be turned away from your house as I was
from the château de la Logerie," answered Rosine.

"But," said Michel, "perhaps you have not told Mademoiselle de Souday
what is the matter with your father."

"From the symptoms," said Bertha, "I suppose it is typhoid fever. That
is why we have not a minute to lose; it is an illness that requires to
be taken in time. Are you coming with us, Monsieur Michel?"

"But, mademoiselle," said the young man, "typhoid fever is
contagious."

"Some say it is, and others say it is not," replied Bertha,
carelessly.

"But," insisted Michel, "it is deadly."

"Yes, in many cases; though it is often cured."

The young man went close up to Bertha.

"Are you really going to expose yourself to such a danger?" he said.

"Of course I am."

"For an unknown man, a stranger to you?"

"Those who are strangers to us," said Bertha, with infinite
gentleness, "are fathers, brothers, husbands, to other human beings.
There is no such thing as a stranger in this world, Monsieur Michel;
even to you this man may be something."

"He was the husband of my nurse," stammered Michel.

"There! you see," said Bertha, "you can't regard him as a stranger."

"I did offer to go back to the château with Rosine and give her the
money to get a doctor."

"And she refused, preferring to come to us? Thank you, Rosine," said
Bertha.

The young man was dumfounded. He had heard of charity, but he had
never seen it; and here it was embodied in the form of Bertha. He
followed the young girls thoughtfully, with his head down.

"If you are coming with us, Monsieur Michel," said Bertha, "be so kind
as to carry this little box, which contains the medicines."

"No," said Rosine, "Monsieur le baron can't come with us, for he knows
what a dread madame has of contagious diseases."

"You are mistaken, Rosine," said the young man; "I am going with you."

And he took the box from Bertha's hands. An hour later they all three
reached the cottage of the sick man.

XI.

THE FOSTER-FATHER.

The cottage stood, not in the village but on the outskirts of it, a
gunshot distant or thereabouts. It was close to a little wood, into
which the back-door opened.

The goodman Tinguy--that was the term usually applied to Rosine's
father--was a Chouan of the old type. While still a lad, he fought
through the first war in La Vendée under Jolly, Couëtu, Charette, La
Rochejaquelein, and others. He was afterwards married and had two
children. The eldest, a boy, had been drafted, and was now in the
army; the youngest was Rosine.

At the birth of each child the mother, like other
poor peasant-women, had taken a nursling. The
foster-brother of the boy was the last scion of a noble family of
Maine, Henri de Bonneville, who will presently appear in this history.
The foster-brother of Rosine was, as we have already said, Michel de
la Logerie, one of the chief actors in our drama.

Henri de Bonneville was two years older than Michel; the two boys had
often played together on the threshold of the door that Michel was
about to cross, following Bertha and Rosine. Later on they met in
Paris; and Madame de la Logerie had encouraged the intimacy of her son
with a young man of large fortune and high rank in the Western
provinces.

These foster-children had greatly eased the circumstances of the
Tinguy family; but the Vendéan peasant is so constituted that he never
admits that he is comfortably off. Tinguy was now making himself out
poor at the expense of his life. Ill as he was, nothing would have
induced him to send to Palluau for a doctor, whose visit would have
cost him five francs. Besides, no peasant, and the Vendéan peasant
least of all, believes in a doctor or in medicine. This was why
Rosine, when they wanted help, applied first at the château de la
Logerie, as foster-sister of the young baron, and then, being driven
thence, to the Demoiselles de Souday.

At the noise the young people made on entering the sick man rose on
his elbow, with difficulty, but immediately fell back on the bed with
a piteous moan. A candle was burning, which lighted the bed only; the
rest of the room was in darkness. The light showed, on a species of
cot or pallet, a man over fifty years of age, struggling in the grasp
of the demon of fever. He was pale to lividness; his eyes were glassy
and sunken, and from time to time his body shook from head to foot, as
if it had come in contact with a galvanic battery.

Michel shuddered at the sight. He understood at once why his mother,
fearing contagion, and knowing that Rosine must come from that bedside
impregnated with the miasmas of the disease, which were floating
almost visibly in the circle of light around that dying bed, was
unwilling to let Rosine enter the château. He wished for camphor, or
chloride of lime, or some disinfectant to isolate the sick man from
the well man, but having nothing of the kind he stood as near the door
as he could to breathe the fresh air.

As for Bertha, she seemed to pay no attention to all that; she went
straight to the patient and took his hand. Michel made a motion as if
to stop her, and opened his lips to utter a cry; but he was, in a
measure, petrified by the boldness of her charity, and he kept his
place silently, in admiring terror.

Bertha questioned the sick man. He replied that in the morning, when
he rose he had felt so weary that his legs gave way under him when he
attempted to walk. This was a warning given by Nature; but the
peasantry seldom pay heed to such advice. Instead of getting back into
bed and sending for a doctor, Tinguy dressed himself, went down into
the cellar for a pot of cider, and cut himself a slice of bread,--to
"strengthen him up," as he said. His pot of cider tasted good, but he
could not eat the bread. Then he went to his work in the fields.

As he went along, he had terrible pains in his head and a bleeding at
the nose; his weariness was excessive, and he was forced to sit down
once or twice. When he came to a brook he drank of it; but this did
not slake his thirst, which was so great that he even drank the water
out of a puddle. When at last he reached his field he had not the
strength to put a spade into the furrow he had begun the night before,
and he stood for some moments leaning on his tool. Then his head
turned, and he lay down, or rather fell down on the ground in a state
of utter prostration.

There he remained till seven in the evening, and might have stayed all
night if a peasant from the little town of Légé had not happened to
come along. Seeing a man lying in the field, he called to him. Tinguy
did not answer, but he made a movement. The peasant went nearer and
recognized him. With great difficulty he got the sick man home; Tinguy
was so feeble that it took him over an hour to go half a mile.

Rosine was watching for him anxiously. When she saw him she was
frightened, and wished to go to Palluau and fetch the doctor; but her
father positively forbade it, and went to bed, declaring it would be
nothing and the next day he should be well. But as his thirst, instead
of lessening, continued to increase, he told Rosine to put a pitcher
of water by his bedside for the night. He spent the night thus,
devoured by thirst, and drinking incessantly without allaying the
fever that burned within him. The next morning he tried to rise; but
he no sooner sat up in bed than his head, in which he complained of
violent shooting pains, became dizzy, and he was seized with a violent
pain in the right side.

Rosine insisted on going for M. Roger (that was the name of the doctor
at Palluau); but again her father forbade her. The girl then stayed
quietly by his bed, ready to obey his wishes and serve his needs. His
greatest need was for drink; every ten minutes he asked for water.

Matters went on thus till four in the afternoon. Then the sick man
shook his head and said, "I see I have got a bad fever; you must go
and get me some help from the good ladies at the castle." We know the
results of Rosine's expedition.

After feeling the sick man's pulse and listening to this account of
his illness, given with great difficulty, Bertha, who counted above a
hundred pulsations, was sure that Tinguy was in a dangerous state.
What the exact nature of the fever was she was too ignorant of the
science of medicine to decide. But as the sick man was constantly
crying for "Drink! drink!" she cut a lemon in slices, boiled it in a
potful of water, sweetened it slightly, and let the sick man drink it
in place of pure water.

It is to be remarked that when she wanted to sweeten the infusion
Rosine told her there was no sugar in the house; sugar, to a Vendéan
peasant, is the supreme of luxury. Fortunately, the provident Bertha
had put a few lumps into the little box which contained her medicines.
She cast her eyes about her in search of the box, and saw it under the
arm of the young man, who was still standing near the door.

She made him a sign to come to her; but before he could obey she made
him another sign to stay where he was. Then she went up to him
herself, laying a finger on her lips, and said in a low voice, so that
the patient might not hear her:--

"The man's condition is very serious. I dare not take much upon
myself. It is absolutely necessary to have a doctor, and even so, I
fear it will be too late. Will you go to Palluau, dear Monsieur
Michel, and fetch Doctor Roger? Meantime I will give Tinguy something
to quiet him."

"But you--you?" said the young baron, anxiously.

"I shall stay here; you will find me when you get back. I have some
important things to say to the patient."

"Important things?" said Michel, astonished.

"Yes."

"But--" insisted the young man.

"I assure you," interrupted the young girl, "that every minute's delay
is of consequence. Taken in time these fevers are often fatal;
neglected, as this has been, there is little hope. Go at once,--at
once, and bring back the doctor."

"But," persisted the young man, "suppose the fever is contagious?"

"What then?"

"Won't you run great risk of taking it?"

"My dear monsieur," said Bertha, "if we stopped to think about such
things half the sick peasants would die. Come, go; and trust to God to
take care of me."

She held out her hand to him; the young man took it. Carried away by
the admiration he felt at seeing in a woman a grand and simple courage
of which he, a man, was incapable, he pressed his lips with a sort of
passion upon it.

The movement was so rapid and unexpected that Bertha quivered, turned
very pale, and sighed as she said:--

"Go, friend; go!"

She did not need, this time, to reiterate her order. Michel sprang
from the cottage. A mysterious fire seemed to run through his veins
and doubled his vital power; he felt a strange, new force within him.
He fancied he was capable of accomplishing miracles; it seemed to him
that like the antique Mercury, wings had grown upon his head and
heels. If a wall had barred the way he would have scaled it; if a
river were flowing across his path, without bridge or ford, he would
have swum it, not stopping to fling off his clothes. He only regretted
that Bertha had asked him to do so easy a thing; he would fain have
had obstacles, some difficult--nay, impossible--quest! How could
Bertha be grateful to him for only going a few miles to fetch a
doctor? A few miles! when he longed to go to the end of the world for
her! Why couldn't he give some proof of heroism which might match his
courage with Bertha's own?

Of course, in such a state of exaltation the young baron never dreamed
of fatigue. The three and a half miles to Palluau were done in less
than half an hour. Doctor Roger was a familiar visitor at the château
of La Logerie, which is hardly an hour's distance from Palluau. Michel
had only to send up his name before the doctor, who had gone to bed
called out that he would be ready in five minutes.

At the end of that time he appeared in the salon, and asked the young
man what could possibly bring him there at that unusual time of night.
In two words Michel told the doctor the state of the case; and as M.
Roger seemed a good deal surprised at his taking so lively an interest
in a peasant as to come on foot, at night, with an agitated manner and
bathed in perspiration, the young baron hastened to explain his
interest by the ties of affection which naturally bound him to his
foster-father.

Questioned by the doctor as to the symptoms of the illness, Michel
repeated faithfully all he had heard, and begged M. Roger to take with
him the necessary remedies,--the village of Légé not yet having
attained to the civilization of possessing an apothecary. Noticing
that the young baron was reeking with perspiration, and finding that
he had come on foot, the doctor, who had already ordered his horse to
be saddled, changed the order and had him harnessed to his carriole.

Michel was most anxious to prevent this arrangement; he declared that
he could go on foot much faster than the doctor could go on horseback.
He was, in fact, so powerful, with that valiant vigor of youth and
heart, that he probably could have done so as fast, or even faster,
than the doctor on his horse. The doctor insisted, Michel refused; and
the discussion ended by his darting out of the house and calling back
to Monsieur Roger:--

"Come as fast as you can. I'll announce your coming!"

The doctor began to think that Madame de la Logerie's son was mad. He
said to himself that he should soon overtake him, and did not change
the order for the carriole.

It was the thought of appearing before the eyes of the young girl in a
carriole which so exasperated the lover. He fancied Bertha would feel
more grateful to him if she saw him arrive all out of breath and open
the cottage door, crying out, "Here I am! the doctor is following me!"
than if she saw him driving up in a carriole, accompanying the doctor.
On horseback, on a fine courser, mane and tail flying in the wind, his
arrival announced by snorts and neighs, it would have been another
thing; but in a carriole!--ten thousand times better go on foot! A
first love teems with poesy, and it feels a bitter hatred to the
prosaic. What would Mary think when her sister told her she had sent
the young baron to Palluau for Doctor Roger, and that the young baron
had returned in the doctor's carriole!

No, no; better a thousand times, as we have said, arrive on foot. The
young fellow understood very well that this first appearance on the
stage of love with heaving breast and ardent eyes, dust on his
clothes, hair streaming in the wind, was good, good, and well done. As
for the patient, heavens! he was well-nigh forgotten, we must admit,
in the midst of this excitement; at any rate, it was not of him that
Michel thought, but of the two sisters. His poor foster-father would
not have driven him across the country at the rate of seven miles an
hour; it was Bertha, it was Mary. The exciting cause in this grand
physiological cataclysm now taking place in our hero had become a mere
accessory. Michel, under the name of Hippomenes, struggling for the
prize with Atalanta, had no need to drop the golden apples on his way.
He laughed to scorn the idea that the doctor and his horse could
overtake him; and he felt a sensation of physical delight as the cold
night-wind chilled the moisture on his brow. Overtaken by the doctor!
Sooner death than that!

It had taken him half an hour to go; it took him twenty-five minutes
to return.

As though Bertha had expected or divined this impossible celerity, she
had gone to the threshold of the door to await her messenger. She knew
that in all probability he could not be back till half an hour later,
and yet she went out to listen for him. She thought she heard steps in
the far distance. Impossible! it could not be he already; and yet she
never doubted that it was he.

In fact, a moment later she saw him looming, appearing, then clearly
defined upon the darkness, while at the same time he, with his eyes
fixed on the door, all the while doubting them, saw her standing there
motionless, her hand on her heart, which, for the first time in her
life, was beating violently.

When he reached her the youth, like the Greek of Marathon, was
voiceless, breathless, and came near dropping, if not as dead as the
Greek, at least in a faint. He had only strength to say:--

"The doctor is following me."

Then, in order not to fall, he leaned with his hand against the wall.
If he could have said more he might have cried:--

"You will tell Mademoiselle Mary, won't you? that it was for love of
her and of you that I have done seven miles in fifty minutes."

But he could not speak; so that Bertha believed, and had ground for
believing, that it was for love of her, and her alone, that the young
messenger had performed his feat. She smiled with pleasure. Drawing
her handkerchief from her pocket, she said, softly wiping the young
man's forehead, and taking great care not to touch his wound:--

"Good heavens! how sorry I am that you took my request to hasten so
much to heart! What a state you are in!" Then scolding him like a
mother, she added in a tender tone, "What a child you are!"

That word "child" was said in a tone of such indescribable tenderness
that it made Michel quiver. He seized Bertha's hand; it was moist and
trembling. Just then the sound of wheels was heard on the
high-road.

"Ah! here is the doctor," she cried, pushing away the young man's
hand.

Michel looked at her in amazement. Why did she push away his hand? He
was, of course, unable to give a clear account to himself of what was
passing in a girl's mind; but he felt, instinctively, that although
she repulsed him it was not from dislike or anger.

Bertha went back into the cottage, no doubt to prepare for the
doctor's arrival. Michel stayed at the door to receive him. When he
saw him coming along in his wicker vehicle, which shook him
grotesquely, the young fellow congratulated himself more than ever for
having come on foot. It was true that if Bertha had gone in, as she
had just done, when she heard the wheels she would not have seen him
in that vulgar trap. But if he had not already returned would she, or
would she not, have waited till he came?

Michel told himself that it was more than probable she would have
waited, and he felt in his heart, if not the warm satisfactions of
love, at any rate the soft ticklings of vanity.

XII.

NOBLESSE OBLIGE.

When the doctor entered the room Bertha was beside the patient. The
first thing that met M. Roger's eyes was her graceful form, like those
of the angels in German legends bending forward to receive the souls
of the dying. He knew her at once, for he was rarely called to the
cottages of the poor that he did not find either her or her sister
between death and the dying.

"Oh, doctor," she said, "come quick! poor Tinguy is delirious."

The patient was under much excitement. The doctor went to him.

"Come, friend," said he, "be calm."

"Let me alone! let me alone!" cried Tinguy. "I must get up; they want
me at Montaigu."

"No, dear Tinguy," said Bertha, "no; they are not expecting you just
yet."

"Yes, mademoiselle; yes, they are! It was for
to-night. Who will go from house to house and carry the news if I'm
not there?"

"Hush, Tinguy, hush!" said Bertha; "remember you are ill, and Doctor
Roger is here."

"Doctor Roger, is one of us, mademoiselle; we can talk before him. He
knows they are waiting for me; he knows I must get up at once. I must
go to Montaigu."

Doctor Roger and the young girl looked at each other.

"_Massa_," said the doctor.

"_Marseille_," replied Bertha.

And then, with a spontaneous movement, they shook hands.

Bertha returned to the patient.

"Yes," she said, bending to his ear, "you are right. The doctor is one
of us; but there is some one else here who is not." She lowered her
voice so that only Tinguy could hear. "And that," she added, "is the
young Baron Michel."

"Ah, true," said the goodman. "Don't let him hear anything. Courtin is
a traitor. But if I don't go to Montaigu, who will?"

"Jean Oullier. Don't worry, Tinguy."

"Oh! if Jean Oullier will go," said the sick man,--"if Jean Oullier
will go I need not. His foot's good, and his eye true; he can fire
straight, he can!"

And he burst out laughing; but in that laugh he seemed to expend his
last vital strength and fell backward on the bed.

The young baron had listened to this dialogue (of which he could only
hear portions) without in the least understanding it. All he
distinctly made out was, "Courtin is a traitor," and from the
direction of the young girl's eye as she spoke with the peasant he was
certain that they were talking of him. His heart contracted; they had
some secret in which they would not let him share. He went up to
Bertha.

"Mademoiselle," he said, "if I am in your way, or if you have no
further need of me, say the word and I retire."

He spoke in a tone of so much pain that Bertha was touched.

"No," she said, "stay. We need you still; you must help Rosine to
prepare M. Roger's prescriptions while I talk with him about the
case." Then to the doctor she said, in a low voice, "Keep them busy,
and you can tell me what you know, and I will tell you what I know."
Turning again to Michel she added, in her sweetest voice, "I know, my
dear friend, that you will be willing to help Rosine."

"As long as you wish, mademoiselle; give your orders and I will obey
them," said the young man.

"You see, doctor," said Bertha, smiling, "you have two willing
helpers."

The doctor went out to his vehicle and returned with a bottle of
Sedlitz water and a package of mustard.

"Here," he said to Michel, giving him the bottle, "uncork that and
make him drink half a glassful every ten minutes. And you, Rosine,"
giving her the mustard, "mix that into a paste with hot water; it is
to be put on the soles of your father's feet."

The sick man had dropped back into the state of apathetic indifference
which preceded the excitement Bertha had calmed by assuring him that
Jean Oullier would take his place. The doctor cast a look at him, and
seeing that in his present state of quiescence he could safely be left
to the care of the young baron, he went eagerly up to Bertha.

"Mademoiselle de Souday," he said, "since it seems that we hold the
same opinions, what news have you?"

"Madame left Massa on the 21st of last April, and she ought to have
landed at Marseille on the 29th or 30th. This is now the 6th of May.
Madame must have disembarked, and the whole South ought by this time
to have risen."

"Is that all you know?" asked the doctor.

"Yes, all," replied Bertha.

"You have not read the evening papers of the 3d?"

"We do not get any papers at the château de Souday," she said.

"Well," said the doctor, "the whole thing failed."

"Is it possible! Failed?"

"Yes, Madame was utterly misled."

"Good God! what are you telling me?"

"The exact truth. Madame, after a prosperous voyage in the 'Carlo
Alberto,' landed on the coast at some little distance from Marseille.
A guide awaited her and took her to a lonely house in the woods.
Madame had only six persons with her--"

"Oh! go on; go on!"

"She sent one of those persons to Marseille to inform the leader of
the movement that she had landed and was awaiting the result of the
promises which had brought her to France--"

"Well?"

"That evening the messenger came back with a note, congratulating the
princess on her safe arrival, and saying that Marseille would rise on
the following day--"

"Yes; what then?"

"The next day an attempt was made, but Marseille would not rise at
all. The people would take no part in the affair, which failed
utterly."

"And Madame?"

"It is not known where she is; but they hope she
re-embarked on the 'Carlo Alberto.'"

"Cowards!" muttered Bertha. "I am nothing but a woman; but oh! I swear
to God that if Madame comes into La Vendée I will set an example to
some men. Good-bye, doctor, and thank you."

"Must you go?"

"Yes; it is important that my father should know this news. He is at a
meeting to-night at the château de Montaigu. I must get back to
Souday. I commit my poor patient to you. Leave exact directions, and I
or my sister, unless something unforeseen prevents, will be here
to-morrow and watch at night."

"Will you take my carriage? I can get back on foot, and you can return
it by Jean Oullier, or any one, to-morrow."

"Thank you, no; I don't know where Jean Oullier may be to-morrow.
Besides, I prefer walking; the air will do me good."

Bertha held out her hand to the doctor, pressed his with almost
masculine strength, threw her mantle over her shoulders, and left the
cottage. At the door she found Michel, who, although he could not hear
the conversation, had kept his eye on the young girl, and, seeing that
she was about to depart, got to the door before her.

"Ah! mademoiselle," he exclaimed, "what has happened? What have you
just heard?"

"Nothing," said Bertha.

"Nothing! If you had heard nothing you would not be starting off in
such a hurry, without a word to me,--without so much as signing to
me, or saying good-bye."

"Why should I say good-bye, inasmuch as you are going with me? When we
reach the gate of Souday will be time enough to bid you good-bye."

"What! will you allow me?"

"To accompany me? Certainly. After all you have done for me this
evening, it is your right, my dear Monsieur Michel,--that is, unless
you are too fatigued."

"I, mademoiselle, too fatigued, when it is a matter of accompanying
you! With you, or with Mademoiselle Mary, I would go to the end of the
world. Fatigued? Heavens, no!"

Bertha smiled, murmuring to herself, "What a pity he is not one of
us!" Then she added under her breath, "One could do as one pleased
with a nature like his."

"Are you speaking?" said Michel. "I did not quite catch what you say."

"I spoke very low."

"Why do you speak low?"

"Because what I was saying cannot be said out
loud,--not yet, at least."

"But later?"

"Ah! later, perhaps--"

The young man in turn moved his lips, and made no sound.

"What does that pantomime mean?" asked Bertha.

"It means that I can speak below my breath as you do, with this
difference, that what I say low I am ready to say out loud and
instantly,--at this very moment if I dared--"

"I am not a woman like other women," said Bertha, with an almost
disdainful smile; "and what is said to me in a low voice may equally
well be said aloud."

"Well then, what I was saying below my breath was this; I grieve to
see you flinging yourself into danger,--danger as certain as it is
useless."

"What danger are you talking about, my dear neighbor?" said the girl,
in a slightly mocking tone.

"That about which you were speaking to Doctor Roger just now. An
uprising is to take place in La Vendée."

"Really?"

"You will not deny that, I think."

"I?--why should I deny it?"

"Your father and you are taking part in it."

"You forget my sister," said Bertha, laughing.

"No, I forget no one," said Michel, with a sigh.

"Go on."

"Let me tell you--as a tender friend, a devoted friend--that you are
wrong."

"And why am I wrong, my tender, my devoted friend," asked Bertha, with
the tinge of satire she could never quite eliminate from her nature.

"Because La Vendée is not in 1832 what she was in 1793; or rather,
because there is no longer a Vendée."

"So much the worse for La Vendée! But, happily, there is always the
Noblesse,--you don't yet know, Monsieur Michel, but your children's
children in the sixth generation will know the meaning of the words
NOBLESSE OBLIGE."

The young man made a hasty movement.

"Now," said Bertha, "let's talk of something else; for on this topic I
will not say another word, inasmuch as you are not--as poor Tinguy
says--one of us."

"But," said the young man, hurt by Bertha's tone toward him, "what
shall we talk about?"

"Why, anything,--everything. The night is magnificent, talk to me of
the night; the moon is brilliant, talk of the moon; the stars are
dazzling, tell me about the stars; the heavens are pure, let us talk
of the heavens."

She raised her head and let her eyes rest on the clear and starry
firmament. Michel sighed; he said nothing, and walked on beside her.
What could he say--that man of books and city walls--about the nature
that seemed her fitting kingdom? Had he, like Bertha, been in contact
from his infancy with the wonders of creation? Had he watched, like
her, the gradations through which the dawn ascends and the sun sinks
down? Did his ear know, like hers, the mysterious sounds of night?
When the lark rang out its reveille did he know what the lark was
saying? When the gurgle of the nightingale filled the darkness with
harmony could he tell what that throat was uttering? No, no. He knew
the things of science, which Bertha did not know; but Bertha knew the
things of nature, and of all such things he was ignorant. Oh! if the
young girl had only spoken then, how religiously his heart would have
listened to her.

But, unfortunately, she was silent. Her heart was full of thoughts
which escaped in looks and sighs, and not in sounds and words.

He, too, was dreaming. He walked beside the gentle Mary, not the
harsh, firm Bertha; instead of the self-reliant Bertha, he felt the
weaker Mary leaning on his arm. Ah! if she were only there words would
come; all the thousand things of the night--the moon, the stars, the
sky--would have rushed to his lips. With Mary he would have been the
teacher and the master; with Bertha he was the scholar and the slave.

The two young people walked silently side by side for more than a
quarter of an hour, when suddenly Bertha stopped and made a sign to
Michel to stop also. The young man obeyed; with Bertha his place was
to obey.

"Do you hear?" said Bertha.

"No," said Michel, shaking his head.

"Well, I hear," she said, her eyes gleaming and her ears alert, as she
strained them eagerly.

"What do you hear?"

"My horse's step and that of my sister Mary's horse. They are coming
for me. Something must have happened." She listened again. "Mary has
come herself."

"How can you tell that?" asked the young man.

"By the way the horses gallop. Let us walk faster, please."

The sounds came nearer, and in less than five minutes a dark group
showed in the distance. Soon it was seen to be two horses,--a woman
riding one and leading the other.

"I told you it was my sister," said Bertha.

The young man had already recognized her, less by her person, scarcely
distinguishable in the darkness, than by the beating of his heart.

Mary, too, had recognized him, and this was plain from the gesture of
amazement which escaped her. It was evident that she expected to find
her sister alone or with Rosine,--certainly not with the young baron.
Michel saw the impression his presence had produced, and he advanced.

"Mademoiselle," he said to Mary, "I met your sister on her way to
carry assistance to poor Tinguy, and in order that she might not be
alone I have accompanied her."

"You did perfectly right, monsieur," replied Mary.

"You don't understand," said Bertha, laughing. "He thinks he must
excuse me or excuse himself. Do forgive him for something; his mamma
is going to scold him." Then leaning on Mary's saddle, and speaking
close to her ear, "What is it, darling?" she asked.

"The attempt at Marseille has failed."

"I know that; and Madame has re-embarked."

"That's a mistake."

"A mistake?"

"Yes. Madame declares that as she is in France she will stay."

"Can it be true?"

"Yes; and she is now on her way to La Vendée,--in fact, she may
actually be here now."

"How did you hear all this?"

"Through a message received from her to-night at the château de
Montaigu, just as the meeting was about to break up disheartened."

"Gallant soul!" cried Bertha, enthusiastically.

"Papa returned home at full gallop, and finding where you were, he
told me to take the horses and fetch you."

"Well, here I am!" said Bertha, putting her foot into the stirrup.

"Are not you going to bid good-bye to your poor knight?"

"Oh, yes," said Bertha, holding out her hand to the young man, who
advanced to take it slowly and sadly.

"Ah! Mademoiselle Bertha," he murmured, taking her hand, "I am very
unhappy."

"Why?" she asked.

"Not to be, as you said just now, one of you."

"What prevents it?" said Mary, holding out her hand to him.

The young man darted on that hand and kissed it in a passion of love
and gratitude.

"Oh! yes, yes, yes," he murmured, so low that Mary alone could hear
him; "for you, mademoiselle, and with you."

Mary's hand was roughly torn from his grasp by a sudden movement of
her horse. Bertha, in touching hers, had struck that of her sister on
the flank. Horses and riders, starting at a gallop, were soon lost
like shadows in the darkness.

The young man stood motionless in the roadway.

"Adieu!" cried Bertha.

"Au revoir!" cried Mary.

"Yes, yes, yes," he said, stretching his arms toward their vanishing
figures; "yes, au revoir! au revoir!"

The two girls continued their way without uttering a word, until they
reached the castle gate, and there Bertha said, abruptly:--

"Mary, I know you will laugh at me!"

"Why?" asked Mary, trembling.

"I love him!" replied Bertha.

A cry of pain had almost escaped from Mary's lips, but she smothered
it.

"And I called to him 'au revoir!'" she whispered to herself. "God
grant I may never, never see him again."

XIII.

A DISTANT COUSIN.

The day after the events we have just related,--that is to say, on the
7th of May, 1832,--a great dinner-party was given at the château de
Vouillé, to celebrate the birthday of Madame la Comtesse de Vouillé,
who had on that day completed her twenty-fourth year.

The company had just sat down to table, and at this table, among
twenty-five other guests, was the prefect of Vienne and the mayor of
Châtellerault, relations more or less distant of Madame de Vouillé.

The soup was just removed when a servant entered the dining-room, and
said a few words in Monsieur de Vouillé's ear. Monsieur de Vouillé
made the man repeat them twice. Then addressing his guests, he said:--

"I beg you to excuse me for a few moments. A lady has arrived at the
gate in a post-chaise, and she insists on speaking to me personally.
Will you allow me to see what this lady wants?"

Permission was, of course, unanimously granted, though Madame de
Vouillé's eyes followed her husband to the door with some uneasiness.

Monsieur de Vouillé hastened to the gate. There, sure enough, was a
post-chaise, containing two persons, a man and a woman. A servant in
sky-blue livery with silver lace, was on the box. When he saw Monsieur
de Vouillé, whom he seemed to be expecting impatiently, he jumped
lightly down.

"Come, come, slow coach!" he said, as soon as the count was near
enough to hear him.

Monsieur de Vouillé stopped short, amazed,--more than amazed,
stupefied. What manner of servant was this, who dared to apostrophize
him in that style? He went nearer to let the fellow know his mind.
Then he stopped, and burst out laughing.

"What! is it you, de Lussac?" he said.

"Yes; undoubtedly, it is I."

"What is all this masquerading about?"

The counterfeit servant opened the carriage door and offered his arm
to enable the lady to get out of the chaise. Then he said:--

"My dear count, I have the honor to present you to Madame la Duchesse
de Berry." Bowing to the duchess, he continued, "Madame la duchesse,
Monsieur le Comte de Vouillé is one of my best friends and one of your
most devoted servants."

The count retreated a few steps.

"Madame la Duchesse de Berry!" he exclaimed, stupefied.

"In person, monsieur," said the duchess.

"Are you not proud and happy to receive her Royal Highness?" said de
Lussac.

"As proud and happy as an ardent royalist can be;
but--"

"What! is there a but?" asked the duchess.

"This is my wife's birthday, and we have twenty-five guests now dining
with us."

"Well, monsieur, there is a French proverb which says, 'Enough for two
is enough for three.' I am sure you will extend the maxim to mean
'Enough for twenty-five is enough for twenty-eight;' for I warn you
that Monsieur de Lussac, servant as he is, must dine at table, and he
is dying of hunger."

"Yes; but don't be uneasy," said the Baron de Lussac. "I'll take off
my livery."

Monsieur de Vouillé seized his head with both hands, as if he meant to
tear out his hair.

"What shall I do? what can I do?" he cried.

"Come," said the duchess, "let us talk sense."

"Talk sense!" said the count; "how can I? I am half crazy."

"Evidently not with joy," said the duchess.

"No, with terror, madame."

"Oh! you exaggerate the situation."

"But, madame, you are entering the lion's den. I have the prefect of
Vienne and the mayor of Châtellerault at my table."

"Very good; then you will present them to me."

"Good God! and under what title?"

"That of a cousin. You surely have some distant cousin, whose name
will answer the purpose."

"What an idea, madame!"

"Come, put it to use."

"I certainly have a cousin in Toulouse,--Madame de la Myre."

"The very thing! I am Madame de la Myre."

Then turning round in the carriage she offered her hand to an old man
about sixty-five years of age, who seemed waiting till the discussion
ended before he showed himself.

"Come, Monsieur de la Myre," said the duchess, "this is a surprise we
are giving our cousin, and we arrive just in time to keep his wife's
birthday. Come, cousin!"

So saying she jumped lightly out of the carriage and gayly slipped her
arm into that of the Comte de Vouillé.

"Yes, come!" said Monsieur de Vouillé, his mind made up to risk the
adventure into which the duchess was so joyously rushing. "Come!"

"Wait for me," cried the Baron de Lussac, jumping into the carriage,
which he transformed into a dressing-room, and changing his sky-blue
livery for a black surtout coat; "don't leave me behind."

"But who the devil are you to be?" asked M. de Vouillé.

"Oh! I'll be the Baron de Lussac, and--if Madame will permit me--the
cousin of your cousin."

"Stop! stop! monsieur le baron," said the old gentleman, who had not
yet spoken; "it seems to me that you are taking a great liberty."

"Pooh! we are on a campaign," said the duchess; "I permit it."

Monsieur de Vouillé now bravely led the way into the dining-room. The
curiosity of the guests and the uneasiness of the mistress of the
house were all the more excited by this prolonged absence. So, when
the door of the dining-room opened all eyes turned to the new
arrivals.

Whatever difficulties there may have been in playing the parts they
had thus unexpectedly assumed, none of the actors were at all
disconcerted.

"Dear," said the count to his wife, "I have often spoken to you of my
cousin in Toulouse--"

"Madame de la Myre?" interrupted the countess, eagerly.

"Yes,--Madame de la Myre. She is on her way to Nantes, and would not
pass the château without making your acquaintance. How fortunate that
she comes on your birthday! I hope it will bring luck to both."

"Dear cousin!" said the duchess, opening her arms to Madame de
Vouillé.

The two women kissed each other. As for the two men M. de Vouillé
contented himself with saying aloud, "Monsieur de la Myre," "Monsieur
de Lussac."

The company bowed.

"Now," said M. de Vouillé, "we must find seats for these new-comers,
who warn me that they are dying of hunger."

Every one moved a little. The table was large, and all the guests had
plenty of elbow-room; it was not difficult therefore to place three
additional persons.

"Did you not tell me, my dear cousin," said the duchess, "that the
prefect of Vienne was dining with you?"

"Yes, madame; and that is he whom you see on the countess's right,
with spectacles, a white cravat, and the rosette of an officer of the
Legion of honor in his buttonhole."

"Oh! pray present us."

Monsieur de Vouillé boldly carried on the comedy. He felt there was
nothing to be done but to play it out. Accordingly, he approached the
prefect, who was majestically leaning back in his chair.

"Monsieur le préfet," he said, "this is my cousin, who, with her
traditional respect for authority, thinks that a general presentation
is not enough, and therefore wishes to be presented to you
particularly."

"Generally, particularly, and officially," replied the gallant
functionary, "madame is and ever will be welcome."

"I accept the pledge, monsieur," said the duchess.

"Madame is going to Nantes?" asked the prefect, by way of making a
remark.

"Yes, monsieur; and thence to Paris,--at least, I hope so."

"It is not, I presume, the first time that Madame visits the capital?"

"No, monsieur; I lived there twelve years."

"And Madame left it--"

"Oh! very unwillingly, I assure you."

"Recently?"

"Two years ago last July."

"I can well understand that having once lived in Paris--"

"I should wish to return there. I am glad you understand that."

"Oh, Paris! Paris!" said the functionary.

"The paradise of the world!" said the duchess.

"Come, take your seats," said Monsieur de Vouillé.

"Oh, my dear cousin," said the duchess, with a glance at the place he
intended for her, "leave me beside Monsieur le préfet, I entreat you.
He has just expressed himself with so much feeling about the thing I
have most at heart that I place him, at once, on my list of friends."

The prefect, delighted with the compliment, drew aside his chair, and
Madame was installed in the seat to his left, to the detriment of the
person to whom that place of honor had been assigned. The two men
accepted without objection the seats given to them, and were soon
busy--M. de Lussac especially--in doing justice to the repast. The
other guests followed their example, and for a time nothing broke the
solemn silence which attends the beginning of a long-delayed and
impatiently awaited dinner.

Madame was the first to break that silence. Her adventurous spirit,
like the petrel, was more at ease in a gale.

"Well," she remarked, "I think our arrival must have interrupted the
conversation. Nothing is so depressing as a silent dinner. I detest
such dinners, my dear count; they are like those state functions at
the Tuileries, where, they tell me, no one was allowed to speak
unless the king had spoken. What were you all talking about before we
came in?"

"Dear cousin," said M. de Vouillé, "the prefect was kindly giving us
the official details of that blundering affair at Marseille."

"Blundering affair?" said the duchess.

"That's what he called it."

"And the words exactly describe the thing," said the functionary. "Can
you conceive of an expedition of that character for which the
arrangements were so carelessly made that it only required a
sub-lieutenant of the 13th regiment to arrest one of the leaders of
the outbreak and knock the whole affair in the head at once?"

"But don't you know, Monsieur le préfet," said the duchess, in a
melancholy tone, "in all great events there is a moment, a supreme
moment, when the destinies of princes and empires are shaken like
leaves in the wind? For example, when Napoleon at La Mure advanced to
meet the soldiers who were sent against him, if a sub-lieutenant of
any kind had taken him by the collar the return from Elba would have
been nothing more than a _blundering affair_."

There was silence after that, Madame having said the words in a
grieved tone. She herself re-opened the matter.

"And the Duchesse de Berry?" she said; "is it known what became of
her?"

"She returned on board of the 'Carlo Alberto.'"

"Ah!"

"It was the only sensible thing she could do, it seems to me," said
the prefect.

"You are quite right, monsieur," said the old gentleman, who had
accompanied Madame, and who had not before spoken; "and if I had had
the honor to be near her Highness and she had granted me some
authority, I should have given her that advice."

"No one was addressing you, my good husband," said the duchess. "I am
speaking to the prefect, and I want to know if he is quite sure her
Royal Highness has re-embarked?"

"Madame," said the prefect, with one of those administrative gestures
which admit of no contradiction, "the government is officially
informed of it."

"Ah!" exclaimed the duchess, "if the government is officially informed
of it, of course there is nothing to be said; but," she added,
venturing on still more slippery ground, "I did hear differently."

"Madame!" said the old gentleman, in a tone of slight reproach.

"What did you hear, cousin?" asked M. de Vouillé, who was beginning to
take the interest of a gambler in the game that was being played
before him.

"Yes, what have you heard, madame?" said the prefect.

"Oh, you understand, Monsieur le préfet, that it is not for me to give
you official news," said the duchess. "I am only telling you of
rumors, which may be mere nonsense."

"Madame de la Myre!" said the old man.

"Well, Monsieur de la Myre?" said the duchess.

"Do you know, madame," said the prefect, "that I think your husband is
very interfering. I will wager it is he who does not want you to go to
Paris?"

"That is precisely true. But I hope to go there in spite of him. 'What
woman wills, God wills.'"

"Oh, women! women!" cried the public functionary.

"What now?" asked the duchess.

"Nothing," said the prefect. "I am waiting, Madame, to hear the rumors
you mentioned just now about the Duchesse de Berry."

"Oh! they are simple enough. I heard,--but pray remember I give them
on no authority but common report,--I have heard that the Duchesse de
Berry rejected the advice of all her friends, and obstinately refused
to re-embark on the 'Carlo Alberto.'"

"Then where is she now?" asked the prefect.

"In France."

"In France! What can she do in France?"

"Why, you know very well, Monsieur le préfet," said the duchess, "that
her Royal Highness's chief object is La Vendée."

"No doubt; but having failed so signally at the
South--"

"All the more reason why she should try for success at the West."

The prefect smiled disdainfully.

"Then you really think she has re-embarked?" asked the duchess.

"I can positively assure you," said the prefect, "that she is at this
moment in the dominions of the king of Sardinia, from whom France is
about to ask an explanation."

"Poor king of Sardinia! He will give a very simple one."

"What?"

"He will say, 'I always knew Madame was a crazy creature; but I never
thought her craziness would lead her quite as far as this--'"

"Madame! madame!" said the old man.

"Ah, _ça!_ Monsieur de la Myre," said the duchess, "I do hope that
although you interfere with my wishes, you will have the grace to
respect my opinions,--all the more because I am sure they are those of
Monsieur le préfet. Are they not, monsieur?"

"The truth is," said that functionary, laughing, "that her Royal
Highness has behaved in this whole affair with the utmost folly."

"There! you see," said the duchess. "What would happen, Monsieur le
préfet, if these rumors were true and Madame should really come to La
Vendée?"

"How can she get here?" asked the prefect.

"Why, through the neighboring departments, or through yours. They tell
me she was seen at Toulouse in an open carriage while changing
horses."

"Good heavens!" cried the prefect; "that would be a little too bold."

"So bold that Monsieur le préfet doesn't believe it?"

"Not one word of it," said the official emphasizing each monosyllable
as he uttered it.

At that moment the door opened, and one of the count's footmen
announced that a clerk from the prefecture asked permission to deliver
a telegraphic despatch just received from Paris for the prefect.

"Will you permit him to enter?" said the prefect to the count.

"Why, of course," said the latter.

The clerk entered and gave a sealed package to the prefect, who bowed
his excuses to the company for opening it.

Absolute silence reigned. All eyes were fixed on the despatch. Madame
exchanged signs with M. de Vouillé, who laughed under his breath, with
M. de Lussac, who laughed aloud, and with her so-called husband who
maintained his imperturbably grave manner.

"Whew!" cried the public functionary suddenly, while his features were
indiscreet enough to betray the utmost surprise.

"What is the news?" asked M. de Vouillé.

"The news is," exclaimed the prefect, "that Madame de la Myre was
right in what she said about her Royal Highness. Her Royal Highness
has not left France; her Royal Highness is on her way to La Vendée,
through Toulouse, Libourne, and Poitiers."

So saying, the prefect rose.

"Where are you going, Monsieur le préfet?" asked the duchess.

"To do my duty, madame, painful as it is, and give orders that her
Royal Highness be arrested if, as this despatch warns me, she is
imprudent enough to pass through my department."

"Do so, Monsieur le préfet; do so," said the duchess. "I can only
applaud your zeal and assure you that I shall remember it when
occasion offers."

She held out her hand to the prefect, who kissed it gallantly, after
having, with a look, asked Monsieur de la Myre's permission to do so.

XIV.

PETIT-PIERRE.

Let us now return to the cottage of the goodman Tinguy, which we left
for a time to make that excursion to the château de Vouillé.

Forty-eight hours have gone by. Bertha and Michel are again at the
sick man's bedside. Though the regular visits which Doctor Roger now
paid rendered the young girl's presence in that fever-stricken place
unnecessary, Bertha, in spite of Mary's remonstrances, persisted in
her care of the Vendéan peasant. Nevertheless, it is probable that
Christian charity was not the only motive which drew her to his
cottage.

However that may be, it is certain that, by natural coincidence,
Michel, who had got over his terrors, was already installed in the
cottage when Bertha got there. Was it Bertha for whom Michel was
looking? We dare not answer. Perhaps he thought that Mary, too, might
take her turn in these charitable functions. Perhaps, too, he may have
hoped that the fair-haired sister would not lose this occasion of
meeting him, after the warmth of their last parting. His heart
therefore beat violently when he saw the shadow of a woman's form,
which he knew by its elegance could belong only to a Demoiselle de
Souday, projecting itself upon the cottage door.

When he recognized Bertha the young man felt a measure of disappointed
hope; but as, by virtue of his love, he was full of tenderness for the
Marquis de Souday, of sympathy for the crabbed Jean Oullier, and of
benevolence for even their dogs, how could he fail to love Mary's
sister? The affection shown to one would certainly bring him nearer to
the other; besides, what happiness to hear this sister mention the
absent sister. Consequently, he was full of attentions and solicitude
for Bertha, who accepted all with a satisfaction she took no pains to
conceal.

It was difficult, however, to think of other matters than the
condition of the sick man, which was hourly growing worse and worse.
He had fallen into that state of torpor and insensibility which
physicians call coma, and which, in inflammatory diseases, usually
characterizes the period preceding death. He no longer noticed what
was passing around him, and answered only when distinctly spoken to.
The pupils of his eyes, which were frightfully dilated, were fixed and
staring. He was almost rigid, though from time to time his hands
endeavored to pull the coverlet over his face, or draw to him
something that he seemed to see beside his bed.

Bertha, who, in spite of her youth, had more than once been present at
such a scene, no longer felt any hope for the poor man's life. She
wished to spare Rosine the anguish of witnessing her father's
death-struggle, which she knew was beginning, and she told her to go
at once and fetch Doctor Roger.

"But I can go, mademoiselle, if you like," said Michel. "I have better
legs than Rosine. Besides, it isn't safe for her to go through those
roads at night."

"No, Monsieur Michel, there is no danger for Rosine, and I have my own
reasons for keeping you here. I hope it is not disagreeable to you to
remain?"

"Oh, mademoiselle, how can you think it? Only I am so happy in being
able to serve you that I try to let no occasion pass."

"Don't be anxious about that," said Bertha, smiling; "perhaps, before
long, I shall have more than one occasion to put your devotion to the
proof."

Rosine had hardly been gone ten minutes before the sick man seemed
suddenly and extraordinarily better. His eyes lost their fixed stare,
his breathing became easier, his rigid fingers relaxed, and he passed
them over his forehead to wipe away the sweat which began to pour from
it.

"How do you feel, dear Tinguy?" said the girl.

"Better," he answered, in a feeble voice. "The good God doesn't mean
me to desert before the battle," he added, trying to smile.

"Perhaps not; because it is for him you are going to fight."

The peasant shook his head sadly and sighed.

"Monsieur Michel," said Bertha to the young man, drawing him into a
corner of the room, so that her voice should not reach the patient,
"go and fetch the vicar and rouse the neighbors."

"Isn't he better? He said so just now."

"Child that you are! Did you never see a lamp go
out? The last flame is brightest, and so it is with our miserable
bodies. Go at once. There will be no death-struggle. The fever has
exhausted him; the soul is going without a struggle, shock, or
effort."

"And are you to be left alone with him?"

"Go at once, and don't think about me."

Michel went out, and Bertha returned to Tinguy, who held out his hand.

"Thank you, my brave young lady," said the peasant.

"Thank me for what, père Tinguy?"

"For your care, and also for thinking of sending for the vicar."

"You heard me?"

This time Tinguy smiled outright.

"Yes," he said, "low as you spoke."

"But you mustn't think that the presence of the priest means that you
are going to die, my good Tinguy. Don't be frightened."

"Frightened!" cried the peasant, trying to sit up in his bed.
"Frightened! why? I have respected the old and cared for the young; I
have suffered without a murmur; I have toiled without complaining,
praising God when the hail beat down my wheat and the harvest failed;
never have I turned away the beggar whom Sainte-Anne has sent to my
fireside; I have kept the commandments of God and of the Church; when
the priests said, 'Rise and take your guns,' I fought the enemies of
my faith and my king; I have been humble in victory and hopeful in
defeat; I was still ready to give my life for the sacred cause, and
shall I be frightened now? Oh, no! mademoiselle; this is the day of
days to us poor Christians,--the glorious day of death. Ignorant as I
am, I know that this day makes us equals with the great and prosperous
of the earth. It has come for me; God calls me to him. I am ready; I
go before his judgment-seat in full assurance of his mercy."

Tinguy's face was illuminated as he said the words; but this last
religious enthusiasm exhausted the poor man's strength. He fell
heavily back upon his pillow, muttering a few unintelligible words,
among which could be distinguished "blues," "parish," and the names of
God and the Virgin.

The vicar entered at this moment. Bertha showed him the sick man, and
the priest, understanding what she wanted of him, began at once the
prayer for the dying.

Michel begged Bertha to leave the room, and the young girl consenting,
they both went out after saying a last prayer at Tinguy's bedside.

One after the other, the neighbors came in; each knelt down and
repeated after the priest the litanies of death. Two slender candles
of yellow wax, placed on either side of a brass crucifix, lighted the
gloomy scene.

Suddenly, at the moment when the priest and the assistants were
reciting mentally the "Ave Maria!" an owl's cry, sounding not far
distant from the cottage, rose above the dull hum of their mutterings.
The peasants trembled.

At the sound the dying man, whose eyes were already glazing and his
breath hissing, raised his head.

"I'm here!" he cried; "I'm ready! I am the guide."

Then he tried to imitate the owl's cry in reply to the one he had
heard, but he could not. The lingering breath gave a sob, his head
fell back, his eyes opened widely. He was dead.

A stranger stood on the threshold of the door. He was a young Breton
peasant, wearing a broad-brimmed hat, a red waistcoat and silver
buttons, a blue jacket embroidered with red, and high leather gaiters.
He carried in his hand one of those sticks with iron points, which the
country people use when they make a journey.

He seemed surprised at the scene before his eyes; but he asked no
question of any one. He quietly knelt down and prayed; then he
approached the bed, looked earnestly at the pale, discolored face of
the poor peasant. Two heavy tears rolled down his cheeks; he wiped
them away, and went out as he had come, silently.

The peasants, used to the religious custom which expects all those who
pass the house of death to enter and say a prayer for the soul of the
dying and a blessing on the body, were not surprised at the presence
of a stranger, and paid no heed to his departure. The latter, on
leaving the cottage, met another peasant, younger and smaller than
himself, who seemed to be his brother; this one was riding a horse
saddled and bridled in peasant fashion.

"Well, Rameau-d'or," said the younger, "what is it?"

"This," replied the other: "there is no place for us in that house. A
guest is there whose presence fills it."

"Who is he?"

"Death."

"Who is dead?"

"He whose hospitality we came to ask. I would suggest to you to make a
shield of his death and stay here; but I heard some one say that
Tinguy died of typhoid fever, and though doctors deny the contagion, I
cannot consent to expose you to it."

"You are not afraid that you were seen and recognized?"

"No, impossible. There were eight or ten persons, men and women,
praying round the bed. I went in and knelt down and prayed with them.
That is what all Breton and Vendéan peasants do in such cases."

"Well, what can we do now?" asked the younger of the two.

"I have already told you. We had to decide between the château of my
former comrade or the cottage of the poor fellow who was to have been
our guide,--between luxury and a princely house with poor security,
and a narrow cottage, bad beds, buckwheat bread, and absolute safety.
God himself has decided the matter. We have no choice; we must take
the insecure comfort."

"But you think the château is not safe?"

"The château belongs to a friend of my childhood, whose father was
made a baron by the Restoration. The father is dead, and the widow and
son are now living in the château. If the son were alone, I should
have no anxiety. He is rather weak, but his heart is sound. It is his
mother I fear; she is selfish and ambitious, and I could not trust
her."

"Oh, pooh! just for one night! You are not adventurous, Rameau-d'or."

"Yes I am, on my own account; but I am answerable to France, or at any
rate, to my party for the life of Ma--"

"For Petit-Pierre. Ah, Rameau-d'or, that is the tenth forfeit you owe
me since we started."

"It shall be the last, Ma--Petit-Pierre, I should say. In future I
will think of you by no other name, and in no other relation than that
of my brother."

"Come, then; let us go to the château. I am so weary that I would ask
shelter of an ogress,--if there were any."

"We'll take a crossroad, which will carry us there in ten minutes,"
said the young man. "Seat yourself more comfortably in the saddle; I
will walk before you, and you must follow me; otherwise we might miss
the path, which is very faint."

"Wait a moment," said Petit-Pierre, slipping from his horse.

"Where are you going?" asked Rameau-d'or, anxiously.

"You said your prayer beside that poor peasant, and I want to say
mine."

"Don't think of it!"

"Yes, yes; he was a brave and honest man," persisted Petit-Pierre. "He
would have risked his life for us; I may well offer a little prayer
beside his body."

Rameau-d'or raised his hat and stood aside to let his young companion
pass.

The lad, like Rameau-d'or, entered the cottage, took a branch of
holly, dipped it in holy water, and sprinkled the body with it. Then
he knelt down and prayed at the foot of the bed, after which he left
the cottage, without exciting more attention than his companion had
done.

The elder helped Petit-Pierre to mount, and together, one in the
saddle, the other on foot, they took their way silently across the
fields and along an almost invisible path which led, as we have said,
in a straight line to the château de la Logerie. They had hardly gone
a hundred steps into the grounds when Rameau-d'or stopped short and
laid his hand on the bridle of the horse.

"What is it now?" asked Petit-Pierre.

"I hear steps," said the young man. "Draw in behind those bushes; I
will stand against this tree. They'll probably pass without seeing
us."

The man[oe]uvre was made with the rapidity of a military evolution,
and none too soon; for the new-comer was seen to emerge from the
darkness as the pair reached their posts. Rameau-d'or, whose eyes were
by this time accustomed to the dim light, saw at once that he was a
young man about twenty years of age, running, rather than walking, in
the same direction as themselves. He had his hat in his hand, which
made him the more easily recognized, and his hair, blown back by the
wind, left his face entirely exposed.

An exclamation of surprise burst from Rameau-d'or, as the young man
came close to him; then he hesitated a minute, still in doubt, and
allowed the other to pass him by three or four steps, before he cried
out:--

"Michel!"

The new-comer, who did not expect to hear his name called in that
lonely place, jumped to one side, and said in a voice that quivered
with emotion:--

"Who called me?"

"I," said Rameau-d'or, taking off his hat and a wig he had been
wearing, and advancing to his friend with no other disguise than his
Breton clothes.

"Henri de Bonneville!" exclaimed Baron Michel, in amazement.

"Myself. But don't say my name so loud. We are in a land where every
bush and ditch and tree shares with the walls the privilege of having
ears."

"True!" said Michel, alarmed; "and besides--"

"Besides what?" asked M. de Bonneville.

"You must have come for the uprising they talk of?"

"Precisely. And now, in two words, on which side are you?"

"I?"

"Yes, you."

"My good friend," said the young baron, "I have no fixed opinions;
though I will admit in a whisper--"

"Whisper as much as you like; admit what? Make haste."

"Well, I will admit that I incline toward Henri V."

"My dear Michel," cried the count, gayly, "if you incline toward Henri
V. that is enough for me."

"Stop; I don't say that I am positively decided."

"So much the better. I shall finish your conversion; and, in order
that I may do so at once, I shall ask you to take me in for the night
at your château, and also a friend who accompanies me."

"Where is your friend?" asked Michel.

"Here he is," said Petit-Pierre, riding forward, and bowing to the
young baron, with an ease and grace that contrasted curiously with the
dress he wore. Michel looked at the little peasant for a moment, and
then approaching Bonneville, he said:--

"Henri, what is your friend's name?"

"Michel, you are lacking in all the traditions of hospitality. You
forget the 'Odyssey,' my dear fellow, and I am distressed at you. Why
do you want to know my friend's name? Isn't it enough if I tell you he
is a man of good birth?"

"Are you sure he is a man at all?"

The count and Petit-Pierre burst out laughing.

"So you insist on knowing the names of those you receive in your
house?"

"Not for my sake, my dear Henri,--not for mine, I swear to you; but in
the château de la Logerie--"

"Well?--in the château de la Logerie?"

"I am not master."

"Oh! then the Baronne Michel is mistress. I had already told my little
friend Petit-Pierre that she might be. But it is only for one night.
You could take us to your own room, and I can forage in the cellar and
larder. I know the way. My young friend could get a night's rest on
your bed, and early in the morning I'll find a better place and
relieve you of our presence."

"Impossible, Henri. Do not think that it is for myself, I fear; but it
will compromise your safety to let you even enter the château."

"How so?"

"My mother is still awake; I am sure of it. She is watching for me;
she would see us enter. Your disguise we might find some reason for;
but that of your companion, which has not escaped me, how could we
explain it to her?"

"He is right," said Petit-Pierre.

"But what else can we do?"

"And," continued Michel, "it is not only my mother that I fear, but--"

"What else?"

"Wait!" said the baron, looking uneasily about him; "let us get away
from these bushes."

"The devil!"

"I mean Courtin."

"Courtin? Who is he?"

"Don't you remember Courtin the farmer?"

"Oh! yes, to be sure,--a good sort of fellow, who was always on your
side, even against your mother."

"Yes. Well, Courtin is now mayor of the village and a violent
Philippist. If he found you wandering about, at night in disguise he
would arrest you without a warrant."

"This is serious," said Henri de Bonneville, gravely. "What does
Petit-Pierre think of it?"

"I think nothing, my dear Rameau-d'or; I leave you to think for me."

"The result is that you close your doors to us?" said Bonneville.

"That won't signify to you," said Baron Michel, whose eyes suddenly
lighted up with a personal hope,--"it won't signify, for I will get
you admitted to another house, where you will be in far greater safety
than at La Logerie."

"Not signify! but it does signify. What says my companion?"

"I say that provided some door opens, I don't care where it is. I am
ready to drop with fatigue, I am so tired."

"Then follow me," said the baron.

"Is it far?"

"An hour's walk,--about three miles."

"Has Petit-Pierre the strength for it?" asked Henri.

"Petit-Pierre will find strength for it," said the little peasant,
laughing.

"Then let us follow Baron Michel," said Bonneville. "Forward, baron!"

And the little group, which had been at a standstill for the last ten
minutes, moved away. But they had hardly gone a few hundred steps
before Bonneville laid a hand on Michel's shoulder.

"Where are you taking us?" he said.

"Don't be uneasy."

"I will follow you, provided you can promise me a good bed and a good
supper for Petit-Pierre, who, as you see, is rather delicate."

"He shall have all and more than I could give him at La Logerie,--the
best food in the larder, the best wine in the cellar, the best bed in
the castle."

On they went. At the end of some little time Michel said suddenly:--

"I'll go forward now, so that you may not have to wait."

"One moment," said Henri. "Where are we going?"

"To the château de Souday."

"The château de Souday!"

"Yes; you know it very well, with its pointed towers roofed with
slate, on the left of the road opposite to the forest of Machecoul."

"The wolves' castle?"

"Yes, the wolves' castle, if you choose to call it so."

"Is that where we are to stay?"

"Yes."

"Have you sufficiently reflected, Michel?"

"Yes, yes; I will answer for everything."

The baron waited to say no more, but set off instantly for the castle,
with that velocity of which he had given such unmistakable proof on
the night when he went to fetch the doctor to the dying Tinguy.

"Well," asked Petit-Pierre, "what shall we do?"

"There is no choice now but to follow him."

"To the wolves' castle?"

"Yes, to the wolves' castle."

"So be it; but to enliven the way," said the little peasant, "will you
be good enough to tell me, my dear Rameau-d'or, who the wolves are?"

[Illustration: Castle Souday.]

"I will tell you what I have heard of them."

"I can't expect more."

Resting his hand on the pommel of the saddle, the Comte de Bonneville
related to Petit-Pierre the sort of legend attaching, throughout the
department of the Lower Loire, to the daughters of the Marquis de
Souday. But presently, stopping short in his tale, he announced to his
companion that they had reached their destination.

Petit-Pierre, convinced that he was about to see beings analogous to
the witches in "Macbeth," was calling up all his courage to enter the
dreaded castle, when, at a turn of the road, he saw before him an open
gate, and before the gate two white figures, who seemed to be waiting
there, lighted by a torch carried behind them by a man of rugged
features and rustic clothes. Mary and Bertha--for it was
they--informed by Baron Michel, had come to meet their uninvited
guests. Petit-Pierre eyed them curiously. He saw two charming young
girls,--one fair, with blue eyes and an almost angelic face; the
other, with black hair and eyes, a proud and resolute bearing, a frank
and loyal countenance. Both were smiling.

Rameau-d'or's young companion slid from his horse, and the two
advanced together toward the ladies.

"My friend Baron Michel encouraged me to hope, mesdemoiselles, that
your father, the Marquis de Souday, would grant us hospitality," said
the Comte de Bonneville, bowing to the two girls.

"My father is absent, monsieur," replied Bertha. "He will regret
having lost this occasion to exercise a virtue which in these days we
cannot often practise."

"I do not know if Michel told you, mademoiselle, that this hospitality
may possibly involve some danger. My young companion and I are almost
proscribed persons. Persecution may be the cost of your granting us an
asylum."

"You come here in the name of a cause which is ours, monsieur. Were
you merely strangers, you would be hospitably received. Being, as you
are, royalists and proscribed, you are heartily welcome, even if death
and ruin enter this poor household with you. If my father were here he
would say the same."

"Monsieur le Baron Michel has, no doubt, told you my name; it remains
for me to tell you that of my young companion."

"We do not ask to know it, monsieur; your situation is more to us than
your names, whatever they may be. You are royalists, proscribed for a
cause to which, women as we are, we would gladly give every drop of
our blood. Enter this house; it is neither rich nor sumptuous, but at
least you will find it faithful and discreet."

With a gesture of great dignity, Bertha pointed to the gate, and
signed to the two young men to enter it.

"May Saint-Julien be ever blessed!" said Petit-Pierre in Bonneville's
ear. "Here is the château and the cottage between which you wanted me
to choose, united in this night's lodging. They please me through and
through, your wolves."

So saying, he entered the postern, with a graceful inclination of the
head to the two young girls. The Comte de Bonneville followed. Mary
and Bertha made an amicable gesture of farewell to Michel, and the
latter held out her hand to him. But Jean Oullier closed the gate so
roughly that the luckless young man had no time to grasp it.

He looked for a few moments at the towers of the castle, which stood
out blackly against the dark background of the sky. He watched the
lights appearing, one by one, in the windows; and then, at last, he
turned and went away.

When he had fairly disappeared the bushes moved, and gave passage to
an individual who had witnessed this scene, with a purpose very
different from that of the actors in it. That individual was Courtin,
who, after satisfying himself that no one was near, took the same path
his young master had taken to return to La Logerie.

XV.

AN UNSEASONABLE HOUR.

It was about two in the morning, perhaps, when the young Baron Michel
again reached the end of the avenue, which leads to the château de la
Logerie. The atmosphere was calm; the majestic silence of the night,
which was broken only by the rustling of the leaves, led him into
reverie. It is not necessary to say that the two sisters were the
objects of his thought, and that the one whose image the baron
followed with as much respect and love as Tobit followed the angel in
the Bible, was Mary.

But when he saw before him, at the farther end of the dark arcade of
trees beneath which he was walking, the windows of the château, which
were sparkling in the moonlight, all his charming visions vanished,
and his ideas took a far more practical direction. In place of the
ravishing figures of girlhood so lately beside him, he saw the stern
and threatening outline of his mother.

We know the terror with which she inspired him. He stopped short. If
in all the neighborhood there were any shelter, even a tavern, in
which he could spend the night, he would not have returned to the
house till the next day, so great were his apprehensions. It was the
first time he had ever been late in getting home, and he felt
instinctively that his mother was on the watch for him. What should he
answer to the dreadful inquiry, "Where have you been?"

Courtin could give him a night's lodging; but if he went to Courtin he
should have to tell him all, and the young baron fully understood the
danger there was in taking a man like Courtin into his confidence. He
decided, therefore, to brave the maternal wrath,--very much as the
criminal decides to brave the scaffold, simply because he cannot do
otherwise,--and continued his way home.

Nevertheless, the nearer he got to the château the more his resolution
faltered. When he reached the end of the avenue where he had to cross
the lawn, and when he saw his mother's window, the only lighted window
in the building, his heart failed him. No, his forebodings had not
misled him; his mother was on the watch. His resolution vanished
entirely, and fear, developing the resources of his imagination, put
into his head the idea of a trick which, if it did not avert his
mother's anger, would at any rate delay the explosion of it.

He turned to the right, glided along in the shadow of a buckthorn
hedge, reached the wall of the kitchen garden, over which he climbed,
and passed through the gate leading from the kitchen-garden to the
park.

Up to this moment all was well; but now came the most difficult, or
rather the most hazardous part of his enterprise. He had to find some
window left unfastened by a careless servant, by which he could enter
the house and slip back to his own apartment unperceived.

The château de la Logerie consists of a large, square building,
flanked at the corners with four towers of the same shape. The
kitchens and offices were underground, the reception-rooms on the
ground-floor, those of the baroness on the next floor, those of her
son above her. Michel examined the house on three sides, trying gently
but persistently every door and window, keeping close to the walls,
stepping with precaution, and even holding his breath. Neither doors
nor windows yielded.

There was still the front of the house to be examined. This was much
the most dangerous side, for the windows of the baroness commanded it,
and there were no shrubs to cast a protecting shadow. Here he found a
window open. True, it was that of his mother's bedroom; but Michel,
now desperate, reflected that if he had to be scolded he would rather
it were without than within the house, and he resolved on making the
attempt.

He was cautiously advancing round the corner tower when he saw a
shadow moving on the lawn. A shadow of course meant a body. Michel
stopped and gave all his attention to the new arrival. He saw it was a
man, and the man was following the path he himself would have taken
had he gone, in the first instance, straight to the house. The young
baron now made a few steps backward and crouched in the heavy shadow
projected by the tower.

The man came nearer. He was not more than fifty yards from the house
when Michel heard the harsh voice of his mother speaking from her
window. He congratulated himself on not having crossed the lawn and
taken the path the man was on.

"Is that you, Michel?" asked the baroness.

"No, madame, no," replied a voice, which the young baron recognized,
with amazement not unmingled with fear, as that of Courtin, "you do me
too much honor in taking me for Monsieur le baron."

"Good heavens!" cried the baroness, "what brings you here at this
hour?"

"Ah! you may well suppose it is something important, Madame la
baronne."

"Has any harm happened to my son?"

The tone of agony in which his mother said these words touched the
young man so deeply that he was about to rush out and reassure her
when Courtin's answer, which came immediately, paralyzed this good
intention.

"Oh! no, no, madame; I have just seen the young _gars_, if I may so
call Monsieur le baron, and he is quite well,--up to the present
moment at least."

"Present moment!" said the baroness. "Is he in any danger?"

"Well, yes," said Courtin; "he may get into trouble if he persists in
running after those female Satans,--and may hell clutch them! It is to
prevent such a misfortune that I've taken the liberty to come to you
at this time of night, feeling sure that as Monsieur Michel is so late
in getting home you would surely be sitting up for him."

"You did right, Courtin. Where is he now,--do you know?"

Courtin looked about him.

"I am surprised he has not come in. I took the county road so as to
leave him the wood-path clear, and that's a good half-mile shorter
than the road."

"But tell me at once, where has he been; where is he coming from; what
has he done; why is he roaming the country at two in the morning,
without considering my anxiety or reflecting that he is injuring my
health as well as his own?"

"Madame la baronne, I cannot answer those questions in the open air."
Then, lowering his voice, he added, "What I have to tell madame is so
important that she had better hear it in her own room. Besides, as the
young master is not yet in, he may be here at any moment," said the
farmer, looking uneasily about him, "and I wouldn't for all the world
have him suspect that I keep a watch upon him, though it is for his
own good, and to do you a service."

"Come in, then; you are right," said the baroness. "Come in, at once."

"Beg pardon, madame, but how, if you please?"

"True," said the baroness, "the door is locked."

"If madame will throw me the key--"

"It is inside the door."

"Oh, bother it!"

"I sent the servants to bed, not wishing them to know of my son's
misconduct. Wait; I will ring for my maid."

"Oh, madame, no!" exclaimed Courtin, "it is better not to let any one
into our secrets; it seems to me the matter is so important that
madame might disregard appearances. I know madame was not born to open
the door to a poor farmer like me; but once in a way it wouldn't
signify. If everybody is asleep in the château, so much the better; we
shall be safe from curiosity."

"Really, Courtin, you alarm me," said the baroness, who was in fact
prevented from opening the door by a petty pride, which had not
escaped the farmer's observation. "I will hesitate no longer."

The baroness withdrew from the window, and a moment later Michel heard
the grinding of the key and the bolts of the front door. He listened
at first in an agony of apprehension; then he became aware that the
door, which opened with difficulty, had not been relocked or
bolted,--no doubt because his mother and Courtin were so pre-occupied
in mind. He waited a few seconds till he was sure they had reached the
upper floor. Then, gliding along the wall, he mounted the portico,
pushed open the door, which turned noiselessly on its hinges, and
entered the vestibule.

His original intention had been, of course, to regain his room and
await events, while pretending to be asleep. In that case the exact
hour of his return home would not be known, and he might still have a
chance to get out of the scrape by a fib. But matters were much
changed since he formed that intention. Courtin had followed him;
Courtin had seen him. Courtin must know that the Comte de Bonneville
and his companion had taken refuge in the château de Souday. For a
moment Michel forgot himself to think of his friend, whom the farmer,
with his violent political opinions, might greatly injure.

Instead of going up to his own floor, he slipped, like a wolf, along
his mother's corridor. Just as he reached her door he heard her say:--

"So you really think, Courtin, that my son has been enticed by one of
those miserable women?"

"Yes, madame, I am sure of it; and they've got him so fast that I am
afraid you'll have a deal of trouble to get him away from them."

"Girls without a penny!"

"As for that, they come of the oldest blood in the country, madame,"
said Courtin, wishing to sound his way; "and for nobles like you
that's something, at any rate."

"Faugh!" exclaimed the baroness; "bastards!"

"But pretty; one is like an angel, the other like a demon."

"Michel may amuse himself with them, as so many others, they say, have
done; that's possible; but you can't suppose that he ever dreamed of
marrying one of them? Nonsense! he knows me too well to think that I
would ever consent to such a marriage."

"Barring the respect I owe to him, Madame la baronne, my opinion is
that Monsieur Michel has never reflected at all about it, and doesn't
yet know what he feels for the wolves; but one thing I'm sure of, and
that is he is getting himself into another kind of trouble, which may
compromise him seriously."

"What do you mean, Courtin?"

"Well, confound it!" exclaimed the farmer, seeming to hesitate, "do
you know, madame, that it would be very painful to me, who love and
respect you, if my duty compelled me to arrest my young master?"

Michel trembled where he stood; and yet it was the baroness to whom
the shock was most severe.

"Arrest Michel!" she exclaimed, drawing herself up; "I think you
forget yourself, Courtin."

"No, madame, I do not."

"But--"

"I am your farmer, it is true," continued Courtin, making the baroness
a sign with his hand to control herself. "I am bound to give you an
exact account of the harvests, on which you have half the profits, and
to pay you promptly on the day and hour what is due,--which I do to
the best of my ability, in spite of the hard times: but before being
your farmer I am a citizen, and I am, moreover, mayor, and in those
capacities I have duties, Madame la baronne, which I must fulfil,
whether my poor heart suffers or not."

"What nonsense are you talking to me, Maître Courtin? Pray, what has
my son to do with your duties as a citizen and your station as mayor?"

"He has this to do with it, Madame la baronne: your son has intimate
acquaintance with the enemies of the State."

"I know very well," said the baroness, "that Monsieur le Marquis de
Souday holds exaggerated opinions; but any love-affairs that Michel
may have with one of his daughters cannot, it seems to me, be turned
into a political misdemeanor."

"That love-affair is carrying Monsieur Michel much farther than you
think for, Madame la baronne, and I tell you so now. I dare say he has
so far only poked the end of his nose into the troubled waters about
him; but that's enough for a beginning."

"Come, enough of such metaphors! Explain what you mean, Courtin."

"Well, Madame la baronne, here's the truth. This evening, after being
present at the death-bed of that old Chouan Tinguy, and running the
risk of bringing a malignant fever home with him, and after
accompanying one of the wolves to the château de Souday, Monsieur le
baron served as guide to two peasants who were no more peasants than
I'm a gentleman; and he took them to the château de Souday."

"Who told you so, Courtin?"

"My own two eyes, Madame la baronne; they are good, and I trust them."

"Did you get an idea who those peasants were?"

"The two false peasants?"

"Yes, of course."

"One, I'd take my oath of it, was the Comte de Bonneville,--a violent
Chouan, he! No one can fool me about him; he has been long in the
country, and I know him. As for the other--"

Courtin paused.

"Go on," said the baroness, impatiently.

"As for the other, if I'm not mistaken, that's a better discovery
still--"

"But who is it? Come, Courtin, tell me at once."

"No, Madame la baronne. I shall tell the name--I shall probably be
obliged to do so--to the authorities."

"The authorities! Do you mean to tell me you are going to denounce my
son?" cried the baroness, amazed and stupefied at the tone her farmer,
hitherto so humble, was assuming.

"Assuredly I do, Madame la baronne," said Courtin, composedly.

"Nonsense! you would not think of it."

"I do think it, Madame la baronne, and I should be now on the road to
Montaigu or even to Nantes, if I had not wished to warn you, so that
you may put Monsieur Michel out of harm's way."

"But, supposing that Michel is concerned in this affair," said the
baroness, vehemently; "you will compromise me with all my neighbors,
and--who knows?--you may draw down horrible reprisals on La Logerie."

"Then we must defend the château, that's all, Madame la baronne."

"Courtin!"

"I saw the great war, Madame la baronne. I was a little fellow then,
but I remember it, and on my word of honor I don't want to see the
like again. I don't want to see my twenty acres of land a battlefield
for both parties, my harvests eaten by one or burned by the other;
still less do I want to see the Whites lay hands on the National
domain, which they will do if they get the chance. Out of my twenty
acres, five belonged to _émigrés_. I bought 'em and paid for 'em;
that's one quarter of all I own. Besides, here's another thing: the
government relies upon me, and I wish to justify the confidence of the
government."

"But, Courtin," said the baroness, almost ready to come down to
entreaty, "matters can't be as serious as you imagine, I am sure."

"Beg pardon, Madame la baronne, they are very serious indeed. I am
only a peasant, but that doesn't prevent me from knowing as much as
others know, being blessed with a good ear and a gift for listening.
The Retz district is all but at the boiling-point; another fagot and
the pot will boil over."

"Courtin, you must be mistaken."

"No, Madame la baronne, I am not mistaken. I know what I know. God
bless me! the nobles have met three times,--once at the Marquis de
Souday's, once at the house of the man they call Louis Renaud, and
once at the Comte de Saint-Amand's. All those meetings smelt of
powder, Madame la baronne. _À propos_ of powder, there's two hundred
weight of it and sacks of cartridges in the Vicar of Montbert's house.
Moreover,--and this is the most serious thing of all,--they are
expecting Madame la Duchesse de Berry, and from something I have just
seen, it is my opinion they won't have long to wait for her."

"Why so?"

"I think she is here already."

"Good God! where?"

"Well, at the château de Souday, where Monsieur Michel took her this
evening."

"Michel! oh, the unfortunate boy! But you won't say a word about it,
will you, Courtin? Besides, the government must have made its plans.
If the duchess attempts to return to La Vendée, she will be arrested
before she can get here."

"Nevertheless, she is here," persisted Courtin.

"All the more reason why you should hold your tongue."

"I like that! And what becomes of the profits and the glory of such a
prize, not counting that before the capture is made by somebody else
the whole country will be in blood and arms? No. Madame la baronne;
no, I cannot hold my tongue."

"Then what is to be done? Good God! what can I do?"

"I'll tell you, Madame la baronne; listen to me--"

"Go on."

"Well, as I want to remain your zealous and faithful servant, all the
while being a good citizen,--and because I hope that in gratitude for
what I am doing for you, you will let me keep my farm on terms that I
am able to pay,--I will agree to say nothing about Monsieur Michel.
But you must try to keep him out of this wasps' nest in future. He is
in it now, that's true; but there's still time to get him out."

"You need not trouble yourself about that, Courtin."

"But if I might say a word, Madame la baronne--"

"Well, what?"

"I don't quite dare to give advice to Madame la baronne; it is not my
place, but--"

"Go on, Courtin; go on."

"Well, in order to get Monsieur Michel completely out of this hornets'
nest, I think you'll have--by some means or other, prayers or
threats--to make him leave la Logerie and go to Paris."

"Yes, you are right, Courtin."

"Only, I am afraid he won't consent."

"If I decide it, Courtin, he must consent."

"He will be twenty-one in eleven months; he is very nearly his own
master."

"I tell you he shall go, Courtin. What are you listening for?"

Courtin had turned his head to the door, as if he heard something.

"I thought some one was in the corridor," he said.

"Look and see."

Courtin took a light and rushed into the passage.

"There was no one," he said, "though I certainly thought I heard a
step."

"Where do you suppose he can be, the wretched boy, at this time of
night?" said the baroness.

"Perhaps he has gone to my house," said Courtin. "He has confidence in
me, and it wouldn't be the first time he has come to tell me of his
little troubles."

"Possibly. You had better go home now; and remember your promise."

"And do you remember yours, Madame la baronne. If he comes in lock him
up. Don't let him communicate with the wolves, for if he sees them--"

"What then?"

"I shouldn't be surprised to hear some day that he was firing behind
the gorse."

"God forbid! Oh! he'll kill me with anxiety. What a luckless idea it
was of my husband ever to come to this cursed place!"

"Luckless, indeed, madame,--especially for him."

The baroness bowed her head sadly under the recollections thus evoked.
Courtin now left her, looking about him carefully to see that no one
was stirring in the château de la Logerie.

XVI.

COURTIN'S DIPLOMACY.

Courtin had hardly taken a hundred steps on the
path that led to his farmhouse before he heard a rustling in the
bushes near which he passed.

"Who's there?" he said, standing in the middle of the path, and
putting himself on guard with the heavy stick he carried.

"Friend," replied a youthful voice.

And the owner of the voice came through the bushes.

"Why, it is Monsieur le baron!" cried the farmer.

"I, myself, Courtin," replied Michel.

"Where are you going at this time of night? Good God! if Madame la
baronne knew you were roaming about in the darkness, what do you
suppose she would say?" said the farmer, pretending surprise.

"That's just it, Courtin."

"Hang it! I suppose Monsieur le baron has his reasons," said the
farmer, in his jeering tone.

"Yes; and you shall hear them as soon as we get to your house."

"My house! Are you going to my house?" said Courtin, surprised.

"You don't refuse to take me in, do you?" asked Michel.

"Good heavens, no! Refuse to take you into a house which, after all,
is yours?"

"Then don't let us lose time, it is so late. You walk first, I'll
follow."

Courtin, rather uneasy at the imperative tone of his young master,
obeyed. A few steps farther on he climbed a bank, crossed an orchard,
and reached the door of his farmhouse. As soon as he entered the lower
room, which served him as kitchen and living-room, he drew a few
scattered brands together on the hearth and blew up a blaze; then he
lighted a candle of yellow wax and stuck it on the chimney-piece. By
the light of this candle he saw what he could not see by the light of
the moon,--namely, that Michel was as pale as death.

"My God! what's the matter with you, Monsieur le baron?" he exclaimed.

"Courtin," said the young man, frowning, "I heard every word of your
conversation with my mother."

"Confound it! were you listening?" said the farmer, a good deal
surprised. But, recovering instantly, he added, "Well, what of it?"

"You want your lease renewed next year?"

"I, Monsieur le baron?"

"You, Courtin; and you want it much more than you choose to own."

"Of course I shouldn't be sorry to have it renewed, Monsieur le baron;
but if there's any objection it wouldn't be the death of me."

"Courtin, I am the person who will renew your lease, because I shall
be of age by that time."

"Yes, that's so, Monsieur le baron."

"But you will understand," continued the young man, to whom the desire
of saving the Comte de Bonneville and staying near Mary gave a
firmness and resolution quite foreign to his character, "you
understand, don't you, that if you do as you said to-night,--that is,
if you denounce my friends,--I shall most certainly not renew the
lease of an informer?"

"Oh! oh!" exclaimed Courtin.

"That is certain. Once out of this farm you may say good-bye to it,
Courtin; you shall never return to it."

"But my duty to the government and Madame la baronne?"

"All that is nothing to me. I am Baron Michel de la Logerie; the
estate and château de la Logerie belong to me; my mother resigns them
when I come of age; I shall be of age in eleven months, and your lease
falls in eight weeks later."

"But suppose I renounce my intention, Monsieur le baron?"

"If you renounce your intention, your lease shall be renewed."

"On the same conditions as before?"

"On the same conditions as before."

"Oh, Monsieur le baron, if I were not afraid of compromising you,"
said Courtin, fetching pen, ink, and paper from the drawer of a desk.

"What does all this mean?" demanded Michel.

"Oh, hang it! if Monsieur le baron would only have the kindness to
write down what he has just said,--who knows which of us will die
first? For my part, I am ready to swear,--here's a crucifix,--well, I
swear by Christ--"

"I don't want your oaths, Courtin, for I shall go from here to Souday
and warn Jean Oullier to be on his guard, and Bonneville to get
another resting-place."

"So much the more reason," said Courtin, offering a pen to his young
master.

Michel took the pen and wrote as follows on the paper which the farmer
laid before him:--

"I, the undersigned, Auguste-François Michel, Baron de la Logerie,
agree to renew the lease of farmer Courtin on the same conditions as
the present lease."

Then, as he was about to date it, Courtin stopped him.

"Don't put the date, if you please, my young master," he said. "We
will date it the day after you come of age."

"So be it," said Michel.

He then merely signed it, and left, between the pledge and the
signature, a line to receive the future date.

"If Monsieur le baron would like to be more comfortable for the night
than on that stool," said Courtin, "I will take the liberty to mention
that there is, at his service upstairs, a bed that is not so bad."

"No," replied Michel; "did you not hear me say I was going to Souday?"

"What for? Monsieur le baron has my promise, I pledge him my word to
say nothing. He has time enough."

"What you saw, Courtin, another may have seen. You may keep silence
because you have promised it; but the other, who did not promise, will
speak. Good-bye to you."

"Monsieur le baron will do as he likes," said Courtin; "but he makes a
mistake, yes, a great mistake, in going back into that mouse-trap."

"Pooh! I thank you for your advice; but I am not sorry to let you know
I am of an age now to do as I choose."

Rising as he said the words, with a firmness of which the farmer had
supposed him incapable, he went to the door and left the house.
Courtin followed him with his eyes till the door was closed; after
which, snatching up the written promise, he read it over, folded it
carefully in four, and put it away in his pocket-book. Then, fancying
he heard voices at a little distance, he went to the window and,
drawing back the curtain, saw the young baron face to face with his
mother.

"Ha, ha, my young cockerel!" he said; "you crowed pretty loud with me,
but there's an old hen who'll make you lower your comb."

The baroness, finding that her son did not return, thought that
Courtin might be right when he suggested that Michel was possibly at
the farmhouse. She hesitated a moment, partly from pride, partly from
fear of going out alone at night; but, finally, her maternal
uneasiness got the better of her reluctance, and wrapping herself in a
large shawl, she set out for the farmhouse. As she approached the door
her son came out of it. Then, relieved of her fears for his safety,
and seeing him sound and well, her imperious nature reasserted itself.

Michel, for his part, on catching sight of his mother, made a step
backward in terror.

"Follow me, sir," said the baroness. "It is not too early, I think, to
return home."

The poor lad never once thought of arguing or resisting; he followed
his mother passively and obediently as a child. Not a word was
exchanged between mother and son the whole way. For that matter,
Michel much preferred this silence to a discussion in which his filial
obedience, or rather, let us say, his weak nature, would have had the
worst of it.

When they reached the château day was breaking. The baroness, still
silent, conducted the young man to his room. There he found a table
prepared with food.

"You must be hungry and very tired," said the baroness. "There you
have food, and here you can rest," she added, waving her hand to the
table and the bed, after which she retired, closing the door after
her.

The young man trembled as he heard the key turned twice in the lock.
He was a prisoner! He fell helplessly into an arm-chair. Events were
rushing on like an avalanche, and a more vigorous organization than
that of Baron Michel might have given way under them. As it was, he
had only a certain small amount of energy, and that was all expended
in his interview with Courtin.

Perhaps he had presumed too much upon his strength when he told
Courtin he should go to the château de Souday; at any rate, he was, as
his mother said, tired out and very hungry. At Michel's age Nature is
a mother, too, who will have her rights. Besides, a certain ease of
mind had stolen over him. His mother's words, as she pointed to the
table and the bed, seemed to imply that she did not mean to return
until he had eaten and slept. It gave him some hours of calm before
the storm of explanation.

Michel ate hastily, and then, after trying the door to make sure that
he was really a prisoner, he went to bed and to sleep.

At ten o'clock he awoke. The beams of a splendid May sun were coming
joyously through his windows. He opened the windows. The birds were
singing in the branches, which were just then covered with their young
and tender leafage. The roses were budding; the first butterflies were
circling in the air. On such a day it seemed as though misfortune were
imprisoned and could not come to any one. The young man found a sort
of strength in this revival of Nature, and awaited the dreaded
interview with his mother with more composure.

But the hours went by. Mid-day struck, and still the baroness did not
appear. Michel then noticed, with a certain uneasiness, that the table
had been amply supplied, not only for his supper of the night before,
but also for the breakfast and dinner of the following day. He began
to fear that his captivity might last much longer than he expected.
This fear grew deeper as two and then three o'clock struck. He
listened for every sound, and after a time he fancied he heard shots
in the direction of Montaigu. These sounds had all the regularity of
platoon firing, and yet it was impossible to say whether they came
actually from a fusillade. Montaigu was six miles from La Logerie, and
a distant thunderstorm might produce somewhat the same sounds.

But no! the sky was cloudless; there was no storm. The sounds lasted
over an hour; then all was silent. The baron's uneasiness now became
so great that he forgot to eat the food prepared for him. He resolved
on one thing,--namely, as soon as night came and the people of the
house were in bed he would cut out the lock of the door with his knife
and leave the château, not by the front entrance, but by some window
on the lower floor.

This possibility of flight restored the prisoner's appetite. He dined
like a man who thinks he has a toilsome night before him, and who
gathers strength to make head against it.

He finished his dinner about seven in the evening. It would be dusk in
another hour. He flung himself on his bed and waited. He would fain
have slept, for sleep would have shortened the time of waiting, but
his mind was too uneasy. He closed his eyes, to be sure, but his ears,
constantly alert, heard every sound. One thing surprised him much; he
had seen nothing of his mother. She would certainly, he thought,
expect him to do what he could to escape as soon as it was dark. No
doubt she was planning something; but what could it be?

Suddenly Michel thought he heard the tinkling of
bells which are usually fastened to the collars of post-horses. He ran
to the window. He seemed to see, coming along the road from Montaigu,
an indistinct group moving rapidly in the gathering darkness toward
the château de la Logerie. The sound of horses' hoofs now mingled with
the tinkling of the bells. Presently the postilion cracked his whip,
probably to announce his coming. No doubt remained; it certainly was a
postilion with post-horses on his way to the château.

Instinctively the young man looked toward the stables, and there he
saw the servants dragging his mother's travelling-carriage from the
coach-house. A flash of light came into his mind. These post-horses
from Montaigu, the postilion cracking his whip, the travelling-carriage
making ready for use,--no doubt, no doubt at all remained; his mother
meant to leave La Logerie and take him with her. That was why she had
locked him up and kept him a prisoner. She meant to come for him at the
last moment, force him to get into the carriage with her, and away,
away from everything he would be forced to go. She knew her ascendency
over her son sufficiently well to be certain he would not venture to
resist her.

The consciousness that his mother had this conviction exasperated the
young man all the more because he knew it was a true one. It was
evident to his own mind that if the baroness once came face to face
with him he would not dare to oppose her.

But to leave Mary, renounce that life of emotion to which the sisters
had introduced him, to take no part in the drama which the Comte de
Bonneville and his mysterious companion had come into La Vendée to
play, seemed to him impossible and dishonoring. What would those young
girls think of him?

Michel resolved to run all risks rather than endure the humiliation of
their contempt.

He went to the window and measured with his eye the height from the
ground; it was thirty feet. The young baron stood in thought for a
moment. Evidently some great struggle was going on within him. At last
it was decided. He went to his desk and took out a large sum of money
in gold, with which he filled his pockets. Just then he thought he
heard steps in the corridor. He hastily closed his desk and threw
himself on his bed, expectant. An observer would have seen by the
unusual firmness of the muscles of his face that his resolution was
taken.

What was that resolution? In all probability we shall sooner or later
discover what it was.

XVII.

THE TAVERN OF AUBIN COURTE-JOIE

It was plain,--even to the authorities, who are usually the last to be
informed as to the state of public opinion in the countries they are
called upon to govern,--it was plain, we say, that an uprising was
contemplated in Brittany and in La Vendée.

We have heard Courtin tell Madame de la Logerie of the meetings of the
legitimist leaders. Those meetings were a secret to no one. The names
of the new Bonchamps and Elbées, who were to put themselves at the head
of this last Vendéan struggle, were well-known and noted; the
organizations of the former period into "parishes," "captaincies," and
"divisions," were renewed; the priests refused to chant the _Domine
salvum fac regem Philippum_, commending to the prayers of their people
Henri V., king of France, and Marie-Caroline, regent. In short, in all
the departments bordering on the Loire, particularly those of the Lower
Loire and of the Maine-et-Loire, the air was filled with that smell of
powder which precedes, as a general thing, all great political
convulsions.

In spite of this wide-spread fermentation,--perhaps in consequence of
it,--the fair at Montaigu promised to be very brilliant. Although it
was usually of small importance, the influx of peasants on this
occasion was considerable. The men from the high lands of Mauges and
Retz rubbed shoulders with those from the Bocage and the plain; and
the warlike inclination of all these country-folk was manifested by
the prevalence of broad-brimmed hats and long-haired heads, and the
absence of caps. In fact, the women, who were usually the majority in
these commercial assemblies, did not come, on this occasion, to the
Montaigu fair.

Moreover,--and this alone would have sufficed to show the incipient
state of things to the least observing person,--though customers were
plentiful at the fair of Montaigu, horses, cows, sheep, butter, and
corn, which constituted the ordinary traffic, were conspicuously
absent. The peasants, whether they came from Beaupréau, Mortagne,
Bressuire, Saint-Fulgent, or Machecoul, carried in place of their
usual marketable produce nothing but stout cudgels of dogwood tipped
with iron, and by the way they grasped them it was plain enough that
they meant to do business of that kind.

The market-place and the main (and only) street in Montaigu, which
were used as the fairground, had a serious, almost threatening, and
certainly solemn aspect, which is not usual in such assemblages. A few
jugglers, a few vendors of quack medicines, a few teeth-pullers tapped
their boxes, blew their bugles, clanged their gongs, and vaunted their
trades facetiously to no purpose; frowns continued on the anxious
faces that passed them by without deigning to listen to their music or
their chatter.

The people of La Vendée, like their neighbors of the North, the
Bretons, talk but little. On this occasion they talked less than ever.
Most of them stood with their backs against the houses or the garden
walls or the wooden bars that inclosed the market-place, and there
they stood, motionless, their legs crossed, their heads under their
broad hats inclining forward, and their hands leaning on their sticks,
like so many statues. Some were gathered in little groups, and these
groups, which seemed to be awaiting something, were, strange to say,
as silent as the solitary individuals.

The crowds were great in the drinking-shops. Cider, brandy, and coffee
were dispensed there in vast quantities; but the constitution of the
Vendéan peasant is so robust that the enormous quantities of liquor
absorbed had no visible influence on the faces and conduct of any of
them. Their color might be a little higher, their eyes more brilliant,
but the men were masters of themselves, and all the more so because
they distrusted those who kept the wineshops, and the village folk
whom they met there. In the towns and villages along the great
high-roads of La Vendée and Brittany the minds of the inhabitants
were, as a general thing, awakened to ideas of progress and liberty;
but these sentiments, which cooled at a little distance, disappeared
altogether when the interior country districts were reached.

Consequently, all the inhabitants of the chief centres of population,
unless they had given unequivocal proofs of devotion to the royal
cause, were classed as "patriots" by the peasantry; and patriots were
to the peasants enemies, to whom they attributed all the evils
resulting from the great insurrection, hating them with that deep,
undying hatred which characterizes civil and religious warfare.

In coming to the fair at Montaigu--a centre of population, and
occupied at this time by a company of some hundred or so of Mobile
guards--the inhabitants of the country districts had penetrated to the
very centre of their enemies. They understood this thoroughly, and
that is why they maintained under a pacific demeanor the reserve and
vigilance of soldiers under arms.

Only one of the numerous drinking-shops of Montaigu was kept by a man
on whom the Vendéans could rely, and before whom, consequently, they
discarded all constraint. His tavern was in the centre of the
town, on the fairground itself, at the corner of the market-place and
a side alley leading, not to another street nor to the fields, but to
the river Maine, which skirts the town to the southeast.

The tavern had no sign. A branch of dry holly, stuck horizontally into
a crack of the wall, and a few apples, seen through window-panes so
covered with dust that no curtain was needed, informed all strangers
of the nature of the establishment. As for its regular customers, they
needed no indications.

The proprietor of this tavern was named Aubin Courte-Joie. Aubin was his
family name; Courte-Joie was a nickname, which he owed to the jeering
propensities of his friends. He came by it in this way. The part,
insignificant as it is, which Aubin Courte-Joie plays in this history
obliges us to say a word on his antecedents.

At twenty years of age Aubin was so frail, debilitated, and sickly,
that even the conscription, which did not look very closely into such
matters, rejected him as unfit for the favors which his Imperial and
Royal Majesty bestowed upon his conscripts. But in 1814 this same
conscription, having then aged by two years, was less fastidious, and
came to the conclusion that what it had so far considered an abortion
was at any rate a numerical figure, somewhere between a one and a
nought, and could, if only on paper, contribute to the terrifying of
the kings of Europe. Consequently, the conscription laid hands on
Aubin.

But Aubin, whom the original disdain manifested by the authorities
toward his person had alienated from all desire for military glory,
resolved to desert the government, and taking to flight he connected
himself with one of those bands of refractories (as recalcitrant
conscripts were then called) who roamed the interior of the country.
The less plentiful recruits became, the more pitiless grew the agents
of imperial authority.

Aubin, whom Nature had not endowed with excessive conceit, would never
have thought himself so necessary to the government if he had not seen
with his own eyes the trouble that the government took to hunt for him
through the forests of Brittany and the bogs of La Vendée. The
_gendarmes_ were active in their pursuit of refractories.

In one of the encounters that resulted from this pursuit, Aubin had
used his gun with a courage and tenacity which proved that the
conscription of 1814 was not altogether wrong in wishing to lay hands
on him as one of its elect,--in one of these encounters, we were about
to say, Aubin was hit by a ball and left for dead in the roadway.

On that day a bourgeoise of Ancenis took the road by the river bank,
which leads from Ancenis to Nantes. She was in her carriole, and it
might be about eight or nine o'clock at night; at any rate, it was
dusk. When she came to the body the horse shuddered in the shafts and
refused to go on. She whipped him, he reared. On further whipping, the
animal tried to turn short round and go back to Ancenis. His mistress,
who had never known him to behave in that way before, got out of her
carriole. All was then explained. Aubin's body lay across the road.

Such encounters were not infrequent in those days. The bourgeoise was
only slightly alarmed. She fastened her horse to a tree, and began to
drag Aubin's body into the ditch, to make room for her vehicle and
others that might pass that way. But she had no sooner touched the
body than she found it warm. The motion she gave to it, perhaps the
pain of the motion, brought Aubin to his senses; he gave a sigh and
moved his arms.

The end of it was that, instead of putting him into the ditch, the
bourgeoise put him into her carriole; and instead of continuing her
way to Nantes she returned to Ancenis. The good dame was pious and a
royalist. The cause for which Aubin was wounded, the scapulary she
found on his breast, interested her deeply. She sent for a surgeon.
The luckless Aubin had both legs fractured by one shot; it was
necessary to amputate them. The worthy woman nursed him and took care
of him with all the devotion of a sister of charity. Her good deed, as
often happens, attached her to the object of it, and when Aubin was
once more well in health it was with the utmost astonishment that he
received an offer of her heart and hand. Needless to say that Aubin
accepted.

Thenceforth Aubin became, to the stupefaction of all the country round
one of the small proprietors of the canton. But, alas! his joy was of
short duration. His wife died within a year, She had taken the
precaution to make a will, leaving him all her property; but her
natural heirs attacked it for some error of form, and the court at
Nantes having decided in their favor, the poor ex-recruit was no
better off than before his luck happened to him. It was in reference
to the short duration of his opulence that the inhabitants of
Montaigu, who were not, as will be imagined, without envy at his rise
or rejoicing at his fall, bestowed upon him the significant addition
of Courte-Joie (Short-Joy) to his proper name.

Now, the heirs who had managed to set aside the will belonged to the
liberal party. Aubin could not, therefore, do less than vent upon
that party in general the anger that the loss of his property excited
in him. He did so, and he did it conscientiously. Soured by his
infirmities, embittered by what seemed to him a horrible injustice,
Aubin Courte-Joie felt to all those whom he blamed for his
fortunes--judges, patriots, and adversaries--a savage hatred. Public
events had encouraged this hatred, and it was now awaiting a favorable
moment to convert itself into deeds which the sullen and vindictive
nature of the man would undoubtedly render terrible.

With his twofold infirmity it was impossible for Aubin to go back to
his old life and become a farmer and tiller of the ground like his
father and grandfather before him. He was compelled, therefore, much
against his will, to live in a town. Gathering up the fragments of his
lost opulence he came to live in the midst of those he hated most, at
Montaigu itself, where he kept the tavern in which we find him
eighteen years after the events we have just recorded.

In 1832 there was not in all La Vendée a more enthusiastic adherent to
royalist opinions than Aubin Courte-Joie. In serving that cause was he
not fulfilling a personal vengeance? Aubin Courte-Joie was, in spite
of his two wooden legs, the most active and intelligent agent in the
uprising which was now being organized. Standing sentinel in the midst
of the enemy's camp, he kept the Vendéan leaders informed of all the
government preparations for defence, not only in the canton of
Montaigu, but also throughout the adjoining districts.

The tramps who roamed the country--those customers of a day, whom
other tavern-keepers considered of no profit and paid no heed to--were
in his hands marvellous auxiliaries, whom he kept employed in a
circuit of thirty miles. He used them as spies, and also as messengers
to and from the inhabitants of the country districts. His tavern was
the rendezvous of all those who were distinctively called Chouans. It
was the only one, as we have said, where they were not obliged to
repress their royalist sentiments.

On the day of the fair at Montaigu Aubin Courte-Joie's drinking-shop
did not at first sight seem so full of customers as might have been
expected from the great influx of country people. In the first of the
two rooms, a dark and gloomy apartment, furnished with an unpolished
wooden counter and a few benches and stools, not more than a dozen
peasants were assembled. By the cleanliness, we might say the nicety
of their clothes, it was plain that these peasants belonged to the
upper class of farmers.

This first room was separated from the second by a glass partition,
behind which was a cotton curtain with large red and white squares.
The second room served as kitchen, dining-room, bedroom, and office,
becoming also, on great occasions an annex to the common hall; it was
where Aubin Courte-Joie received his special friends.

The furniture of this room showed its quintuple service. At the
farther end was a very low bed, with a tester and curtains of green
serge; this was evidently the couch of the legless proprietor. It was
flanked by two huge hogsheads, from which brandy and cider were drawn
on demand of customers. To right, on entering, was the fireplace, with
a wide, high chimney-piece like those of cottages. In the middle of
the room was an oak table with wooden benches on each side of it.
Opposite to the fireplace stood a dresser with crockery and tin
utensils. A crucifix surmounted by a branch of consecrated holly, a
few wax figurines of a devotional character coarsely colored,
constituted the decoration of the apartment.

On this occasion Aubin Courte-Joie had admitted to this sanctuary a
number of his numerous friends. In the outer room there were, as we
have said, not more than a dozen; but at least a score were in the
second. Most of these were sitting round the table drinking and
talking with great animation. Three or four were emptying great bags
piled up in one corner of the room and containing large, round
sea-biscuits; these they counted and put in baskets, giving the baskets
to tramps or women who stood by an outer door in the corner of the room
behind the cider cask. This door opened upon a little courtyard, which
itself opened into the alley-way leading to the river, which we have
already mentioned.

Aubin Courte-Joie was seated in a sort of arm-chair under the
mantel-shelf of the chimney. Beside him was a man wearing a goatskin
garment and a black woollen cap, in whom we may recognize our old
friend Jean Oullier, with his dog lying at his feet between his legs.
Behind them Courte-Joie's niece, a young and handsome peasant girl,
whom the tavern-keeper had taken to do the serving of his business, was
stirring the fire and watching some dozen brown cups in which was
gently simmering in the heat from the hearth what the peasants call "a
roast of cider."

Aubin Courte-Joie was talking eagerly in a low voice to Jean Oullier,
when a slight whistle, like the frightened cry of a partridge, came
from the outer room.

"Who came in?" said Courte-Joie, looking through a peephole he had
made in the curtain. "The man from La Logerie. Attention!"

Even before this order was given to those whom it concerned, all was
still and orderly in Courte-Joie's sanctum. The outer door was gently
closed; the women and the tramps disappeared; the men who were
counting the biscuits had closed and turned over their sacks, and were
sitting on them, and smoking their pipes in an easy attitude. As for
the men drinking at the table, three or four had suddenly gone to
sleep as if by enchantment. Jean Oullier turned round toward the
hearth, thus concealing his face from the first glance of any one
entering the apartment.

XVIII.

THE MAN FROM LA LOGERIE.

Courtin,--for it was he whom Courte-Joie designated as the man from La
Logerie,--Courtin had entered the outer room. Except for the little
cry of warning, so well imitated that it was really like the cry of a
frightened partridge, no one appeared to take any notice of his
presence. The men who were drinking continued their talk, although,
serious as their manner was when Courtin entered, it now became
suddenly very gay and noisy.

The farmer looked about him, but evidently did not find in the first
room the person he wanted, for he resolutely opened the door of the
glass partition and showed his sneaking face on the threshold of the
inner room. There again, no one seemed to notice him. Mariette alone,
Aubin Courte-Joie's niece, who was waiting on the customers, withdrew
her attention from the cider cups, and looking at Courtin said, as she
would have done to any of her uncle's guests:--

"What shall I bring you, Monsieur Courtin?"

"Coffee," replied Courtin, inspecting the faces that were round the
table and in the corners of the room.

"Very good; sit down," said Mariette. "I'll bring it to your seat
presently."

"That's not worth while," replied Courtin, good-humoredly; "pour it out
now. I'll drink it here in the chimney-corner with the friends."

No one seemed to object to this qualification; but neither did any one
stir to make room for him. Courtin was therefore obliged to make
further advances.

"Are you well, _gars_ Aubin?" he asked, addressing the tavern-keeper.

"As you see," replied the latter, without turning his head.

It was obvious to Courtin that he was not received with much good-will;
but he was not a man to disconcert himself for a trifle like that.

"Here, Mariette," said he, "give me a stool, that I may sit down near
your uncle."

"There are no stools left, Maître Courtin," replied the girl. "I
should think your eyes were good enough to see that."

"Well, then, your uncle will give me his," continued Courtin, with
audacious familiarity, though at heart he felt little encouraged by
the behavior of the landlord and his customers.

"If you will have it," grumbled Aubin Courte-Joie, "you must, being as
how I am master of the house, and it shall never be said that any man
was refused a seat at the Holly Branch when he wanted to sit down."

"Then give me your stool, as you say, smooth-tongue, for there's the
very man I'm after, right next to you."

"Who's that?" said Aubin, rising; and instantly a dozen other stools
were offered.

"Jean Oullier," replied Courtin; "and it's my belief that here he is."

Hearing his name, Jean Oullier rose and said, in a tone that was
almost menacing:--

"What do you want with me?"

"Well, well! you needn't eat me up because I want to see you," replied
the mayor of la Logerie. "What I have to say is of more importance to
you than it is to me."

"Maître Courtin," said Jean Oullier, in a grave tone, "whatever you
may choose to pretend, we are not friends; and what's more, you know
it so well that you have not come here with any good intentions."

"Well, you are mistaken, _gars_ Oullier."

"Maître Courtin," continued Jean Oullier, paying no attention to the
signs which Aubin Courte-Joie made, exhorting him to prudence, "Maître
Courtin, ever since we have known each other you have been a Blue, and
you bought bad property."

"Bad property!" exclaimed Courtin, with his jeering smile.

"Oh! I know what I mean, and so do you. I mean
ill-gotten property. You've been hand and glove with the curs of the
towns; you have persecuted the peasantry and the villagers,--those who
have kept their faith in God and the king. What is there in common
between you, who have done all that, and me, who have done just the
reverse?"

"True," replied Courtin, "true, _gars_ Oullier, I have not navigated
in your waters; but, for all that, I say that neighbors ought not to
wish the death of each other. I have come in search of you to do you a
service; I'll swear to that."

"I don't want your services, Maître Courtin," replied Jean Oullier.

"Why not?" persisted the farmer.

"Because I am certain they hide some treachery."

"So you refuse to listen to me?"

"I refuse," replied the huntsman, roughly.

"You are wrong," said Aubin Courte-Joie, in a low voice; for he
thought the frank, outspoken rudeness of his friend a mistaken
man[oe]uvre.

"Very good," said Courtin; "then remember this. If harm comes to the
inhabitants of the château de Souday, you have nobody to thank but
yourself, _gars_ Oullier."

There was evidently some special meaning in Courtin's manner of saying
the word "inhabitants;" "inhabitants" of course included guests. Jean
Oullier could not mistake this meaning, and in spite of his habitual
self-command he turned pale. He regretted he had been so decided, but
it was dangerous now to retrace his steps. If Courtin had suspicions,
such a retreat would confirm them. He therefore did his best to master
his emotion, and sat down again, turning his back on Courtin with an
indifferent air; in fact, his manner was so careless that Courtin, sly
dog as he was, was taken in by it. He did not leave the tavern as
hastily as might have been expected after delivering his warning
threat; on the contrary, he searched his pockets a long time to find
enough change to pay for his coffee. Aubin Courte-Joie understood the
meaning of this by-play, and profited by Courtin's lingering to put in
a word himself.

"My good Jean," he said, addressing Jean Oullier in a hearty way, "we
have long been friends, and have followed the same road for many
years, I hope--here are two wooden legs that prove it. Well, I am not
afraid to say to you, before Monsieur Courtin, that you are wrong,
don't you see, wrong! So long as a hand is closed none but a fool will
say, 'I know what is in it.' It is true that Monsieur Courtin" (Aubin
Courte-Joie punctiliously gave that title to the mayor of la Logerie)
"has never been one of us; but neither has he been against us. He has
been for himself, and that is all the blame we can put upon him. But
nowadays, when quarrels are over and there are neither Blues nor
Chouans any more, to-day when, thank God, there's peace in the land,
what does the color of his cockade signify to you? Faith! if Monsieur
Courtin has, as he says, something useful to tell you it seems to me a
pity not to hear it."

Jean Oullier shrugged his shoulders impatiently.

"Old fox!" thought Courtin, who was far too well informed as to the
real state of things to be taken in by the pacific flowers of rhetoric
with which Aubin Courte-Joie thought proper to wreathe his remarks.
But aloud he said, "All the more because what I have to say has
nothing to do with politics."

"There! you see," said Courte-Joie, "there is no reason why you should
not talk with the mayor. Come, come, sit down here and have a talk
with him at your ease."

All this made no difference in Jean Oullier, who was neither mollified
toward Courtin, nor did he even turn his head; only, when the mayor
sat down beside him he did not get up and walk away, as might have
been expected.

"_Gars_ Oullier," said Courtin, by way of preamble, "I think talks are
all the better for being moistened. 'Wine is the honey of words,' as
our vicar says,--not in his sermons, but that don't make it less true.
If we drink a bottle together perhaps that will sweeten our ideas."

"As you please," replied Jean Oullier, who, while feeling the
strongest repugnance to hob-nob with Courtin, regarded the sacrifice
as necessary to the cause he had at heart.

"Have you any wine?" said Courtin to Mariette.

"What a question!" she exclaimed. "Have we any wine, indeed! I should
think so!"

"Good wine, I mean; sealed bottles."

"Sealed bottles, yes," said Mariette, proudly; "but they cost forty
sous each."

"Pooh!" said Aubin, who had seated himself in the other chimney-corner
to catch, if he could, some scraps of the promised communication, "the
mayor is a man who has got the wherewithal, my girl, and forty sous
won't prevent his paying his rent to Madame la Baronne Michel."

Courtin regretted his show of liberality; if the days of the old war
were really coming back it might be dangerous to pass for rich.

"Wherewithal!" he exclaimed; "how you talk, _gars_ Aubin! Yes,
certainly, I have enough to pay my rent, but that paid I consider
myself a lucky man if I can make both ends meet; that's my wealth!"

"Whether you are rich or poor is none of our business," remarked Jean
Oullier. "Come, what have you to say to me? Make haste."

Courtin took the bottle which Mariette now brought him, wiped the neck
of it carefully with his sleeve, poured a few drops into his own
glass, filled that of Jean Oullier, then his own, touched glasses, and
slowly emptied his.

"No one is to be pitied," he said, smacking his lips, "if they can
drink such wine as that every day."

"Especially if they drink it with a clear conscience," added Jean
Oullier. "In my opinion that's what makes wine taste good."

"Jean Oullier," said Courtin, without noticing the philosophical
reflection of his companion, "you bear me ill-will, and you are wrong.
On my word of honor, you are wrong."

"Prove it, and I'll believe you. That's all the confidence I have in
you."

"I don't wish you harm; I wish good for myself, as Aubin Courte-Joie,
who is a man of judgment, said just now; but you don't call that a
crime, I hope. I mind my own little matters without meddling much in
other people's business, because, as I say to myself, 'My good fellow,
if at Easter or Christmas you haven't got your money ready in your
pouch the king, be he Henri V. or Louis Philippe, will send the
Treasury after you, and you'll get a paper in his name, which may be
an honor, but it will cost you dear.' You reason differently; that's
your affair. I don't blame you,--at the most I only pity you."

"Keep your pity for others, Maître Courtin," replied Jean Oullier,
haughtily; "I don't want it any more than I want your confidences."

"When I say I pity you, _gars_ Oullier, I mean your master as well as
yourself. Monsieur le marquis is a man I respect. He fought through
the great war. Well, what did he gain by it?"

"Maître Courtin, you said you were not going to talk politics, and you
are breaking your word."

"Yes, I did say so, that's true; but it is not my fault if in this
devilish country politics are so twisted in with everybody's business
that the one can't be separated from the other. As I was saying,
_gars_ Oullier, Monsieur le marquis is a man I respect, and I am very
sorry, very sorry indeed, to see him ridden over by a lot of common
rich folks,--he who used to be the first in the province."

"If he is satisfied with his lot why need you care?" replied Jean
Oullier. "You never heard him complain; he has never borrowed money of
you."

"What would you say to a man who offered to restore to the château de
Souday all the wealth and consideration it has lost? Come," continued
Courtin, not hindered by the coldness of the Chouan, "do you think
that a man who is ready to do _that_ can be your enemy? Don't you
think, on the contrary, that Monsieur le marquis would owe him a debt
of gratitude? There, now, answer that question squarely and honestly,
as I have spoken to you."

"Of course he would, if the man you speak of did what you say by
honest means; but I doubt it."

"Honest means! Would any one dare propose to you any that were not
honest? See here, my _gars!_ I'll out with it at once, and not take
all day and many words to say it. I can,--yes, I, who speak to you,--I
can make the money flow into the château de Souday, as it hasn't done
of late years; only--"

"Only--yes, that's it; only what? Ha! that's where the collar galls."

"Only, I was going to say, I must get my profit out of it."

"If the matter is an honest one, that's only fair; you will certainly
get your part."

"That's all I want to know to set the wheel in motion,--and it's
little enough, too."

"Yes; but what is it you are after? What is it you ask?" returned Jean
Oullier, now very curious to know what was in Courtin's head.

"Oh! it is just as simple as nothing. In the first place, I want it so
arranged that I needn't renew my lease or have any rent to pay for
twelve years to come on the farm I occupy."

"In other words, you want a present?"

"If Monsieur de Souday offers it I shall not refuse, you understand.
Of course I shouldn't be such a fool as to stand in my own light."

"But how can it be arranged? Your farm belongs to young Michel or his
mother. I have not heard that they want to sell it. How can any man
give you that which he doesn't possess?"

"Oh!" said Courtin, "if I interfere in the matter I speak of perhaps
that farm may soon belong to some of you, and then it would be easy
enough. What do you say?"

"I say I don't understand what you are talking about, Maître Courtin."

"Nonsense! Ha, ha! but it isn't a bad match for our young man. Don't
you know that besides La Logerie he owns the estate of la Coudraie,
the mills at La Ferronnerie, the woods of Gervaise, all of which bring
in, one year with another, a pretty sum of money? And I can tell you
this, the old baroness has laid by as much more, which he will get at
her death."

"What has that Michel youth to do with the Marquis de Souday? they
have nothing in common," said Jean Oullier. "And why should the
property of your master be of any interest to mine?"

"Come, come, let's play above-board, _gars_ Oullier. Damn it! you must
have seen that our young man is sweet upon one of your young ladies,
very sweet, indeed! Which of them it is, I can't tell you; but let
Monsieur le marquis just say the word and sign me a paper about that
farm, and the minute the girl, whichever it is, is married,--they are
as smart as flies, those two,--she can manage her husband as she likes
and get all she wants. He'll never refuse her a few acres of ground,
especially when she wants to give them to a man to whom he'll be
grateful, too. In this way I kill two birds with one stone, do your
business and my own too. There is but one obstacle, and that's the
mother. Well," added Courtin, leaning close to Oullier's ear, "I'll
undertake to get rid of that."

Jean Oullier made no answer; but he looked fixedly at his companion.

"Yes," continued the latter, "if everybody wishes it, Madame la
baronne won't be able to refuse it. I'll tell you this, Oullier,"
added Courtin, striking the other familiarly on the knee, "I know the
whole story of Monsieur Michel."

"Why should you want our help, then? What hinders you from getting all
you want out of her without delay?"

"What hinders me is this: I want to add to the word of a youth who,
while keeping his sheep, heard a treacherous bargain made,--I want to
add to his word the testimony of the man who was in the woods of La
Chabotière some forty years ago, and saw the price of that bloody and
treacherous bargain paid. You know best who saw that sight and who can
give that testimony, _gars_ Oullier. If you and I make common cause,
the baroness will be as supple as a handful of flax. She is miserly,
but she is also proud; the fear of public dishonor and the gossip of
the neighborhood will make her docile enough. She'll see that, after
all, Mademoiselle de Souday, poor and illegitimate as she is, is more
than a match for the son of Baron Michel, whose grandfather was a
peasant like ourselves, and whose father the baron was--you know what.
Enough! Your young lady will be rich, our young man will be happy, and
I shall be very glad. What objection can be offered to all that?--not
to speak of our becoming friends, _gars_ Oullier; and I think my
friendship is worth something to you, I must say."

"Your friendship?" replied Jean Oullier, who had repressed with great
difficulty the indignation he felt at the singular proposal that
Courtin had just made to him.

"Yes, my friendship," returned the latter. "You needn't shake your
head like that. I have told you that I know more than any man about
the life of Baron Michel; I will add that I know more than any man but
one about his death. I was one of the beaters of the drive at which he
was killed, and my post placed me just opposite to him. I was young,
and even then I had a habit (which God preserve to me) of not gabbling
unless it were my interest to do so. Now, then, do you think my
services to your party of no account if my interests take me over to
your side?"

"Maître Courtin," replied Jean Oullier, frowning, "I have no influence
on the plans and determinations of the Marquis de Souday, but if I had
any at all, even the smallest, never should that farm of yours come
into the family; and if it did come in, never should it serve as the
price of treachery."

"Fine words, all that!" exclaimed Courtin.

"No; poor as the Demoiselles de Souday may be, never do I want either
of them to marry the young man you speak of. Rich as he may be, and
even if he bore another name than he does, no Demoiselle de Souday
could buy her marriage by a base act."

"You call that a base act, do you? I call it a good stroke of
business."

"It may be so for you; but for those I serve, a marriage with Monsieur
Michel, bought through you, would be more than a base act; it would be
an infamy."

"Take care, Jean Oullier. I want to act a kind part, and I won't let
myself quarrel with the label you choose to stick upon my acts. I came
here with good intentions; it is for you not to let me leave this
place with bad ones."

"I care as little for your threats as I do for your our proposals,
Courtin; remember that. But if you force me to repeat it I shall say
it to the end of time."

"Once more, Jean Oullier, listen to me. I will admit to you that I
want to be rich. That is my whim, just as it is yours to be faithful
as a dog to folks who don't care more for you than you do for your
terrier. I thought I could be useful to your master, and I hoped he
would not let my services go without reward. You say it is impossible.
Then we'll say no more about it. But if the nobles whom you serve
wished to show their gratitude to me in the way I ask I would rather
do a service to them than to others; and I desire to tell you so once
more."

"Because you think that nobles would pay more for it than others.
Isn't that it?"

"Undoubtedly, _gars_ Oullier. I don't conceal anything from you, and
I'll repeat that, as you say, to the end of time."

"I shall not make myself the go-between in any such bargain, Maître
Courtin. Besides, I have no power in the matter, and anything I could
do for you is so small it isn't worth talking about."

"Hey, how do you know that? You didn't know, my _gars_, that I knew
all about what happened in the wood at Chabotière. Perhaps I could
astonish you if I told you all I know."

Jean Oullier was afraid of appearing afraid.

"Come," said he, "enough of this. If you want to sell yourself apply
to others. Such bargains are hateful to me, even if I had any means of
making them. They don't concern me, God be thanked."

"Is that your last word, Jean Oullier?"

"My first and my last. Go your ways, Maître Courtin, and leave me to
mine."

"So much the worse for you," said Courtin, rising; "but, on my word, I
would gladly have gone your way."

So saying, he nodded to Jean Oullier and went out.
He had hardly crossed the threshold before Aubin Courte-Joie, stumping
along on his wooden legs, came close to Jean Oullier.

"You have done a foolish thing," he whispered.

"What ought I to have done?"

"Taken him to Louis Renaud or to Gaspard; they would have bought him."

"Him,--that wicked traitor?"

"My good Jean, in 1815, when I was mayor, I went to Nantes, and there
I saw a man named ----, who was, or had been, a minister; and I heard
him say two things I have always remembered. One was that traitors
make and unmake empires; the other was that treachery is the only
thing in this world that is not to be measured by the size of him who
makes it."

"What do you advise me to do now?"

"Follow and watch him."

Jean Oullier reflected a moment. Then he rose.

"I think you are right," he said.

And he went out anxiously.

XIX.

THE FAIR AT MONTAIGU.

The effervescent state of minds in the west of France did not take the
government unawares. Political faith had grown too lukewarm to allow a
probable uprising, covering so large an extent of territory and
involving so many conspirators, to remain long a secret.

Some time before Madame's arrival off the coast of Provence the
authorities in Paris knew of the projected scheme, and repressive
measures both prompt and vigorous had been arranged. No sooner was it
evident that the princess was making her way to the western provinces
than it was only a question of carrying out those measures and of
putting the execution of them into safe and able hands.

The departments whose uprising was expected were divided into as many
military districts as there were sub-prefectures. Each of these
arrondissements, commanded by a chief of battalion, was the centre of
several secondary cantonments commanded by captains, around which
several minor detachments were encamped under command of lieutenants
and sub-lieutenants, serving as guards and outposts into the interior
districts as far as the safety of communications would permit.

Montaigu, in the arrondissement of Clisson, had its garrison, which
consisted of a company of the 32d regiment of the line. The day on
which the events we have now related occurred this garrison had been
reinforced by two brigades of gendarmerie, which had reached Nantes
that morning, and about a score of mounted chasseurs. The chasseurs
were serving as escort to a general officer from the garrison at
Nantes, who was on a tour of inspection of the various detachments.
This was General Dermoncourt.

The inspection of the Montaigu garrison was over. Dermoncourt, a
veteran as intelligent as he was energetic, thought it would not be
out of place to inspect those whom he called his old Vendéan friends,
now swarming into the streets and market-place of the town. He
accordingly took off his uniform, put on citizen's clothes, and
mingled with the crowds, accompanied by a member of the civil
administration who happened to be at Montaigu at that moment.

The general bearing of the population though lowering was calm. The
crowd opened to allow passage to the two gentlemen, and, although the
martial carriage of the general, his heavy moustache, black, in spite
of his sixty years, his scarred face, and the self-sufficient air of
his companion, excited the inquisitive curiosity of the multitude, no
hostile demonstration was made to them.

"Well, well," said the general, "my old friends the Vendéans are not
much changed. I find them as uncommunicative as I left them
thirty-eight years ago."

"To me such indifference seems a favorable sign," said the civil
administrator, in a pompous tone. "The two months I have just passed
in Paris, where there was a riot every day, gave me an experience in
such matters, and I think I may safely assert that these people here
show no signs of insurrection. Remark, general, that there are no
knots of talkers, no orators in full blast, no animation, no
mutterings; all is perfectly quiet. Come, come! these people are here
for their business only, and have no thought of anything else, I'll
answer for it."

"You are quite right, my dear sir; I am wholly of your mind. These
worthy people, as you say, are thinking of absolutely nothing but
their business; but that business is to distribute to the best
advantage the leaden balls and the sabre-blades they keep hidden away
out of sight, which they intend to bestow upon us as soon as
possible."

"Do you really think so?"

"I don't think so, I am sure of it. If the religious element were not,
fortunately for us, absent from this new uprising, a fact which makes
me think it may not be general, I should confidently assure you that
there is not one of those fellows you see over there in serge jackets
and linen breeches and wooden shoes but has his post and rank and
number in battalions raised by Messieurs the nobles."

"What! those tramps and beggars too?"

"Yes, those tramps and beggars especially. What characterizes this
warfare, my good sir, is the fact that we have to do with an enemy who
is everywhere and nowhere. You know he is there; you seek for him, and
you find only a peasant like those about us, who bows to you, a beggar
who holds out his hand, a pedler who offers his merchandise, a
musician who rasps your ears with his hurdy-gurdy, a quack who vaunts
his medicine, a little shepherd who smiles at you, a woman suckling
her child on the threshold of her cottage, a harmless furze-bush
growing beside the road. You pass them all without the slightest
feeling of distrust, and yet, peasant, shepherd, beggar, musician,
pedler, quack, and woman are the enemy. Even the furze-bush is in
league with them. Some, creeping through the gorse, will follow you
like your shadow,--indefatigable spies that they are!--and at the
first alarming man[oe]uvre on your part, those you are tracking are
warned long before you are able to surprise them. Others will have
picked up from the hedges and ditches and furrows their rusty guns
concealed among the reeds or the long grass, and if you are worth the
trouble, they will follow you, as the others did, from bush to bush
and cover to cover, till they find some favorable opportunity for a
sure aim. They are saving with their powder. The furze-bush will send
you a shot, and if by chance it misses you, and you are able to
examine the covert, you'll find nothing there but a tangle of
branches, thorns, and leaves. That's what it is to be inoffensive in
these regions, my good sir."

"Are not you exaggerating, general?" said the civil officer, with a
doubting air.

"Heavens and earth, Monsieur le sous-préfet! perhaps you'll come to
know it by experience. Here we are in the midst of an apparently
pacific crowd. We have, you say, nothing but friends about us,
Frenchmen, compatriots; well, just arrest one of those fellows--"

"What would happen if I arrested him?"

"It would happen that some one of the rest,--perhaps that young _gars_
in a white smock, perhaps this beggar who is eating with such an
appetite on the sill of that doorway, who may be, for all we know,
Diot Jambe-d'Argent, or Bras-de-fer, or any other leader of the
band,--will rise and make a sign. At that sign a dozen or more sticks,
now peacefully carried about, will be down on our heads, and before my
escort could get to our assistance we should be as flat as wheat
beneath the sickle. You are not convinced? Then suppose you make the
attempt."

"No, no; I believe you, general," cried the
sub-prefect, eagerly. "The devil! all this is no joke. Ever since you
have been enlightening me I fancy I see the scowls on their faces;
they look like scoundrels."

"Not a bit of it! They are worthy people, very worthy fellows; only,
you must know how to take them; and, unluckily, that is not always the
case with those who are sent to manage them," said the general, with a
sarcastic smile. "Do you want a specimen of their conversation? You
are, or you have been, or you ought to have been a lawyer; but I'll
bet you never met in all your experience of the profession fellows as
clever at talking without saying anything as these Vendéan peasants.
Hey, _gars!_" continued the general, addressing a peasant between
thirty-five and forty years old, who was hovering about them, and
examining, apparently with curiosity, a biscuit which he held in his
hand,--"Hey, _gars_, show me where those good biscuits are sold; they
look to me very tempting."

"They are not sold, monsieur; they are given away."

"Bless me! Well, I want one."

"It is curious," said the peasant, "very curious that good white wheat
biscuits should be given away, when they might so easily be sold."

"Yes, very singular; but what is still more singular is that the first
individual I happen to address not only answers my question, but
anticipates those I might ask him. Show me that biscuit, my good man."

The general examined the article which the peasant handed to him. It
was a plain biscuit made of flour and milk, on which, before it was
baked, a cross and four parallel bars had been marked with a knife.

"The devil! Well! a present that is amusing as well as useful is good
to get. There must be a riddle of some kind in those marks. Who gave
you that biscuit, my good friend?"

"No one; they don't trust me."

"Ah! then you are a patriot?"

"I am mayor of my district, and I hold by the government. I saw a
woman giving a lot of these biscuit to men from Machecoul, without
their asking for them and without their giving her anything in return.
So then I offered to buy one, and she dared not refuse. I bought two.
I ate one before her, and the other, this one, I slipped into my
pocket."

"Will you let me have it? I am making a collection of rebuses, and
this one seems interesting."

"I will give it or sell it, as you please."

"Ah, ha!" exclaimed Dermoncourt, looking at the man with more
attention than he had paid to him hitherto, "I think I understand you.
You can explain these hieroglyphics?"

"Perhaps; at any rate, I can give you other information that is not to
be despised."

"And you wish to be paid for it?"

"Of course I do," replied the peasant, boldly.

"That is how you serve the government which made you mayor?"

"The devil! Has the government put a tiled roof on my house? No! Has
it changed the mud walls to stone? No! My house is thatched with straw
and built of wood and mud. The Chouans could set fire to it in a
minute, and it would burn to ashes. Whoso risks much ought to earn
much; for, as you see, I might lose my all in a single night."

"You are right. Come, Monsieur le sous-préfet, this belongs to your
department. Thank God, I'm only a soldier, and my supplies are paid
for before delivery. Pay this man and hand his information over to
me."

"And do it quickly," said the farmer, "for we are watched on all
sides."

The peasants had, in fact, drawn nearer and nearer to the little
group. Without, apparently, any other motive than the curiosity which
all strangers in a country place naturally excite, they had formed a
tolerably compact circle round the three speakers. The general took
notice of it.

"My dear fellow," he said aloud, addressing the
sub-prefect, "I wouldn't rely on that man's word, if I were you. He
offers to sell you two hundred sacks of oats at nineteen francs the
sack, but it remains to be seen when he will deliver them. Give him a
small sum down and make him sign a promise of delivery."

"But I have neither paper nor pencil," said the
sub-prefect, understanding the general's meaning.

"Go to the hotel, hang it! Come," said the general, looking about him,
"are there any others here who have oats to sell? We have horses to
feed."

One peasant answered in the affirmative, and while the general was
discussing the price with him the sub-prefect and the man with the
biscuit slipped away, almost unnoticed. The man, as our readers are of
course aware, was no other than Courtin. Let us now try to explain the
man[oe]uvres which Courtin had executed since morning. After his
interview with Michel, Courtin had reflected long. It seemed to him
that a plain and simple denunciation of the visitors at the château de
Sunday was not the course most profitable to his interests. It might
very well be that the government would leave its subordinate agents
without reward, in which case the act was dangerous and without
profit; for, of course, Courtin would draw down upon him the enmity of
the royalists, who were the majority of the canton. It was then that
he thought of the little scheme we heard him propound to Jean Oullier.
He hoped by assisting the loves of the young baron to draw a pretty
penny to himself, to win the good will of the marquis, whose ambition
must be, as he thought, to obtain such a marriage for his daughter,
and, finally, to sell at a great price his silence as to the presence
of a personage whose safety, if he were not mistaken, was of the
utmost consequence to the royalist party.

We have seen how Jean Oullier received his advances. It was then that
Courtin, considering himself to have failed in what he regarded as an
excellent scheme, decided on contenting himself with a lesser, and
made the move we have now related toward the government.

XX.

THE OUTBREAK.

Half an hour after the conference of the sub-prefect and Courtin a
_gendarme_ was making his way among the groups, looking for the
general, whom he found talking very amicably with a respectable old
beggar in rags. The _gendarme_ said a word in the general's ear, and
the latter at once made his way to the little inn of the Cheval Blanc.
The sub-prefect stood in the doorway.

"Well?" asked the general, noticing the highly satisfied look on the
face of the public functionary.

"Ah, general! great news and good news!" replied the sub-prefect.

"Let's hear it."

"The man I've had to deal with is really very clever."

"Fine news, indeed! they are all very clever. The greatest fool among
them could give points to Monsieur de Talleyrand. What has he told
you, this clever man?"

"He saw the Comte de Bonneville, disguised as a peasant, enter the
château de Souday last night, and with the count was another little
peasant, whom he thinks was a woman--"

"What next?"

"Next! why there's no doubt, general."

"Go on, monsieur; I am all impatience," said the general, in the
calmest tone.

"I mean to say that in my opinion the woman is no other than the one
we have been told to look out for,--namely, the princess."

"There may be no doubt for you; there are a dozen doubts for me."

"Why so, general?"

"Because I, too, have had some confidences."

"Voluntary or involuntary?"

"Who knows, with these people?"

"Pooh! But what did they tell you?"

"They told me nothing."

"Well, what then?"

"Then, after you left me I went on bargaining for oats."

"Yes. What next?"

"Next, the peasant who spoke to me asked for
earnest-money; that was fair. I asked him for a receipt; that was
fair, too. He wanted to go to a shop and write it. 'No,' I said.
'Here's a pencil; haven't you a scrap of paper about you? My hat will
do for a table.' He tore off the back of a letter and gave me a
receipt. There it is. Read it."

The sub-prefect took the paper, and read;--

"Received, of M. Jean-Louis Robier, the sum of fifty francs, on
account, for thirty sacks of flour, which I engage to deliver to him
May 28.
F. TERRIEN.
May 14, 1832."

"Well," said the sub-prefect, "I don't see any information there."

"Turn over the paper."

"Ah, ha!" exclaimed the functionary.

The paper which he held was one half of a page of letter paper torn
through the middle. On the other side from that on which the receipt
was written were these words:--

arquis
ceived this instant the news
her whom we are expecting.
Beaufays, evening of 26th
send officers of your division
presented to Madame.
your people in hand.
respectfully,
oux.

"The devil!" cried the sub-prefect; "that is nothing more nor less
than a call to arms. It is easy enough to make out the rest."

"Nothing easier," said the general. Then he added, in a low voice,
"Too easy, perhaps."

"Ah, _ça!_ didn't you tell me these people were sly and cautious? I
call this, on the contrary, a bit of innocent carelessness which is
amazing."

"Wait," said Dermoncourt; "that's not all."

"Ah, ha!"

"After parting with my seller of oats I met a beggar, half an idiot. I
talked to him about the good God and the saints and the Virgin, about
the buckwheat and the apple year (you observe that the apple-trees are
in bloom), and I ended by asking him if he could not act as guide for
us to Loroux, where, as you know, I am to make an inspection. 'I
can't,' said my idiot, with a mischievous look. 'Why not?' I asked in
the stupidest way I could. 'Because I am ordered to guide a lady and
two gentlemen from Puy-Laurens to La Flocelière.'"

"The devil! here's a complication."

"On the contrary, enlightenment."

"Explain."

"Confidences which are given when not extorted, in a region where it
is so difficult to get them, seem to me such clumsy traps that an old
fox like myself ought to be ashamed to be caught by them. The Duchesse
de Berry, if she is really in La Vendée, cannot be at Souday and
Beaufays and Puy-Laurens at the same time. What do you think, my dear
sub-prefect?"

"Confound it all!" replied the public functionary, scratching his
head, "I think she may have been, or still may be, in all those
places, one after another; but if I were you, instead of chasing her
round from place to place, where she may or may not have been, I
should go straight to La Flocelière, where your idiot is to take her
to-day."

"Then you would make a very poor bloodhound, my dear fellow. The only
reliable information we have so far received is that given by the
scamp who had the biscuit, and whom you examined here--"

"But the others?"

"I'll bet my general's epaulets against those of a sub-lieutenant that
the others were put in my way by some shrewd fellows who saw and
suspected our talk with the man about his biscuit. Let us begin the
hunt, my dear sub-prefect, and confine our attention to Souday, if we
don't want to make an utter failure of it."

"Bravo!" cried the sub-prefect. "I feared I had committed a blunder;
but what you say reassures me."

"What have you done?"

"Well, I have got the name of this mayor. He is called Courtin, and is
mayor of the village of la Logerie."

"I know that. It is close by the spot where we came near capturing
Charette thirty-seven years ago."

"Well, this man has pointed out to me an individual who could serve us
as guide, and whom it would be well to arrest so that he may not go
back to the château and give the alarm."

"Who is the man?"

"The marquis's steward. Here is a description of him."

The general took the paper and read:--

"Short gray hair, low forehead, keen black eyes, bushy eyebrows, wart
on his nose, hair in the nostrils, whiskers round the face, round hat,
velveteen jacket, waistcoat and breeches the same, leathern belt and
gaiters. Special points: a brown, retriever, and the second incisor on
the left side broken."

"Good!" said the general; "that's my oat-seller to a tee. Terrien! His
name is no more Terrien than mine's Barabbas."

"Well, general, you can soon make sure of that."

"How so?"

"He'll be here in a minute."

"Here?"

"Yes."

"Is he coming here?"

"He is coming here."

"Of his own will?"

"His own will, or by force."

"Force?"

"Yes; I have just given the order to arrest him. It is done by this
time."

"Ten thousand thunders!" cried the general, letting his fist fall upon
the table with such a thud that the public functionary bounded in his
chair. "Ten thousand thunders!" he cried again; "what have you done?"

"He seems to me, general, a dangerous man from
all I hear of him, and there was but one thing to
do,--namely, arrest him."

"Dangerous! dangerous! He is much more dangerous now than he was ten
minutes ago."

"But if he is in custody he can't do harm."

"No matter how quick your men are they won't prevent his giving
warning. The princess will be warned before we have gone a couple of
miles. It will be lucky for us if you haven't roused the whole
population so that I cannot take a single man from the garrison."

"Perhaps there's yet time," said the sub-prefect, rushing to the door.

"Yes, make haste. Ah! thunder! it's too late!"

A dull roar was heard without, deepening every second until it reached
the volume of that dreadful concert of sounds made by a multitude as
the prelude to a battle.

The general opened the window. He saw, at a short distance from the
inn, Jean Oullier, bound and in the grasp of _gendarmes_ who were
bringing him along. The crowd surrounded them, howling and
threatening. The _gendarmes_ came on slowly and with difficulty. They
had not as yet made use of their arms. There was not a moment to lose.

"Well, the wine is drawn; we have got to drink it," said the general,
pulling off his civilian clothes, and hastily getting into his
regimentals. Then he called to his secretary.

"Rusconi, my horse! my horse!" he shouted. "As for you, Monsieur le
sous-préfet, call out your militia, if you have any; but not a gun is
to be fired without my orders."

A captain, sent by the secretary, entered the room.

"Captain," said the general, "bring your men into the courtyard. Order
my chasseurs to mount; two days' rations, and twenty-five cartridges
to each man; and hold yourself ready to follow me at the first signal
I give you."

The old general, recovering all the fire of his youth, went down into
the courtyard, where, sending the civilians to the right-about, he
ordered the gates into the street to be opened.

"What!" cried the sub-prefect, "you are surely not going to present
yourself to that furious crowd all alone?"

"That's precisely what I am going to do. Damn it! your men must be
supported. This is no time for sentiment. Open that gate."

The two sides of the gate were no sooner opened than the general,
setting spurs to his horse, was instantly in the middle of the street
and the thick of the mêlée. This sudden apparition of an old soldier,
with a determined face and martial bearing, in full uniform, and
glittering with decorations, together with the bold promptitude of his
action, produced an electric effect upon the crowd. The clamoring
ceased as if by magic. Cudgels were lowered; the peasants who were
nearest to the general actually touched their hats; the crowd made
way, and the soldier of Rivoli and the Pyramids rode on some twenty
paces in the direction of the _gendarmes_.

"Why, what's the matter with you, my _gars?_" he cried, in so
stentorian a voice that he was heard even to the neighboring streets.

"They've arrested Jean Oullier; that's what's the matter with us,"
replied a voice.

"And Jean Oullier is a good man," shouted another.

"They ought to arrest bad men, and not good ones," said a third.

"And that's why we are not going to let them take Jean Oullier," cried
a fourth.

"Silence!" said the general, in so imperious a tone that every voice
was hushed. "If Jean Oullier is a good man, a worthy man,--which I do
not doubt,--Jean Oullier will be released. If he is one who is trying
to deceive you and take advantage of your good and loyal feelings,
Jean Oullier will be punished. Do you think it unjust to punish those
who try to plunge the country back into those horrors of civil war of
which the old now tell the young with tears?"

"Jean Oullier is a peaceable man, and doesn't do harm to any one,"
said a voice.

"What are you wanting now?" continued the general, without noticing
the interruption. "Your priests are respected; your religion is ours.
Have we killed the king, as in 1793? Have we abolished God, as in
1794? Is your property in danger? No; you and your property are safe
under the common law. Never were your trades and your commerce so
flourishing."

"That is true," said a young peasant.

"Don't listen to bad Frenchmen who, to satisfy their selfish passions,
do not shrink from calling down upon their country all the horrors of
civil war. Can't you remember what those horrors were? Must I remind
you of them? Must I bring to mind your old men, your mothers, your
wives, your children massacred before your eyes, your harvests
trampled under foot, your cottages in flames, death and ruin at every
hearth!"

"It was the Blues who did it all," cried a voice.

"No, it was not the Blues," continued the general. "It was those who
drove you to that senseless struggle, senseless then, but wicked
now,--a struggle which had at least a pretext then, but has none
whatever in these days."

While speaking the general pushed his horse in the direction of the
_gendarmes_, who, on their side, made every effort to reach the
general. This was all the more possible because his address, soldierly
as it was, made an evident impression on some of the peasants. Many
lowered their heads and were silent; others made remarks to their
neighbors, which seemed from their manner to imply approval.

Nevertheless, the farther the general advanced into the crowd, the
less favorable grew the expression of the faces. In fact, the nearest
to him were altogether menacing; and the owners of these faces were
evidently the promoters and the leaders of the uproar,--probably the
chiefs of the various bands and what were called the captains of
parishes.

For such men as these it was useless to be eloquent; their
determination was fixed not to listen and not to let others listen.
They did not shout nor cry; they roared and howled. The general
understood the situation. He resolved to impress the minds of these
men by one of those acts of personal vigor which have such enormous
influence on the multitude.

Aubin Courte-Joie was in the front rank of the rioters. This may seem
strange in view of his crippled condition. But Aubin Courte-Joie had,
for the time being, added to his useless wooden legs two good and
powerful legs of flesh and blood. In other words, he was mounted on
the shoulders of a colossal tramp; and the said tramp, by means of
straps attached to the wooden legs of his rider, was able to hold the
cripple as firmly in his seat as the general was in his saddle.

Thus perched, Aubin Courte-Joie's head was on the level of the
general's epaulet, where he kept up a series of frantic vociferations
and threatening gestures. The general stretched out his hand, took the
tavern-keeper by the collar of his jacket, and then, by sheer force of
wrist, raised him, held him a moment suspended above the crowd, and
then handed him over to a _gendarme_, saying:--

"Lock up that mountebank; he is enough to give one a headache."

The tramp, relieved of his rider, raised his head, and the general
recognized the idiot he had talked with an hour earlier; only, by this
time the idiot looked as shrewd and clever as any of them.

The general's action had raised a laugh from the crowd, but this
hilarity did not last long. Aubin Courte-Joie happened to be held by
the _gendarme_ who was placed to the left of Jean Oullier. He gently
drew from his pocket an open knife, and plunged it to the hilt in the
breast of the _gendarme_, crying out:--

"Vive Henri V.! Fly, _gars_ Oullier!"

At the same instant the tramp, inspired perhaps by a legitimate
sentiment of emulation, and wishing to make a worthy rejoinder to the
athletic action of the general, glided under his horse, caught the
general by the boot, and with a sudden and vigorous movement, pitched
him over on the other side.

The general and the _gendarme_ fell at the same instant, and they
might have been thought dead; but the general was up immediately and
into his saddle with as much strength as adroitness. As he sprang to
his seat he gave such a powerful blow with his fist on the bare head
of the late idiot that the latter, without uttering a cry, fell to the
ground as if his skull were broken. Neither tramp nor _gendarme_ rose
again. The tramp had fainted; the _gendarme_ was dead.

Jean Oullier, on his part, though his hands were bound, gave such a
vigorous blow with his shoulder to the _gendarme_ on his right that
the latter staggered. Jean Oullier jumped over the dead body of the
_gendarme_ on the left, and darted into the crowd.

But the general's eye was everywhere, even behind him.

Instantly he turned his horse. The animal bounded into the centre of
the living whirlpool, and the old soldier caught Jean Oullier as he
had caught Aubin Courte-Joie, and threw him across the pommel of his
own saddle. Then the stones began to rain, and the cudgels rose. The
_gendarmes_ held firm, presenting their bayonets to the crowd, which
dared not attack them at close quarters and was forced to content
itself by flinging projectiles.

They advanced in this way to about sixty feet from the inn. Here the
position of the general and his men became critical. The peasants, who
seemed determined that Jean Oullier should not be left in the enemy's
power, grew more and more aggressive. Already the bayonets were
stained with blood, and the fury of the rioters was evidently
increasing. Fortunately the general was now near enough to the
courtyard of the inn for his voice to reach it.

"Here! grenadiers of the 32d!" he shouted.

At the same instant the gates opened, and the soldiers poured forth
with fixed bayonets and drove back the crowd. The general and the
_gendarmes_ entered the yard. Here the general encountered the
sub-prefect, who was awaiting him.

"There's your man," he said, flinging Jean Oullier to him, as if the
Chouan were a bale of goods; "and trouble enough he has cost us! God
grant he is worth his price."

Just then a brisk firing was heard from the farther end of the
market-place.

"What's that?" cried the general, listening with all his ears, and his
nostrils open.

"The National Guard, no doubt," replied the
sub-prefect. "I ordered them out, and they must have met the rioters."

"Who ordered them to fire?"

"I did, general. I was bound to go to your rescue."

"Ten thousand thunders! Can't you see that I rescued myself?" said the
old soldier. Then, shaking his head, he added, "Monsieur, remember
this: to shed blood in civil war is worse than a crime; it is a
blunder."

An officer galloped into the courtyard.

"General," he said, "the rioters are flying in all directions. The
chasseurs are here. Shall we pursue them?"

"Not a man is to stir," said the general. "Leave the National Guard to
manage the affair. They are friends; they'll settle it."

A second discharge of musketry proved that the militia and the
peasantry were indeed settling it. This was the firing heard at La
Logerie by Baron Michel.

"Ah!" said the general, "now we must see what profit we can get out of
this melancholy business." Pointing to Jean Oullier, he added, "We
have but one chance, and that is that no one but this man is in the
secret. Did he have any communication with any one after you arrested
him, _gendarmes_?"

"No, general, not even by signs, for his hands were bound."

"Didn't he make any gestures with his head, or say a word to anybody?
You know very well that a nod or a single word is enough with these
fellows."

"No, general, not one."

"Well then, we may as well run the chance. Let your men eat their
rations, captain; in half an hour we start. The _gendarmes_ and the
National Guard are enough to guard the town. I shall take my escort of
chasseurs to clear the way."

So saying, the general retired into the inn. The soldiers made their
preparations for departure.

During this time Jean Oullier sat stolidly on a stone in the middle of
the courtyard, kept in sight by the two _gendarmes_ who were guarding
him. His face retained its habitual impassibility. With his two bound
hands he stroked his dog, which had followed him, and was now resting
its head on his knees and licking his hand, as if to remind the
prisoner in his misfortune that a friend was near him.

Jean Oullier was gently stroking the faithful creature's head with the
feather of a wild duck he might have picked up in the courtyard.
Suddenly, profiting by a moment when his two guards were speaking to
each other and not observing him, he slipped the feather between the
teeth of the animal, made it a sign of intelligence, and rose, saying,
in a low voice:--

"Go, Pataud!"

The dog gently moved away, looking back at his master from time to
time. Then, when he reached the gate, he bounded out, unobserved by
any one, and disappeared.

"Good!" said Jean Oullier to himself. "He'll get there before we do."

Unfortunately, the _gendarmes_ were not the only ones who were
watching the prisoner.

XXI.

JEAN OULLIER'S RESOURCES.

Even in these days there are few good roads in La Vendée, and those
few have been made since 1832, that is, since the period of which we
are now writing. This lack of roads was the principal strength of the
insurgents in the great war. Let us say a word on those that then
existed, concerning ourselves only with those on the left bank of the
Loire.

They were two in number. The first went from Nantes to Rochelle,
through Montaigu; the second from Nantes to Paimb[oe]uf by the
Pélerin, following almost continuously the banks of the river.

Besides these two main highways, there were other secondary or cross
roads; these went from Nantes to Beaupréau through Vallet, from Nantes
to Mortagne, Chollet, and Bressuire by Clisson, from Nantes to
Sables-d'Olonne by Légé, and from Nantes to Challans by Machecoul. To
reach Machecoul by either of these roads it was necessary to make a
long detour, in fact, as far round as Légé; thence along the road from
Nantes to Sables-d'Olonne, following that until it was crossed by the
road to Challans, by which the traveller retraced his way to
Machecoul.

The general knew too well that the whole success of his expedition
depended on the rapidity with which it was conducted to be willing to
resign himself to so long a march. Besides, none of these roads were
favorable for military operations. They were bordered by deep ditches,
gorse, bushes of all kinds, and trees; in many places they were sunken
between high banks with hedges at the top. Such roads, under
any of these conditions, were favorable for ambuscades; the little
advantage they offered in no way counterbalanced their risks. The
general therefore determined to follow a cross-country road which led
to Machecoul by Vieille-Vigne and shortened the way by over four
miles.

The system of encampments the general had adopted since coming to La
Vendée had familiarized his soldiers with the nature of the land and
given them a good eye for dangerous places. The captain in command of
the infantry knew the way as far as the Boulogne river; but from that
point it was necessary to have a guide. It was plain that Jean Oullier
would not be willing to show the way, and another man was therefore
obtained on whose fidelity they could rely.

The general in deciding on the cross-road took every precaution
against a surprise. Two chasseurs, pistol in hand, went first to
reconnoitre the way for the column; while a dozen men on each side of
the road examined the gorse and the bushes which lined it everywhere
and sometimes overtopped it. The general marched at the head of his
little troop, in the midst of which he had placed Jean Oullier.

The old Vendéan, with his wrists bound, was mounted behind a chasseur;
for greater security a girth had been passed around his body and
buckled across the breast of the soldier before him; so that Jean
Oullier if he could even have freed his hands could not escape his
bonds to the rider before him. Two other chasseurs rode to the left
and right with special orders to watch him carefully.

It was about six in the evening when the detachment left Montaigu;
they had fifteen miles to do, and, supposing that those fifteen miles
took five hours, they ought to be at the château de Souday by eleven.
The hour seemed favorable to the general for his plans. If Courtin's
report was correct, if he had not been misled in his conclusions, the
leaders of the last Vendéan movement were now assembled at Souday to
confer with the princess, and it was likely that they would not have
left the château before his arrival. If this were so, nothing could
prevent him from capturing them all by one throw of the net.

After marching for half an hour, that is, to a distance of about a
mile and a half from Montaigu, just as the little column was passing
the crossway of Saint-Corentin they came upon an old woman in rags,
who was praying on her knees before a wayside crucifix. At the noise
the column made she turned her head, and then, as if impelled by
curiosity, she rose and stood beside the road to see it pass. The
gold-laced coat of the general seemed to give her the idea of begging,
and she muttered the sort of prayer with which beggars ask for alms.

Officers and soldiers, preoccupied with other matters, and growing
surly as the twilight deepened, passed on without attending to her.

"Your general took no notice of that poor woman who asked for bread,"
said Jean Oullier to the chasseur who was on his right.

"Why do you think so?" said the soldier.

"Because he did not give her anything. Let him beware. Whoso repulses
the open palm must fear the closed fist, says the proverb. Harm will
happen to us."

"If you take that prediction to yourself, my good man, you are not
mistaken, inasmuch as you are already in peril."

"Yes, and that is why I would like to conjure it away."

"How can you?"

"Feel in my pocket for me and take out a piece of money."

"What for?"

"To give to that old woman, and then she'll share her prayers between
me who give the alms and you who enable her to get them."

The chasseur shrugged his shoulders; but superstitions are singularly
contagious, and those attached to ideas of charity are more so than
others. The soldier, while pretending to be above such nonsense,
thought he ought not to refuse to do the kindness Jean Oullier asked
of him, which might, moreover, bring down the blessing of Heaven on
both of them.

The troop was at this moment wheeling to the right into the sunken
road which leads to Vieille-Vigne. The general stopped his horse to
watch the men file past him, and see with his own eyes that all the
arrangements he had ordered were carried out; it thus happened that he
saw Jean Oullier speaking to the chasseur, and he also saw the
soldier's action.

"What do you mean by letting the prisoner speak to strangers on the
road?" he said sharply.

The chasseur related what had happened.

"Halt!" cried the general; "arrest that woman, and search her."

The order was instantly obeyed, but nothing was found on the old
beggar-woman but a few pieces of copper money, which the general
examined with the utmost care. In vain did he turn and re-turn the
coins; nothing could he find in the least suspicious about them. He put
the coins in his pocket, however, giving to the old woman a five-franc
piece in exchange. Jean Oullier watched the general's actions with a
sarcastic smile.

"Well, you see," he said in a low voice but loud enough for the
beggar-woman to hear him without losing a single word, "you see the
poor alms of a _prisoner_" (he emphasized the word) "have brought you
luck, old mother; and that's another reason still why you should
remember me in your prayers. A dozen _Ave Marias_ said for him will
greatly help the salvation of a poor devil."

Jean Oullier raised his voice as he said the last words.

"My good man," said the general to Jean Oullier when the column had
resumed its march, "in future you must address yourself to me when you
have any charity to do; I'll recommend you to the prayers of those you
want to succor; my mediation won't do you any harm up above, and it
may spare you many an annoyance here below. As for you, men,"
continued the general, speaking gruffly to his cavalry, "don't forget
my orders in future; for the harm will fall upon yourselves, and I
tell you so!"

At Vieille-Vigne they halted fifteen minutes to rest the infantry. The
Chouan was placed in the centre of the square, so as to isolate him
completely from the population which flocked inquisitively about the
troop. The horse on which Jean Oullier was mounted had cast a shoe,
and was, moreover, tired with its double burden. The general picked
out the strongest animal in the squadron to take its place. This horse
belonged to one of the troopers in the front rank, who, in spite of
the greater exposure to danger where he was, seemed very reluctant to
change places with his comrade.

The man was short, stocky, vigorous, with a gentle but intelligent
face; and was quite devoid of the cavalier manner which characterized
his comrades. During the preparations for this change, which was made
by the light of a lantern (by that time the night was very dark) Jean
Oullier caught sight of the face of the man behind whom he was to
continue his way; his eyes met those of the soldier, and he noticed
that the latter lowered his.

Again the column started, taking every precaution; for the farther
they advanced, the thicker grew the bushes and the coverts beside the
road; consequently the easier it became to attack them. The prospect
of danger to be met and weariness to be endured, on roads which were
little better in many places than beds of water-courses strewn with
rocks and stones, did not lessen the gayety of the soldiers, who now
began, after recovering from their first surliness at nightfall, to
find amusement in the idea of danger, and to talk among themselves
with that liveliness which seldom deserts a French soldier for any
length of time. The chasseur behind whom Jean Oullier was mounted
alone took no part in the talk, but was thoughtful and gloomy.

"Confound you, Thomas," said the trooper on the right, addressing him,
"you never have much to say for yourself, but to-day, I will declare,
one would think you were burying the devil."

"At any rate," said the one to the left, "he has got him on his back.
You ought to like that, Thomas, for you are half a Chouan yourself."

"He's a whole Chouan, I'm thinking; doesn't he go to mass every
Sunday?"

The chasseur named Thomas had no time to answer these twittings, for
the general's voice now ordered the men to break ranks and advance
single file, the way having become so narrow and the bank on each side
so steep that it was impossible for two horsemen to ride abreast.

During the momentary confusion caused by this man[oe]uvre Jean Oullier
began to whistle in a low key the Breton air "The Chouans are men of
heart."

At the first note the rider quivered. Then, as the other troopers were
now before and behind them, Jean Oullier, safe from observation, put
his mouth close to the ear of the one behind whom he was mounted.

"Ha! you may be as silent as you like, Thomas Tinguy," he whispered;
"I knew you at once, and you knew me."

The soldier sighed and made a motion with his shoulders which seem to
mean that he was acting against his will. But he made no answer.

"Thomas Tinguy," said Jean Oullier, "do you know where you are going?
Do you know where you are taking your father's old friend? To the
pillage and destruction of the château de Souday, whose masters have
been for years and years the benefactors of your family."

Thomas Tinguy sighed again.

"Your father is dead," continued Jean Oullier.

Thomas made no reply, but he shuddered in his saddle; a single word
escaped his lips and reached the ears of Jean Oullier:--

"Dead!"

"Yes, dead," replied the Chouan; "and who watched beside his dying bed
with your sister Rosine and received his last sigh? The two young
ladies from Souday whom you know well, Mademoiselle Bertha and
Mademoiselle Mary; and that at the risk of their lives, for your
father died of a malignant fever. Not being able to save his life,
angels that they are they stayed beside him to ease his death. Where
is your sister now, having no home? At the château de Souday. Ah!
Thomas Tinguy, I'd rather be poor Jean Oullier, whom they'll shoot
against a wall, than he who takes him bound to execution."

"Hush! Jean, hush!" said Thomas Tinguy, with a sob in his voice; "we
are not there yet--wait and see."

While this little colloquy was passing between Jean Oullier and the
son of the older Tinguy, the ravine through which the little column
was moving began to slope downward rapidly. They were nearing one of
the fords of the Boulogne river.

It was a dark night without a star in the sky; and such a night, while
it might favor the ultimate success of the expedition, might also, on
the other hand, hinder its march and even imperil it in this wild and
unknown country.

When they reached the ford they found the two chasseurs who had been
sent in advance, awaiting them, pistol in hand. They were evidently
uneasy. The ford, instead of being a clear, shallow stream rippling
over pebbles, was a dark and stagnant body of water, washing softly
against a rocky bank.

They looked on all sides for the guide whom Courtin had agreed should
meet them at this point. The general gave a loud call. A voice
answered on the opposite shore,--

"Qui vive?"

"Souday!" replied the general.

"Then you are the ones I am waiting for," said the guide.

"Is this the ford of the Boulogne?" asked the general.

"Yes."

"Why is the water so high?"

"There's a flood since the last rains."

"Is the crossing possible in spite of it?"

"Damn it! I don't know. I have never seen the river as high as this. I
think it would be more prudent--"

The guide's voice suddenly stopped, or rather seemed to turn into a
moan. Then the sound of a struggle was plainly heard, as if the feet
of several men were tussling on the pebbles.

"A thousand thunders!" cried the general, "our guide is being
murdered!"

A cry of agony replied to the general's exclamation and confirmed it.

"A grenadier up behind every trooper!" cried the general. "The captain
behind me! The two lieutenants stay here with the rest of the troop,
the prisoner, and his three guards. Come on, and quickly too!"

In a moment the seventeen chasseurs had each a grenadier behind him.
Eighty grenadiers, the two lieutenants, the prisoner and his three
guards, including Tinguy, remained on the right bank of the river. The
order was executed with the rapidity of thought, and the general,
followed by his chasseurs and the seventeen grenadiers behind them,
plunged into the bed of the river.

Twenty feet from the shore the horses lost foothold, but they swam for
a few moments and reached, without accident, the opposite bank. They
had hardly landed when the grenadiers dismounted.

"Can you see anything?" said the general, trying himself to pierce the
darkness that surrounded the little troop.

"No, general," said the men with one voice.

"Yet it was certainly from here," said the general, as if speaking to
himself, "that the man answered me. Look behind the bushes, but
without scattering; you may find his body."

The soldiers obeyed, searching round a radius of some hundred and
fifty feet. But they returned in about fifteen minutes and reported
that they could see nothing, and had found no traces of the body.

"You saw absolutely nothing?" asked the general.

One grenadier alone came forward, holding in his hand a cotton cap.

"I found this," he said.

"Where?"

"Hooked to a bush."

"That's our guide's cap," said the general.

"How do you know?" asked the captain.

"Because the men who attacked him would have worn hats," replied the
general, without the slightest hesitation.

The captain was silent, not daring to ask further; but it was evident
that the general's explanation had explained nothing to his mind.

Dermoncourt understood the captain's silence.

"It is very simple," he said; "the men who have just murdered our
guide have followed us ever since we left Montaigu for the purpose of
rescuing the prisoner. The arrest must be a more important matter than
I thought it was. These men who have followed us were at the fair, and
wore hats, as they always do when they go to the towns; whereas our
guide was called from his bed suddenly by the man who sent him to us,
and he would of course put on the cap he was in the habit of wearing;
it may even have been on his head as he slept."

"Do you really think, general," said the captain, "that those Chouans
would dare to come so near our line of march?"

"They have come step by step with us from Montaigu; they have not let
us out of their sight one single instant. Heavens and earth! people
complain of our inhumanity in this war, and yet at every step we are
made to feel, to our cost, that we have not been inhuman enough. Fool
and simpleton that I have been!"

"I understand you less and less, general," said the captain, laughing.

"Do you remember that beggar-woman who spoke to us just after we left
Montaigu?"

"Yes, general."

"Well, it was that old hag who put up this attack. I wanted to send
her back into the town; I did wrong not to follow my own instinct; I
should have saved the life of this poor devil. Ah! I see now how it
was done. The _Ave Marias_ for which the prisoner asked have been
answered here."

"Do you think they will dare to attack us?"

"If they were in force it would have been done before now. But there
are only six or eight of them at the most."

"Shall I bring over the men on the other bank, general?"

"No, wait; the horses lost foothold and the infantry would drown.
There must be some better ford near by."

"You think so, general?"

"Damn it! I'm sure."

"Then you know the river?"

"Never saw it before."

"Then why--?"

"Ah! captain, it is easy to see that you didn't go through the great
war, as I did,--that war of savages, in which we had to go by
induction. These Vendéan fellows were not posted here on this side of
the river in ambuscade at the moment when we came up on the other:
that is clear."

"For you, general."

"Hey! bless my soul,--clear to anybody! If they had been posted there,
they would have heard the guide and killed him or captured him before
we came; consequently the band were on our flank as we came along."

"That is probably so, general."

"And they must have reached the bank of the river just before us. Now
the interval between the time we arrived and halted and the moment our
guide was attacked was too short to allow of their making a long
detour to another ford--no, they must have forded close by."

"Why couldn't they have crossed here?"

"Because a peasant, especially in these interior regions, hardly ever
knows how to swim. The ford is close at hand, that is certain. Send
four men up the river and four men down. Quick! We don't want to die
here, especially in wet clothes."

At the end of ten minutes the officer returned.

"You are right, general," he said; "three hundred yards from here
there's a small island; the trunk of a tree joins it with the other
bank, and another trunk with this side."

"Good!" said the general; "then they can get across without wetting a
cartridge."

Calling to the officer on the opposite bank,--

"Ohé! lieutenant," he said, "go up the river till you come to a tree,
cross there, and be sure you watch the prisoner."

XXII.

FETCH! PATAUD, FETCH!

For the next five minutes the two troops advanced slowly up the river,
one on each bank. When they reached the place discovered by the
captain the general called a halt.

"One lieutenant and forty men across!" he cried.

Forty men and one lieutenant came over with the water up to their
shoulders, though they were able to lift their guns and their
cartridge-boxes above the surface. On landing, they ranged in line of
battle.

"Now," said the general, "bring over the prisoner."

Thomas Tinguy entered the water with a chasseur on each side of him.

"Thomas," said Jean Oullier, in a low but penetrating voice, "If I
were in your place I should be afraid of one thing; I should expect to
see the ghost of my father rising before me and asking why I shed the
blood of his best friend rather than just unbuckle a miserable girth."

The chasseur passed his hand over his forehead, which was bathed in
sweat, and made the sign of the cross. At this moment the three riders
were in the middle of the river, but the current had slightly
separated them.

Suddenly, a loud sound accompanied by the splashing of water proved
that Jean Oullier had not in vain evoked before the poor superstitious
Breton soldier the revered image of his father.

The general knew at once what the sound meant.

"The prisoner is escaping!" he cried in a voice of thunder. "Light
torches, spread yourselves along the bank, fire upon him if he shows
himself. As for you," he added addressing Thomas Tinguy, who came
ashore close to him without attempting to escape,--"as for you, you go
no farther."

Taking a pistol from his belt he fired.

"Thus die all traitors!" he cried.

And Thomas Tinguy, shot through the breast, fell dead.

The soldiers, obeying orders with a rapidity which showed they felt
the gravity of their situation, rushed along the river in the
direction of the current. A dozen torches lighted on each bank threw
their ruddy glare upon the water.

Jean Oullier, released from his chief bond when Thomas Tinguy
unbuckled the girth, slid from the horse and plunged into the river,
passing between the legs of the horse on the right. We may now inquire
how it is possible for a man to swim with his hands bound in front of
him.

Jean Oullier had relied so confidently on his appeal to the son of his
old friend that as soon as the darkness fell he began to gnaw the rope
that bound his wrists with his teeth. He had good teeth, so that by
the time they reached the river the rope held only by a single strand;
once in the water a vigorous jerk parted it altogether.

At the end of a few seconds the Chouan was forced to come to the
surface and breathe; instantly a dozen shots were fired at him, and as
many balls set the water foaming about him. By a miracle none touched
him; but he felt the wind of their passage across his face.

It was not prudent to tempt such luck a second time, for then it would
be tempting God, not luck. He plunged again, and finding foothold
turned to go up the river instead of keeping down with the current; in
short, he made what is called in the hunting-field a double; it often
succeeds with a hare, why not with a man? thought he.

Jean Oullier therefore doubled, went up the river under water, holding
his breath till his chest came near to bursting, and not reappearing
on the surface till he was beyond the line of light thrown by the
torches on the river.

This man[oe]uvre deceived his enemies. Little supposing that he would
voluntarily add another danger to his flight, the soldiers continued
to look for him down instead of up the river, holding their guns like
hunters watching for game, and ready to fire the instant that he
showed himself. Their interest in the sport was all the greater
because the game was a man.

Half a dozen grenadiers alone beat up the river, and they carried but
one torch among them.

Stifling as best he could the heavy sound of his breathing, Jean
Oullier managed to reach a willow the branches of which stretched over
the river, their tips even touching the water. The swimmer seized a
branch, put it between his teeth, and held himself thus with his head
thrown back so that his mouth and nostrils were out of water and able
to breathe the air.

He had hardly recovered his breath before he heard a plaintive howl
from the spot where the column had halted and where he himself had
dropped into the river. He knew the sound.

"Pataud!" he murmured; "Pataud here, when I sent him to Souday!
Something has happened to him! Oh, my God! my God!" he cried with
inexpressible fervor and deep faith, "now, _now_ it is all-important
to save me from being recaptured."

The soldiers had seen Jean Oullier's dog in the courtyard and they
recognized him.

"There's his dog! there's his dog!" they cried.

"Bravo!" cried a sergeant; "he'll help us to catch his master."

And he tried to lay a hand on him. But although the poor animal seemed
stiff and tired, he eluded the man's grasp, and sniffing the air in
the direction of the current he jumped into the river.

"This way, comrades, this way!" cried the sergeant, stretching his arm
in the direction taken by the dog "He's after his master."

The moment Jean Oullier heard Pataud's cry he put his head out of
water, regardless of the consequences to himself. He saw the dog
cutting diagonally across the river, swimming directly for him; he
knew he was lost if he did not make some mighty effort. To sacrifice
his dog was to Jean Oullier a supreme effort. If his own life alone
had been in the balance Jean Oullier would have taken his risks and
been lost or saved with Pataud; at any rate he would have hesitated
before he saved himself at the cost of the dog's life.

He quickly took off the goatskin cape he wore over his jacket and let
it float on the surface of the water, giving it a strong push into the
middle of the current. Pataud was then not twenty feet from him.

"Seek! fetch!" he said in a low voice showing the direction to the
dog, Then, as the poor animal, feeling no doubt that his strength was
leaving him, hesitated to obey.

"Fetch, Pataud, fetch!" cried Jean Oullier, imperatively.

Pataud turned and swam in the direction of the goatskin, which was now
about fifty feet away from him. Jean Oullier, seeing that his trick
had succeeded, dived again at the moment when the soldiers on the bank
were alongside the willow. One of them carrying the torch scrambled
quickly up the tree and lit the whole bed of the river. The goatskin
was plainly seen floating rapidly down the current, and Pataud was
swimming after it, moaning and whining as if distressed that his
failing strength prevented him from accomplishing his master's order.

The soldiers, following the dog's lead, redescended the river, going
farther and farther away from Jean Oullier. As soon as one of them
caught sight of the goatskin he shouted to his comrades:--

"Here, friends! here he is! here he is, the _brigand_!" and he fired
at the goatskin.

Grenadiers and chasseurs ran pell-mell along both banks, getting
farther and farther from Jean Oullier, and riddling the goatskin,
after which Pataud was still swimming, with their balls. For some
minutes the firing was so continuous that there was no need of
torches; the flashes of burning sulphur from the muskets lit up the
wild ravine through which the Boulogne flows, while the rocks, echoing
back the volleys, redoubled the noise.

The general was the first to discover the blunder of his men.

"Stop the firing!" he said to the captain who was still beside him;
"those fools have dropped the prey for the shadow."

Just then a brilliant light shone from the crest of the rocky ridge
overhanging the river; a sharp hiss sounded above the heads of the two
officers, and a ball buried itself in the trunk of a tree beyond them.

"Ah ha!" exclaimed the general, coolly; "that rascal only asked for a
dozen _Ave Marias_, but his friends are inclined to be liberal!"

Three or four more shots were now fired, and the balls ricochetted
along the shore. One man cried out. Then, in a voice that overpowered
the tumult, the general shouted:

"Bugles, sound the recall! and you, there, put out the torches!"

Then in a low voice to the captain,--

"Bring the other forty over at once; we shall need every man here in a
minute."

The soldiers, startled by this night attack, clustered round their
general. Five or six flashes, at rather long distances apart, shone
from the crest of the ravine, and lit up momentarily the dark dome of
the sky. A grenadier fell dead; the horse of a chasseur reared and
fell over on his rider with a ball through his chest.

"Forward! a thousand thunders! forward!" cried the general, "and let's
see if those night-hawks will dare to wait for us."

Putting himself at the head of his men he began to climb the slope of
the ravine with such vigor that, in spite of the darkness which made
the ascension difficult, and in spite of the balls which met them and
brought down two more of his men, the little troop soon scaled the
height. The enemy's fire stopped instantly, and though a few shaking
furze-bushes still showed the recent presence of Chouans, it might be
thought that the earth had opened and swallowed them up.

"Sad war! sad war!" muttered the general. "And now, of course, our
whole expedition is a failure. No matter! better attempt it. Besides,
Souday is on the road to Machecoul, and we can't rest our men short of
Machecoul."

"But we want a guide, general," said the captain.

"Guide! Don't you see that light, a thousand feet off, over there?"

"A light?"

"Damn it, yes!--a light."

"No, I don't, general."

"Well, I see it. That light means a hut; a hut means a peasant; and
whether that peasant be man, woman, or child, he or she shall be made
to guide us through the forest."

Then, in a tone which augured ill for the inhabitant of the hut, the
general gave orders to resume the march, after carefully extending his
line of scouts and guards as far as he dared expose the individual
safety of his men.

The general, followed by his little column, had hardly passed out of
sight beyond the ridge before a man came out of the water, stopped an
instant behind a willow to listen attentively, and then glided from
bush to bush along the shore, with the evident intention of following
the path the troop had taken.

As he grasped a tuft of heather to begin the ascent he heard a
feeble moan at a little distance. Jean Oullier--for of course it was
he--turned instantly in the direction of the moans. The nearer he
approached them, the more distressing they became. The man stooped
down with his hands stretched out and felt them licked with a warm,
soft tongue.

"Pataud! my poor Pataud!" murmured the Vendéan.

It was, indeed, poor Pataud, who had spent the last of his strength in
dragging ashore the goatskin his master had sent him for, on which he
had now lain down to die.

Jean Oullier took the garment from under him, and called him by name.
Pataud gave one long moan, but did not move. Jean Oullier lifted him
in his arms to carry him; but the dog no longer stirred. The Vendéan
felt the hand with which he held him wet with a warm and viscous
fluid. He raised it to his face and smelt the fetid odor of blood. He
tried to open the jaws of the poor creature, but they were clenched.
Pataud had died in saving his master, whom chance had brought back to
him for a last caress.

Had the dog been wounded by a ball aimed by the soldiers at the
goatskin, or was he already wounded when he jumped into the water to
follow Jean Oullier?

The Vendéan leaned to the last opinion. Pataud's
halt beside the river, the feebleness with which he swam,--all induced
Jean Oullier to think that the poor animal had been previously
wounded.

"Well," he said sadly, "to-morrow I'll clear it up, and sorrow to him
who killed you, my poor dog!"

So saying, he laid Pataud's body beneath a shrubby bush, and springing
up the hillside was lost to sight among the gorse.

XXIII.

TO WHOM THE COTTAGE BELONGED.

The cottage, where the general had seen the light his captain could
not see, was occupied by two families. The heads of these families
were brothers. The elder was named Joseph, the younger Pascal Picaut.
The father of these Picauts had taken part, in 1792, in the first
uprising of the Retz district, and followed the fortunes of the
sanguinary Souchu, as the pilot-fish follows the shark, as the jackal
follows the lion; and he had taken part in the horrible massacres
which signalized the outbreak of the insurrection on the left bank of
the Loire.

When Charette did justice on that Carrier of the white cockade Souchu,
Picaut, whose sanguinary appetites were developed, sulked at the new
leader, who, to his mind, made the serious mistake of not desiring
blood except upon the battlefield. He therefore left the division
under Charette, and joined that commanded by the terrible Jolly, an
old surgeon of Machecoul. He, at least, was on a level with Picaut's
enthusiasm. But Jolly, recognizing the need of unity, and
instinctively foreseeing the military genius of the leader of the
Lower Vendée, placed himself under Charette's banner; and Picaut, who
had not been consulted, dispensed with consulting his commander, and
once more abandoned his comrades. Tired out with these perpetual
changes, profoundly convinced that time would never lessen the savage
hatred he felt for the murderers of Souchu, he sought a general who
was not likely to be seduced by the splendor of Charette's exploits,
and found him in Stofflet, whose antagonism against the hero of the
Retz region was already revealed in numberless instances.

On the 25th of February, 1796, Stofflet was made prisoner at the farm
of Poitevinière, with two aides-de-camp and two chasseurs who
accompanied him. The Vendéan leader and his aides were shot, and the
peasants were sent back to their cottages. Picaut was one of them. It
was then two years since he had seen his home.

Arriving there, he found two fine young men, vigorous and well-grown,
who threw themselves upon his neck and embraced him. They were his
sons. The eldest was seventeen years old, the youngest sixteen. Picaut
accepted their caresses with a good grace and looked them well over.
He examined their structure, their athletic frames, and felt their
muscles with evident satisfaction. He had left two children behind
him; he found two soldiers. Only, like himself, these soldiers were
unarmed.

The Republic had, in fact, taken from Picaut the carbine and sabre he
had obtained through English gold. But Picaut resolved that the
Republic should be generous enough to return them and to arm his two
sons in compensation for the harm she had done him. It is true that he
did not intend to consult the Republic on this point.

The next day he ordered his sons to take their cudgels of wild
apple-wood and set out with him for Torfou. At Torfou there was a
demi-brigade of infantry. When Picaut, who marched by night and scorned
all regular roads, saw, as he crossed the fields, an agglomeration of
lights before him, which revealed the town and showed him he had
almost reached the end of his journey, he ordered his sons to continue
to follow him, but to imitate all his movements and to stop short,
motionless, the instant they heard the cry made by a blackbird when
suddenly awakened. There is no hunter but knows that the blackbird,
suddenly roused, utters three or four rapid notes which are quite
peculiar and unmistakable.

Then, instead of walking forward as before, Picaut began to crawl
around the outskirts of the town, in the shadow of the hedges,
listening every twenty steps or so, with the utmost attention.

At last he heard a step,--the slow, measured, monotonous step of one
man. Picaut went flat on his stomach, and continued to crawl toward
the sound on his knees and elbows. His sons imitated him. When he came
to the end of the field he was in, Picaut made an opening in the hedge
and looked through it. Being satisfied with what he saw he enlarged
the hole, and, without much regard to the thorns he encountered, he
slipped like an adder through the branches. When he reached the other
side he gave the cry of the blackbird. His sons stopped at the given
signal; but they stood up, and looking over the top of the hedge they
watched their father's proceedings.

The field into which Picaut had now passed was one of tall and very
thick grass, which was swaying in the wind. At the farther end of this
field, about fifty yards off, was the high-road. On this road a sentry
was pacing up and down, about three hundred feet from a building which
was used as barracks, before the door of which another sentry was
placed. The two young men took all this in with a single glance, and
then their eyes returned to their father, who continued to crawl
through the grass in the direction of the sentinel.

When Picaut was not more than six feet from the road he stopped behind
a bush. The sentinel was pacing up and down, and each time that he
turned his back toward the town, as he paced along, his clothes or his
musket touched the bush behind which Picaut was crouching. The lads
trembled for their father every time that this happened.

Suddenly, and at a moment when the wind seemed to rise, a stifled cry
came to them on the breeze. Then, with that acuteness of vision which
men accustomed to use their faculties at night soon acquire, they saw
on the white line of road a struggling black mass. It was Picaut and
the sentinel. After stabbing the sentinel with a knife, Picaut was
strangling him.

A moment later the Vendéan was on his way back to his sons; and
presently, like the she-wolf after slaughter dividing her booty among
her cubs, he bestowed the musket, sabre, and cartridges on the youths.
With this first equipment for service it was very much easier to
obtain a second.

But weapons were not all that Picaut wanted; his object was to obtain
the occasion to use them. He looked about him. In Messieurs
d'Autichamp, de Scepeaux, de Puisaye, and de Bourmont, who still kept
the field, he found only what he called rose-water royalists, who did
not make war in a way to suit him, none of them resembling Souchu, the
type of all that Picaut wanted in a leader.

It resulted that Picaut, rather than be, as he thought, ill-commanded,
resolved to make himself an independent leader and command others. He
recruited a few malcontents like himself, and became the leader of a
band which, though numerically small, never wearied in giving proofs
of its hatred to the Republic.

Picaut's tactics were of the simplest. He lived in the forests. During
the day he and his men rested. At night he left the sheltering woods,
and ambushed his little troop behind the hedges. If a government
convoy or a diligence came along, he attacked and robbed it. When
convoys were rare and diligences too strongly escorted, Picaut found
his compensation with the pickets whom he shot, and the farmhouses and
buildings of the patriots, which he burned. After one or two
expeditions his followers gave him the name of "Sans-Quartier," and
Picaut, who resolved, conscientiously, to deserve that title, never
failed, after its bestowal, to hang, shoot, or disembowel all
republicans--male and female, citizens or soldiers, old men and
children--who fell into his hands.

He continued his operations till 1800. At that period, Europe, leaving
the First Consul some respite (or the First Consul leaving Europe a
respite), Bonaparte, who had no doubt heard of the fame of Picaut
Sans-Quartier's exploits, resolved to consecrate his leisure to that
warrior, and sent against him, not a _corps d'armée_, but two Chouans,
recruited in the rue de Jérusalem, and two brigades of gendarmerie.

Picaut, not distrustful, admitted his two false compatriots into his
band. A few days later he fell into a snare. He was caught, together
with most of his men, and he paid with his head for the bloody renown
he had acquired. It was as a highwayman and a robber of diligences,
and not as a soldier, that he was condemned to the guillotine instead
of being shot. He went boldly to the scaffold, asking no more quarter
for himself than he had given to others.

Joseph, his eldest son, was sent to the galleys with those of the band
who were captured. Pascal, the younger, escaped the trap laid for his
father, and took to the forests, where he continued to "Chouanize"
with the remnants of the band. But this savage life soon became
intolerable to him, and one fine day he went to Beaupréau, gave his
sabre and musket to the first soldier he met, and asked to be taken to
the commandant of the town, to whom he related his history.

This commandant, a major of dragoons, took an interest in the poor
devil, and, in consideration of his youth and the singular confidence
with which he had come to him, he offered young Picaut to enlist him
in his regiment. In case of refusal, he should, he said, be obliged to
hand him over to the legal authorities. Before such an alternative
Pascal Picaut (who had now heard of the fate of his father and
brother, and had no desire to return to his own neighborhood) did not
hesitate. He donned the Republican uniform.

Fourteen years later the two sons of Sans-Quartier met again and
returned to their former home, to claim possession of their father's
little property. The return of the Bourbons had opened the gates of
the galleys for Joseph and released Pascal, who, from being a brigand
of La Vendée, was then a brigand of the Loire.

Joseph, issuing from the galleys, returned to the family cottage more
violent in feeling than ever his father had been. He burned to avenge
in the blood of patriots the death of his father, and his own
tortures.

Pascal, on the contrary, returned home with ideas quite changed from
his earlier ones, changed by the different world he had seen, and
changed, above all, by contact with men to whom hatred of the Bourbons
was a duty, the fall of Napoleon a sorrow, the entrance of the Allies
a disgrace,--feelings which were kept alive in his heart by the cross
that he wore on his breast.

Nevertheless, in spite of these differences of opinion, which led, of
course, to frequent discussion, and in spite of the chronic
misunderstanding between them, the two brothers did not separate,
but continued to live on in the house their father had left them,
and to cultivate on shares the fields belonging to it. Both were
married,--Joseph, to the daughter of a poor peasant; Pascal, to whom
his cross and his little pension gave a certain consideration in the
neighborhood, to the daughter of a bourgeois of Saint-Philbert, a
patriot like himself.

The presence of two wives in one house, each of whom--one from envy,
the other from rancor--exaggerated the sentiments of their husbands,
added not a little to the household discord. Nevertheless, the two
brothers and their families continued to live together till 1830. The
revolution of July, which Pascal approved, roused all the fanatical
wrath of Joseph. Pascal's father-in-law became mayor of Saint-Philbert,
and then the Chouan and his wife launched forth into such invectives
and insults against "those clumsy villains" that Madame Pascal told her
husband she would not live any longer with galley-slaves, for she did
not feel her life was safe among them.

The old soldier had no children, and he was singularly attached to
those of his brother. In particular there was a little fair-haired
boy, with cheeks as round and as rosy as a pigeon-apple, whom he felt
he could not part with, his chief pleasure in life being to dandle the
fellow on his knee for hours together. Pascal felt his heart wrung at
the very thought of losing his adopted son. In spite of the wrongs
done him by his elder brother, he was strongly attached to him. He
knew he was impoverished by the costs of his large family; he feared
that the separation might cast him into utter poverty, and he
therefore refused his wife's request. But he so far regarded it that
the two families ceased to take their meals together. The house had
three rooms, and Pascal retired into one, leaving two for his
brother's family and walling up the door of communication.

The evening of the day on which Jean Oullier was made prisoner, the
wife of Pascal Picaut was very uneasy. Her husband had left home at
four in the afternoon,--about the time when General Dermoncourt and his
detachment started from Montaigu. Pascal had to go, he said, and settle
some accounts with Courtin at la Logerie; and now, although it was
nearly eight o'clock, he had not returned. The poor woman's uneasiness
became agony when she heard the shots in the direction of the river.
From time to time she left her wheel, on which she was spinning beside
the fire, and went to listen at the door. After the firing ceased she
heard nothing except the wind in the tree-tops and the plaintive whine
of a dog in the distance.

Little Louis, the child whom Pascal loved so much, came to ask if his
uncle had returned; but hardly had he put his rosy little face into
the room before his mother, calling him harshly back, obliged him to
disappear.

For several days Joseph Picaut had shown himself more surly, more
threatening than ever; and that very morning, before starting for the
fair at Montaigu, he had had a scene with his brother, which if
Pascal's patience had not held good, might have ended in a scuffle.
The latter's wife dared not say a word to her sister-in-law about her
uneasiness.

Suddenly she heard voices muttering in mysterious, low tones in the
orchard before the cottage. She rose so hastily that she knocked over
her spinning-wheel. At the same instant the door opened, and Joseph
Picaut appeared on the threshold.

XXIV.

HOW MARIANNE PICAUT MOURNED HER HUSBAND.

The presence of her brother-in-law, whom Marianne Picaut did not
expect at that time, and a vague presentiment of misfortune which came
over her at the sight of him, produced such a painful impression on
the poor woman that she fell back into her chair, half dead with
terror.

Joseph advanced slowly, without uttering a word to his brother's wife,
who stared at him as though she saw a ghost. When he reached the
fireplace Joseph Picaut, still silent, took a chair, sat down, and
began to stir the embers on the hearth with a stick which he carried
in his hand. In the circle of light thrown by the fire Marianne could
see that he was very pale.

"In the name of the good God, Joseph," she said, "tell me what is the
matter?"

"Who were those villains who came here to-night, Marianne?" asked the
Chouan, answering one question by asking another.

"No one came here," she replied, shaking her head to give force to her
denial. Then she added, "Joseph, have you seen your brother?"

"Who persuaded him away from home?" continued the Chouan, still
questioning, and making no reply.

"No one, I tell you. He left home about four o'clock to go to La
Logerie and pay the mayor for that buckwheat he bought for you last
week."

"The mayor of La Logerie?" said Joseph Picaut, frowning. "Yes, yes!
Maître Courtin. A bold villain, he! Many's the time I've told
Pascal,--and this very morning I repeated it,--'Don't tempt the God you
deny, or some harm will happen to you.'"

"Joseph! Joseph!" cried Marianne; "how dare you mingle the name of God
with words of hatred against your brother who loves you so, you and
yours, that he'd take the bread out of his own mouth to give it to
your children! If an evil fate brings civil war into the land that's
no reason why you should bring it into our home. Good God! Keep your
own opinions and let Pascal keep his. His are inoffensive, but yours
are not. His gun stays hooked over the fireplace, he meddles with no
intrigues, and threatens no party; whereas, for the last six months
there has not been a day you haven't gone out armed to the teeth, and
sworn evil to the townspeople, of whom my father is one, and even to
my family itself."

"Better go out with a musket and face the villains than betray those
among whom you live, like a coward, and guide another army of Blues
into the midst of us, that they may pillage the château of those who
have kept the faith."

"Who has guided the Blues?"

"Pascal."

"When? where?"

"To-night; at the ford of Pont-Farcy."

"Good God! It was from there the shots came!" cried Marianne.

Suddenly the eyes of the poor woman became fixed and haggard. They
lighted on Joseph's hands.

"You have blood on your hands!" she cried. "Whose blood is it? Joseph,
tell me that! Whose blood is it?"

The Chouan's first movement was to hide his hands, but he thought
better of it, and brazened the matter out.

"That blood," he answered, his face, which had been pale, becoming
purple, "is the blood of a traitor to his God, his country, and his
king. It is the blood of a man who forgot that the Blues had sent his
father to the scaffold and his brother to the galleys,--a man who did
not shrink from taking service with the Blues."

"You have killed my husband! you have murdered your brother!" cried
Marianne, facing Joseph with savage violence.

"No, I did not."

"You lie."

"I swear I did not."

"Then if you swear you did not, swear also that you will help me to
avenge him."

"Help you to avenge him! I, Joseph Picaut? Never!" said the Chouan, in
a determined voice. "For though I did not kill him, I approved of
those who did; and if I had been in their place, though he were my
brother, I swear by our Lord that I would have done as they did."

"Repeat that," said Marianne; "for I hope I did not hear you right."

The Chouan repeated his speech, word for word.

"Then I curse you, as I curse them!" cried Marianne, raising her hand
with a terrible gesture above her brother-in-law's head. "That
vengeance which you refuse to take, in which I now include you,--you,
your brother's murderer in heart, if not in deed,--God and I will
accomplish together; and if God fails me, then I alone! And now," she
added, with an energy which completely subdued the Chouan, "where is
he? What have they done with his body? Speak! You intend to return me
his body, don't you?"

"When I got to the place, after hearing the guns," said Joseph, "he
was still alive. I took him in my arms to bring him here, but he died
on the way."

"And then you threw him into the ditch like a dog, you Cain! Oh! I
wouldn't believe that story when I read it in the Bible!"

"No, I did not," said Joseph; "I have laid him in the orchard."

"My God! my God!" cried the poor woman, whose whole body was shaken
with a convulsive movement. "Perhaps you are mistaken, Joseph; perhaps
he still breathes, and we may save him. Come, Joseph, come! If we find
him living I'll forgive you for being friends with your brother's
murderers."

She unhooked the lamp, and sprang toward the door. But instead of
following her, Joseph Picaut, who for the last few moments had been
listening to a noise without, hearing that the sounds--evidently those
of a body of marching men--were approaching the cottage, darted from
the door, ran round the buildings, jumped the hedge between them and
the fields, and took the direction of the forest of Machecoul, the
black masses of which loomed up in the distance.

Poor Marianne, left alone, ran hither and thither in the orchard.
Bewildered and almost maddened, she swung her lamp about her,
forgetting to look in the circle of light it threw, and fancying that
her eyes must pierce the darkness to find her husband. Suddenly,
passing a spot she had passed already once or twice, she stumbled and
nearly fell. Her hand, stretched out to save herself from the ground,
came in contact with a human body.

She gave a great cry and threw herself on the corpse, clasping it
tightly. Then, lifting it in her arms, as she might, under other
circumstances, have lifted a child, she carried her husband's body
into the cottage and laid it on the bed.

In spite of the jarring relations of the two families, Joseph's wife
came into Pascal's room. Seeing the body of her brother-in-law, she
fell upon her knees beside the bed and sobbed.

Marianne took the light her sister-in-law brought with her--for hers
was left in the orchard--and turned it full upon her husband's face.
His mouth and eyes were open, as though he still lived. His wife put
her hand eagerly upon his heart, but it did not beat. Then, turning to
her sister-in-law, who was weeping and praying beside her, the widow
of Pascal Picaut, with blood-shot eyes flaming like firebrands, cried
out:--

"Behold what the Chouans have done to my
husband,--what Joseph has done to his brother! Well, here upon this
body, I swear to have no peace nor rest until those murderers have
paid the price of blood."

"You shall not wait long, poor woman, or I'll lose my name," said a
man's voice behind her.

Both women turned round and saw an officer wrapped in a cloak, who had
entered without their hearing him. Bayonets were glittering in the
darkness outside the door, and they now heard the snorting of horses
who snuffed the blood.

"Who are you?" asked Marianne.

"An old soldier, like your husband,--one who has seen battlefields
enough to have the right to tell you not to lament the death of one
who dies for his country, but to avenge him."

"I do not lament, monsieur," replied the widow, raising her head, and
shaking back her fallen hair. "What brings you to this cottage at the
same time as death?"

"Your husband was to serve as guide to an expedition that is important
for the peace and safety of your unhappy country. This expedition may
prevent the flow of blood and the destruction of many lives for a lost
cause. Can you give me another guide to replace him?"

"Shall you meet the Chouans on your expedition?" asked Marianne.

"Probably we shall," replied the officer.

"Then I will guide you," said the widow, unhooking her husband's gun,
which was hanging above the mantel. "Where do you wish to go? I will
take you. You can pay me in cartridges."

"We wish to go to the château de Souday."

"Very good; I can guide you. I know the way."

Casting a last look at her husband's body, the widow of Pascal Picaut
left the house, followed by the general. The wife of Joseph
Picaut remained on her knees, praying, beside the corpse of her
brother-in-law.

XXV.

IN WHICH LOVE LENDS POLITICAL OPINIONS TO THOSE WHO
HAVE NONE.

We left the young Baron Michel on the verge of coming to a great
resolution. Only, just as he was about to act upon it, he heard steps
outside his room. Instantly he throw himself on his bed and closed his
eyes, keeping his ears open.

The steps passed; then a few moments later they repassed his door, but
without pausing. They were not those of his mother, nor were they in
quest of him. He opened his eyes, sat up on the bed, and began to
think. His reflections were serious.

Either he must break away from his mother, whose slightest word was law
to him, renounce all the ambitions ideas she centred on him,--ideas
which had hitherto been most attractive to his vacillating mind,--he
must bid farewell to the honors the dynasty of July was pledged to
bestow on the millionaire youth, and plunge into a struggle which
would undoubtedly be a bloody one, leading to confiscation, exile, and
death, while his own good sense and judgment told him it was futile; or
else he must resign himself and give up Mary.

Let us say at once that Michel, although he reflected, did not
hesitate. Obstinacy is the first outcome of weakness, which is capable
of being obstinate even to ferocity. Besides, too many other good
reasons spurred the young baron to allow him to succumb.

In the first place, duty and honor both required him to warn the Comte
de Bonneville of the dangers that might threaten him and the person
who was with him. Michel already reproached himself for his delay in
doing so.

Accordingly, after a few moments' careful reflection, Michel decided
on his course. In spite of his mother's watchfulness, he had read
novels enough to know that if occasion came, a simple pair of sheets
could make an all-sufficient ladder. Naturally enough, this was the
first thought that came into his mind. Unfortunately, the windows of
his bedroom were directly over those of the kitchen, where he would
infallibly be seen when he fluttered down through mid-air, although,
as we have said, darkness was just beginning. Moreover, the height was
really so great from his windows to the ground that in spite of his
resolution to conquer, at the cost of a thousand dangers, the heart of
her whom he loved, he felt cold chills running down his back at the
mere idea of being suspended by such a fragile hold above an abyss.

In front of his windows was a tall Canadian poplar, the branches of
which were about six feet from his balcony. To climb down that poplar,
inexperienced though he was in all athletic exercises, seemed to him
easy enough, but how to reach its branches was a problem; for the
young man dared not trust to the elasticity of his limbs and take a
spring.

Necessity made him ingenious. He had in his room a quantity of
fishing-tackle, which he had lately been using against the carp and
roach in the lake of Grand-Lieu,--an innocent pleasure, which maternal
solicitude had authorized. He selected a rod, fastened a hook at the
end of the line, and put the whole beside the window. Then he went to
his bed and took a sheet. At one end of the sheet he tied a
candlestick,--he wanted an article with some weight; a candlestick
came in his way, and he took a candlestick. He flung this candlestick
in such a way that it fell on the other side of the stoutest limb of
the poplar. Then with his hook and line he fished in the end of the
sheet, and brought it back to him.

After this he tied both ends firmly to the railing of his balcony, and
he thus had a sort of suspension-bridge, solid beyond all
misadventure, between his window and the poplar. The young man got
astride of it, like a sailor on a yard-arm, and gently propelling
himself along, he was soon in the tree, and next on the ground. Then,
without caring whether he was seen or not, he crossed the lawn at a
run and went toward Souday, the road to which he now knew better than
any other.

When he reached the heights of Servière he heard musketry, which
seemed to come from somewhere between Montaigu and the lake of
Grand-Lieu. His emotion was great. The echo of every volley that came
to him on the breeze produced a painful commotion in his mind, which
reacted on his heart. The sounds evidently indicated danger, perhaps
even death to her he loved, and this thought paralyzed him with
terror. Then when he reflected that Mary might blame him for the
troubles he had not averted from her head and from those of her father
and sister and friends, the tears filled his eyes.

Consequently, instead of slackening speed when he heard the firing, he
only thought of quickening it. From a rapid walk he broke into a run,
and soon reached the first trees of the forest of Machecoul. There,
instead of following the road, which would have delayed him several
minutes, he flung himself into a wood-path that he had taken more than
once for the very purpose of shortening the way.

Hurrying beneath the dark, overhanging dome of trees, falling
sometimes into ditches, stumbling over stones, catching on thorny
briers,--so dense was the darkness, so narrow the way,--he presently
reached what was called the Devil's Vale. There he was in the act of
jumping a brook which runs in the depths of it, when a man, springing
abruptly from a clump of gorse, seized him so roughly that he knocked
him down into the slimy bed of the brook, pressing the cold muzzle of
a pistol to his forehead.

"Not a cry, not a word, or you are a dead man!" said the assailant.

The position was a frightful one for the young baron. The man put a
knee on his chest, and held him down, remaining motionless himself, as
though he were expecting some one. At last, finding that no one came,
he gave the cry of the screech-owl, which was instantly answered from
the interior of the wood, and the rapid steps of a man were heard
approaching.

"Is that you, Picaut?" said the man whose knee was on Michel's breast.

"No, not Picaut; it is I," said the new-comer.

"Who is 'I'?"

"Jean Oullier."

"Jean Oullier!" cried the other, with such joy that he raised himself
partially, and thus relieved, to some extent, his prisoner. "Really
and truly you? Did you actually get away from the red-breeches?"

"Yes, thanks to all of you, my friends. But we have not a minute to
lose if we want to escape a great disaster."

"What's to be done? Now that you are free and here with us, all will
go well."

"How many men have you?"

"Eight on leaving Montaigu; but the _gars_ of Vieille-Vigne joined us.
We must be sixteen or eighteen by this time."

"How many guns?"

"Each man has one."

"Good. Where are they stationed?"

"Along the edge of the forest."

"Bring them together."

"Yes."

"You know the crossway at the Ragots?"

"Like my pocket."

"Wait for the soldiers there, not in ambush but openly. Order fire
when they are within twenty paces. Kill all you can,--so much vermin
the less."

"Yes. And then?"

"As soon as your guns are discharged separate in two bodies,--one to
escape by the path to La Cloutière, the other by the road to
Bourgnieux. Fire as you run, and coax them to follow you."

"To get them off their track, hey?"

"Precisely, Guérin; that's it."

"Yes; but--you?"

"I must get to Souday. I ought to be there now."

"Oh, oh, Jean Oullier!" exclaimed the peasant, doubtfully.

"Well, what?" asked Jean Oullier. "Does any one dare to distrust me?"

"No one says they distrust you; they only say they don't trust any one
else."

"I tell you I must be at Souday in ten minutes, and when Jean Oullier
says 'I must,' it is because it _must_ be done. If you can delay the
soldiers half an hour that's all I want."

"Jean Oullier! Jean Oullier!"

"What?"

"Suppose I can't make the _gars_ wait for the soldiers in the open?"

"Order them in the name of the good God."

"If it were you who ordered them they would obey; but me-- Besides,
there's Joseph Picaut among them, and you know Joseph Picaut will only
do as he chooses."

"But if I don't go to Souday I have no one to send."

"Let me go, Monsieur Jean Oullier," said a voice from the earth.

"Who spoke?" said the wolf-keeper.

"A prisoner I have just made," said Guérin.

"What's his name?"

"I did not ask his name."

"I am the Baron de la Logerie," said the young man, managing to sit
up; for the Chouan's grip was loosened and he had more freedom to move
and breathe.

"Ah! Michel's son! You here!" muttered Jean Oullier, in a savage
voice.

"Yes. When Monsieur Guérin stopped me I was on my way to Souday to
warn my friend Bonneville and Petit-Pierre that their presence in the
château was known."

"How came you to know that?"

"I heard it last evening. I overheard a conversation between my mother
and Courtin."

"Then why, as you had such fine intentions, didn't you go sooner to
warn your friend?" retorted Jean Oullier, in a tone of doubt and also
of sarcasm.

"Because the baroness locked me into my room, and that room is on the
second floor, and I could not get out till to-night through the
window, and then at the risk of my life."

Jean Oullier reflected a moment. His prejudice against all that came
from la Logerie was so intense, his hatred against all that bore the
name of Michel so deep, that he could not endure to accept a service
from the young man. In fact, in spite of the latter's ingenuous
frankness, the distrustful Vendéan suspected that such a show of
good-will meant treachery. He knew, however, that Guérin was right, and
that he alone in a crucial moment could give the Chouans confidence
enough in themselves to let the enemy come openly up to them, and
therefore that he alone could delay their march to Souday. On the
other hand, he felt that Michel could explain to the Comte de
Bonneville better than any peasant the danger that threatened him, and
so he resigned himself, though sulkily, to be under an obligation to
one of the Michel family.

"Ah, wolf-cub!" he muttered, "I can't help myself." Then aloud, "Very
well, so be it. Go!" he said; "but have you the legs to do it?"

"Steel legs."

"Hum!" grunted Jean Oullier.

"If Mademoiselle Bertha were here she would certify to them."

"Mademoiselle Bertha!" exclaimed Jean Oullier, frowning.

"Yes; I fetched the doctor for old Tinguy, and I took only fifty
minutes to go seven miles and a half there and back."

Jean Oullier shook his head like a man who is far from being
satisfied.

"Do you look after your enemies," said Michel, "and rely on me. If it
takes you ten minutes to get to Souday it will take me five, I'll
answer for that."

And the young man shook from his clothes the mud and slime with which
he was covered, and prepared to depart.

"Do you know the way?" asked Jean Oullier.

"Know the way! As well as I do the paths at la Logerie." And darting
off in the direction of Souday, he called back, "Good luck to you,
Monsieur Jean Oullier!"

Jean Oullier stood thoughtful a moment. The knowledge the young baron
declared he possessed of the neighborhood of the château greatly
annoyed him.

"Well, well," he growled at last, "we'll put that in order when we get
time." Then addressing Guérin, "Come," said he, "call up the _gars_."

The Chouan took off one of his wooden shoes and putting it to his
mouth he blew into it in a way that exactly represented the howling of
wolves.

"Do you think they'll hear that?" asked Jean Oullier.

"Of course they will. I chose the farthest place to windward to make
sure of it."

"Then we had better not wait for them here. Let us get to the Ragot
crossways. Keep on calling as you go along; we shall gain time that
way."

"How much time have we in advance of the soldiers?" asked Guérin,
following Jean Oullier rapidly through the brake.

"A good half-hour and more. They have halted at the farm of
Pichardière."

"Pichardière!" exclaimed Guérin.

"Yes. They have probably waked up Pascal Picaut, who will guide them.
He is a man to do that, isn't he?"

"Pascal Picaut won't serve as guide to any one. He'll never wake up
again," said Guérin, gloomily.

"Ah!" exclaimed Jean Oullier; "then it was he just now, was it?"

"Yes, it was he."

"Did you kill him?"

"He struggled and called for help. The soldiers were within gunshot of
us; we had to kill him."

"Poor Pascal!" said Jean Oullier.

"Yes," said Guérin, "though he belonged to the scoundrels, he was a
fine man."

"And his brother?" asked Jean Oullier.

"His brother?"

"Yes, Joseph."

"He stood looking on."

Jean Oullier shook himself like a wolf who receives a charge of
buckshot in the flank. That powerful nature accepted all the
consequences of the terrible struggle which is the natural outcome of
civil wars, but he had not foreseen this horror, and he shuddered at
the thought of it. To conceal his emotion from Guérin he hurried his
steps and bounded through the undergrowth as rapidly as though
following his hounds.

Guérin, who stopped from time to time to howl in his shoe, had some
trouble in following. Suddenly he heard Jean Oullier give a low
whistle warning him to halt.

They were then at a part of the forest called the springs of Baugé,
only a short distance from the crossways.

XXVI.

THE SPRINGS OF BAUGÉ.

The springs of Baugé are realty marshes, or rather a marsh, above
which the road leading to Souday rises steeply. It is one of the most
abrupt ascents of this mountain forest.

The column of the "red-breeches," as Guérin called the soldiers, was
obliged to first cross the marsh and then ascend the steep incline.
Jean Oullier had reached the part of the road where it crosses this
bog on piles before the ascent begins. From there he had whistled to
Guérin, who found him apparently reflecting.

"What are you thinking of?" asked Guérin.

"I am thinking that perhaps this is a better place than the
crossways," replied Jean Oullier.

"Yes," said Guérin; "for here's a wagon behind which we can ambush."

Jean Oullier, who had not before noticed it, now examined the object
his companion pointed out to him. It was a heavy cart loaded with
wood, which the driver had left for the night beside the marsh,
fearing, no doubt, to cross the narrow causeway after dusk.

"I have an idea," said Jean Oullier, looking alternately at the cart
and at the hill, which rose like a dark rampart on the other side of
the bog. "Only, they must--"

He looked all about him.

"Who must? What?"

"The _gars_ must be here."

"They are here," said Guérin. "See, here's Patry, the two Gambier
brothers, and there are the Vieille-Vigne men and Joseph Picaut."

Jean Oullier turned his back so as not to see the latter.

It was true enough; the Chouans were flocking up on all sides. First
one and then another came from behind each bush and hedge. Soon they
were all collected.

"_Gars!_" said Jean Oullier, addressing them, "Ever since La Vendée
was La Vendée,--that is, ever since she has fought for her
principles,--her children have never been called upon to show their
courage and their faith more than they are to-day. If we cannot now
stop the march of Louis Philippe's soldiers great misfortunes will
happen; I tell you, my sons, that all the glory which covers the name
of La Vendée will be wiped out. As for me, I am resolved to leave my
bones in the bog of Baugé sooner than allow that infernal column of
troops to go beyond it."

"So are we, Jean Oullier!" cried many voices.

"Good! that is what I expected from men who followed us from Montaigu
to deliver me, and who succeeded. Come, to begin with, help me to drag
this cart to the top of the hill."

"We'll try," said the Vendéans.

Jean Oullier put himself at their head, and the heavy vehicle, pushed
from behind or by the wheels by some, while eight or ten pulled it by
the shafts, crossed the narrow causeway, and was hoisted rather than
dragged to the summit of the steep embankment. There Jean Oullier
wedged the wheels with stones to prevent it from running backward by
its own weight down the steep rise it had gone up with so much
difficulty.

"Now," he said, "put yourselves in ambush each side of the marsh, half
to the right, half to the left, and when the time comes,--that's to
say, when I shout 'Fire!'--fire instantly. If the soldiers turn to
pursue you, as I hope they may, retreat toward Grand-Lieu, striving to
lead them on as best you can away from Souday, which they are aiming
for. If, on the contrary, they continue their way we will all wait for
them at the Ragot crossways. There we must stand firm, and die at our
posts."

The Chouans instantly disappeared into their hiding-places on either
side the marsh, and Jean Oullier was left alone with Guérin.
Thereupon, he flung himself flat on his stomach with his ear to the
ground and listened.

"They are coming," he said. "They are following the road to Souday as
if they knew it. Who the devil can be guiding them, now that Pascal
Picaut is dead?"

"They must have found some peasant and compelled him."

"Then that's another we shall have to get rid of. If they once get
into the depths of the forest of Machecoul without a guide, not one of
them will ever return to Montaigu."

"Ah, _ça_, Jean Oullier!" exclaimed Guérin, suddenly. "You haven't any
weapon!"

"I!" said the old Vendéan, laughing between his teeth. "I've a weapon
that can bring down more men than your carbine; and in ten minutes, if
everything goes as I hope it will, there'll be plenty of guns to pick
up beside the marsh."

So saying, Jean Oullier again went up the ascent, which he had partly
descended to explain to the men his plan of battle, and reached the
cart. It was high time. As he gained the summit he heard on the
opposite hillside, which led down to the marsh, the sound of stones
rolling from the feet of horses, and he saw two or three flashes of
light from their iron shoes. The air was quivering, as it does in the
night-time, with the approach of a body of armed men.

"Come, go down and join the rest," he said to Guérin. "I stay here."

"What are you going to do?"

"You'll see presently."

Guérin obeyed. Jean Oullier crept under the cart and waited. Guérin
had hardly taken his place among his comrades when the two leading
chasseurs of the advanced-guard came upon the edge of the marsh.
Seeing the difficulties before them, they stopped and hesitated.

"Straight on!" cried a firm voice, although it had a feminine ring.
"Straight on!"

The two chasseurs advanced, and seeing the narrow causeway built on
piles they crossed it and began the ascent, coming nearer and nearer
to the cart, and, consequently, to Jean Oullier.

When they were twenty steps away from him, Jean Oullier, still beneath
the cart, hung himself by his hands to the axletree, and resting his
feet on the front bars of the wagon, remained quite motionless. The
chasseurs were presently beside the cart. They examined it carefully
from their saddles, and seeing, of course, nothing of the man beneath
it or anything else to excite distrust, they continued their way.

The main column was by this time at the edge of the marsh. The widow
Picaut passed first, then the general, then the chasseurs. The marsh
was crossed in that order.

But just as they reached the foot of the slope a thundering sound was
heard from the summit of the rise they were about to ascend; the
ground shook under their feet, and a sort of avalanche came tearing
down the hill with the rapidity of a thunderbolt.

"Stand aside!" cried Dermoncourt, in a voice which rose above that
horrible uproar.

Seizing the widow by the arm, he spurred his horse into the bushes.
The general's first thought was for his guide, who was, for the
moment, the most precious thing he had. The guide and he were safe.

But the soldiers for the most part did not have time to obey their
leader. Paralyzed by the strange noise they heard and not knowing what
enemy to look for, blinded by the darkness, and feeling danger
everywhere about them, they held to the road, where the cart (for of
course it was the cart, violently impelled by Jean Oullier from the
top of the steep embankment) cut its way through them like a monstrous
cannon-ball, killing those the wheels ran over, and wounding others
with its logs and splinters.

A moment of stupefaction followed this catastrophe, but it could not
check Dermoncourt.

"Forward, men!" he cried, "and let's get out of this cut-throat
place!"

At the same moment a voice, not less powerful than his own, called
out:--

"Fire, my _gars!_"

A flash issued from every bush on either side of the marsh and a rain
of balls came pelting down among the little troop. The voice that
ordered the volley resounded from its front, but the shots came from
its rear. The general, an old war-wolf, as sly and wary as Jean
Oullier himself, saw through the man[oe]uvre.

"Forward!" he cried; "don't lose time answering them. Forward!
forward!"

The column continued to advance, and in spite of the volleys which
followed it, reached the top of the hill.

While the general and his men were making the ascent Jean Oullier,
hiding among the underbrush, went rapidly down the hill and joined his
companions.

"Bravo!" said Guérin. "Ah! if we had only ten arms like yours and a
few such wood-carts as that we could get rid of this cursed army in a
very short time."

"Hum!" growled Jean Oullier, "I'm not as satisfied as you. I hoped to
turn them back, but we have not done it. It looks to me as if they
were keeping on their way. To the crossroads, now, and as fast as our
legs will take us!"

"Who says the red-breeches are keeping on their way?" asked a voice.

Jean Oullier went to the boggy path whence the voice had come, and
recognized Joseph Picaut. The Vendéan, kneeling on the ground, with
his gun beside him, was conscientiously emptying the pockets of three
soldiers whom Jean Oullier's mighty projectile had knocked over and
crushed to death. The wolf-keeper turned away with an expression of
disgust.

"Listen to Joseph," said Guérin, in a low voice to Jean Oullier. "You
had better listen to him, for he sees by night like the cats, and his
advice is not to be despised."

"Well, I say," said Joseph Picaut, putting his plunder into a canvas
bag he always carried with him,--"I say that since the Blues reached
the top of the embankment they haven't budged. You haven't any ears,
you fellows, or you would hear them stamping up there like sheep in a
fold. If you don't hear them, I do."

"Let us make sure of that," said Jean Oullier to Guérin, thus avoiding
a reply to Joseph.

"You are right, Jean Oullier, and I'll go myself," replied Guérin.

The Vendéan crossed the marsh, crept through the reeds, and went half
way up the ascent, crawling on his stomach like a snake among the
rocks, and gliding so gently under the bushes that they scarcely
stirred as he passed. When he was only about thirty paces from the
summit he stood up, put his hat on the end of a long stick, and waved
it above his head. Instantly a shot from the summit sent it spinning a
hundred feet below its owner.

"He was right," said Jean Oullier, who heard the shot. "But what is
hindering them? Is their guide killed?"

"Their guide is not killed," said Joseph Picaut, in a savage voice.

"Did you see him?" asked another voice, for Jean Oullier seemed
determined not to speak to Joseph Picaut.

"Yes," replied the Chouan.

"Did you recognize him?"

"Yes."

"Then it must be," said Jean Oullier, as if speaking to himself, "that
they wanted to get away from the marsh and bivouac behind those rocks,
where they are safe from our guns. No doubt they will stay there till
morning."

Presently a few lights were seen flickering on the height.

Little by little they increased in number and in size, until four or
five camp fires lit up with a ruddy glow the sparse vegetation which
grew among the rocks.

"This is very strange if their guide is still with them," said Jean
Oullier. "However, as they are certain to go by the Ragot crossways in
any case, take your men there, Guérin," he said to the Chouan, who by
this time had returned to his side.

"Very good," said the latter.

"If they continue their way, you know what you have to do; if, on the
contrary, they have really bivouacked up there, you can let them take
their ease beside their fires. It is useless to attack them."

"Why so?" asked Joseph Picaut.

Thus directly questioned as to his own order, Jean Oullier was forced
to reply.

"Because," he said, "it is a crime to uselessly expose the lives of
brave men."

"Say rather--"

"What?" demanded the old keeper, violently.

"Say 'Because my masters, the nobles whose servant I am, no longer
want the lives of those brave men.' Say that, and you'll tell the
truth, Jean Oullier."

"Who dares to say that Jean Oullier lies?" asked the wolf-keeper,
frowning.

"I!" said Joseph Picaut.

Jean Oullier set his teeth, but contained himself. He seemed resolved
to have neither friendship nor quarrel with the man.

"I!" repeated Picaut,--"I say that it is not out of love for our
bodies that you want to prevent us from profiting by our victory, but
because all you have made us fight for is to keep the red-breeches
from pillaging the castle of Souday."

"Joseph Picaut," replied Jean Oullier, calmly, "though we both wear
the white cockade we do not follow the same paths nor work for the
same ends. I have always thought that no matter how their opinions may
differ, brothers are brothers, and it grieves me to see the blood of
my brethren uselessly shed. As for my relation to my masters I have
always regarded humility as the first duty of a Christian, above all
when that Christian is a poor peasant, as I am, and as you are. Also I
consider obedience the most imperative duty of a soldier. I know that
you don't think as I do,--so much the worse for you! Under other
circumstances I might have made you repent for what you have just
said; but at this moment I do not belong to myself. You may thank God
for that."

"Well," said Joseph Picaut, sneering, "when you return into possession
of yourself you'll know where to find me, Jean Oullier; you won't have
far to look." Then, turning to the little troop of men, he went on:
"Now, if there are any among you who think it is folly to course the
hare when you can take it in its form, follow me."

He started as if to go. No one stirred; no one even answered him.
Joseph Picaut, seeing that total silence followed his proposal, made
an angry gesture and disappeared into the thicket.

Jean Oullier, taking Picaut's words for mere boastfulness, shrugged
his shoulders.

"Come, you fellows," he said to the Chouans, "be off to the Ragot
crossways, and quickly, too. Follow the bed of the brook to the
clearing at Quatre-Vents; from there it will take you fifteen minutes
to get to the crossways."

"Where are you going, Jean Oullier?" said Guérin.

"To Souday," said the wolf-keeper. "I must make sure that Michel did
his errand."

The little band departed obediently, following, as Jean Oullier told
them, the course of the rivulet. The old keeper was left alone. He
listened for a few moments to the sound of the water which the Chouans
splashed as they marched; but that noise soon mingled with the
rippling and dash of the little rapids, and Jean Oullier turned his
head in the direction of the soldiers.

The rocks on which the column had halted formed a chain, running from
east to west in the direction of Souday. On the east this chain ended
in a gentle slope, which came down to the rivulet up which the Chouans
had just passed in order to turn the encampment of the troops. On the
west it stretched for a mile and a half or more, and the nearer it
came to Souday the higher and more jagged grew the rocks, the steeper
and more denuded of vegetation were the slopes. On this side the
miniature mountain ended in an actual precipice formed by enormous
perpendicular rocks, which overhung the rivulet that washed their
base. Once or twice in his life Jean Oullier had risked the descent of
this precipice to gain upon a boar his dogs were pursuing. It was done
by a path scarcely a foot wide, hidden among the gorse and called the
Viette des Biques, meaning "the goat-path." The way was known to a few
hunters only. Jean Oullier himself had been exposed to such danger in
descending it that he considered it impossible that the troops should
attempt it in the darkness.

If the enemy's column intended to continue its aggressive movement on
Souday it must either take this goat-path, or meet the Chouans at the
Ragot crossways, or return upon its steps and follow the brook up
which the Chouans had just gone. All this seemed to throw the enemy
into his hands, and yet Jean Oullier, by a sort of presentiment, was
uneasy.

It seemed to him extraordinary that Dermoncourt had yielded to the
first attack and resigned so quickly and readily his evident intention
of advancing to Souday. Instead of continuing his own way to Souday,
as he had told Guérin he should, he remained where he was, watching
the heights, when suddenly he observed that the fires were going down
and the light they threw upon the rocks was growing fainter and
fainter.

Jean Oullier's decision was made in a moment. He darted along the same
path Guérin had taken to observe the enemy, and used the same tactics;
only, he did not stop, as Guérin had stopped, half-way up the ascent.
He continued to crawl up until he was at the foot of the blocks of
stone which surrounded the flat summit.

There he listened; he heard no noise. Then, rising cautiously to his
feet in a space between two large rocks, he looked before him and saw
nothing. The place was solitary. The fires were deserted; the furze
with which they were built was crackling and going out. Jean Oullier
climbed the rocks and dropped into the space where he had supposed the
soldiers were. Not a man was there.

He gave a terrible cry of rage and disappointment, and shouted to his
companions below to return and follow him. Then, with the swiftness of
a hunted deer, straining his iron muscles to the utmost, he rushed
along the summit of the rocks in the direction of Souday. No doubt
remained in his mind. Some unknown guide, unknown except to Joseph
Picaut, had led the soldiers to the Viette des Biques.

Notwithstanding the difficulties of the way, Jean Oullier, slipping on
the flat rocks covered with mosses, striking against the granite
blocks which rose in his path like sentinels, catching his feet in the
briers which tore his flesh as he rushed through them,--Jean Oullier,
we say, was not ten minutes in getting over the whole length of the
little chain. When he reached its extremity he climbed the last line
of rocks which overlooked the valley, and saw the soldiers.

They were just descending the slope of the hill, having risked the
path of the Viette des Biques. The line of their torches could be seen
filing cautiously along by the edge of the abyss. Jean Oullier clung
to the enormous stone on which he stood and shook it, hoping to detach
it and send it rolling on their heads. But all such efforts of mad
anger were powerless, and only a mocking laugh replied to his
imprecations. He turned round and looked behind him, thinking that
Satan himself could alone laugh thus. The laugher was Joseph Picaut.

"Well, Jean Oullier," he said, coming out of a clump of gorse, "my
scent was better than yours; you ought to have followed me. As it was,
you made me lose my time. I got here too late; and your friends will
be cooked in spite of me."

"My God! my God!" cried Jean Oullier, grasping his hair with both
hands. "Who could have guided them down that path?"

"Whoever did guide them down shall never come up again, either by this
path or any other," said Joseph Picaut. "Look at that guide now, Jean
Oullier, if you want to see her living."

Jean Oullier leaned forward once more. The soldiers had crossed the
rivulet and were gathered round the general. In the midst of them, not
a hundred paces from the two men, though separated from them by the
precipice, they saw a woman with dishevelled hair, who was pointing
out to the general with her finger the path he must now take.

"Marianne Picaut!" exclaimed Jean Oullier.

The Chouan made no answer, but he raised his gun to his shoulder and
slowly aimed it. Jean Oullier turned round when he heard the click of
the trigger, and as the Chouan fired he threw up the muzzle of the
gun.

"Wretch!" he cried; "give her time to bury your brother!"

The ball was fired into space.

"Damn you!" cried Joseph Picaut, furiously, seizing his gun by the
barrel, and giving a terrible blow with the stock on Jean Oullier's
head. "I treat Whites like you as I would Blues!"

In spite of his Herculean strength the blow was so violent that it
brought the old Vendéan to his knees; then, not able to maintain
himself in that position, he rolled over the edge of the precipice. As
he fell he caught instinctively at a tuft of gorze; but he soon felt
it yielding under the weight of his body.

Bewildered as he was, he did not altogether lose consciousness, and,
expecting every moment to feel the slender shoots which alone
supported him above the abyss give way, he commended his soul to God.
At that instant he heard shots from the gorse and saw through his
half-closed eyelids the flash of arms. Hoping that the Chouans had
returned, led by Guérin, he tried to call out, but his voice felt
imprisoned in his chest, and he could not raise the leaden hand which
seemed to hold the breath from his lips. He was like a man in a
frightful nightmare; and the pain the effort cost him was so violent
that he fancied--forgetting the blow he had received--that his
forehead was sweating blood.

Little by little his strength abandoned him. His fingers weakened, his
muscles relaxed, and the agony he endured became so terrible that he
believed he must voluntarily let go the branches which alone held him
above the void. Soon he felt himself attracted to the abyss below him
by an irresistible impulse. His fingers loosened their last hold; but
at the very moment when he imagined he should hear the air whistling
and whirling as he fell through it, and feel the jagged points of
rocks tearing his body as he passed, a pair of vigorous arms caught
him and bore him to a narrow platform which overhung the precipice at
a little distance.

He was saved! But he knew at once that the arms that were brutally
handling him were not those of friends.

XXVII.

THE GUESTS AT SOUDAY.

The day after the arrival of the Comte de Bonneville and his companion
at the château de Souday, the marquis returned from his expedition, or
rather, his conference. As he got off his horse it was quite evident
that the worthy gentleman was in a savage ill-humor.

He growled at his daughters, who had not come even so far as the door
to meet him; he swore at Jean Oullier, who had taken the liberty to go
off to the fair at Montaigu without his permission; he quarrelled with
the cook, who, in the absence of the major-domo, came forward to hold
his stirrup, and instead of grasping the one to the right, pulled with
all her strength on the one to the left, thus obliging the marquis to
get off on the wrong side of his horse and away from the portico.

When he reached the salon M. de Souday's wrath was still exhaling
itself in monosyllables of such vehemence that Bertha and Mary,
accustomed as their ears were to the freedom of language the old
_émigré_ allowed himself, did not, on this occasion, know which way to
look.

In vain they attempted to coax him and smooth his angry brow. Nothing
did any good; and the marquis, as he warmed his feet before the fire
and switched his top-boots with his riding-whip, seemed to regret
bitterly that Messieurs Blank and Blank were not the top-boots
themselves, to whom he addressed, as he flourished his whip, some very
offensive epithets indeed.

The fact is, the marquis was furious. For some time past he had been
sadly conscious that the pleasures of the chase were beginning to pall
upon him; also he had found himself yawning over the whist which
regularly concluded his evenings. The joys of trumps and odd tricks
were beginning to be insipid, and life at Souday threatened to become
distasteful to him. Besides, for the last ten years his legs had never
felt as elastic as they did now. Never had his lungs breathed freer,
or his brain been so active and enterprising. He was just entering
that Saint-Martin's summer for old men,--the period when their
faculties sparkle with a brighter gleam before paling, and their
bodies gather strength as if to prepare for the final struggle. The
marquis, feeling himself more lively, more fit than he had been for
many a year, growing restless in the little circle of his daily
avocations, now insufficient to occupy him, and conscious, alas! that
ennui was creeping over him, took it into his head that a new Vendée
would be admirably suited to his renewed youth, and did not doubt that
he should find in the adventurous life of a partisan those earlier
enjoyments the very memory of which was the charm of his old age.

He had therefore hailed with enthusiasm the prospect of a new uprising
and call to arms. A political commotion of that kind, coming as it
did, proved to him once more what he had often in his placid and naïve
egotism believed,--that the world was created and managed for the
satisfaction and benefit of so worthy a gentleman as M. le Marquis de
Souday.

But he had found among his co-royalists a lukewarmness and a
disposition to procrastinate which fairly exasperated him. Some
declared that the public mind was not yet ripe for any movement;
others that it was imprudent to attempt anything unless assured that
the army would side with legitimacy; others, again, insisted that
religious and political enthusiasm was dying out among the peasantry,
and that it would be difficult to rouse them to a new war. The heroic
marquis, who could not comprehend why all France should not be ready
when a small campaign would be so very agreeable to him,--when Jean
Oullier had burnished up his best carbine, and his daughters had
embroidered for him a scarf and a bloody heart,--the marquis, we say,
had just quarrelled vehemently with his friends the Vendéan leaders,
and leaving the meeting abruptly, had returned to the château without
listening to reason.

Mary, who knew to what excess her father respected the duty of
hospitality, profited by a lull in his ill humor to tell him gently of
the arrival of the Comte de Bonneville at the château, hoping in this
way to create a diversion for his mind.

"Bonneville! Bonneville! And who may that be?" growled the irascible
old fellow. "Bonneville? Some cabbage-planter or lawyer or civilian
who has jumped into epaulets, some talker who can't fire anything but
words, a dilettante who'll tell me we ought to wait and let Philippe
waste his popularity! Popularity, indeed! As if the thing to do were
not to turn that popularity on our own king!"

"I see that Monsieur le marquis is for taking arms immediately," said
a soft and flute-like voice beside him.

The marquis turned round hastily and beheld a very young man,
dressed as a peasant, who was leaning, like himself, against the
chimney-piece, and warming his feet before the fire. The stranger had
entered the room by a side door, and the marquis, whose back was
toward him as he entered, being carried away by the heat of his wrath
and his imprecations, paid no heed to the signs his daughters made to
warn him of the presence of a guest.

Petit-Pierre, for it was he, seemed to be about sixteen or eighteen
years old; but he was very slender and frail for his years. His face
was pale, and the long black hair which framed it made it seem whiter
still; his large blue eyes beamed with courage and intellect; his
mouth, which was delicate and curled slightly upward at the corners,
was now smiling with a mischievous expression; the chin, strongly
defined and prominent, indicated unusual strength of will; while a
slightly aquiline nose completed a cast of countenance, the
distinction of which contrasted strangely with the clothes he wore.

"Monsieur Petit-Pierre," said Bertha, taking the hand of the
new-comer, and presenting him to her father.

The marquis made a profound bow, to which the young man replied with a
graceful salutation. The old _émigré_ was not very much deceived by
the dress and name of Petit-Pierre. The great war had long accustomed
him to the use of nicknames and aliases by which men of high birth
concealed their rank, and the disguises under which they hid their
natural bearing; but what did puzzle him was the extreme youth of his
unexpected guest.

"I am happy, monsieur," he said, "if my daughters have been able to be
of service to you and Monsieur de Bonneville; but all the same I
regret that I was absent from home at the time of your arrival. If it
were not for an extremely unpleasant interview with some gentlemen of
my political opinions, I should have had the honor to put my poor
castle at your service myself. However, I hope my little chatterers
have been good substitutes, and that nothing our limited means can
procure has been spared to make your stay as comfortable as it can
be."

"Your hospitality, Monsieur le marquis, can only gain in the hands of
such charming substitutes," said Petit-Pierre, gallantly.

"Humph!" said the marquis, pushing out his lower lip; "in other times
than these we are in, my daughters ought to be able to procure for
their guests some amusement. Bertha, here, knows how to follow a
trail, and can turn a boar as well as any one. Mary, on the other
hand, hasn't her equal for knowing the corner of the marsh where the
snipe are. But except for a sound knowledge of whist, which they get
from me, I regard them as altogether unfit to do the honors of a
salon; and here we are, for the present, shut up with nothing to do
but poke the fire." So saying, Monsieur de Souday gave a vigorous kick
to the logs on the hearth, proving that his anger was not yet over.

"I think few women at court possess more grace and distinction than
these young ladies; and I assure you that none unite with those
qualities such nobility of heart and feeling as your daughters,
Monsieur le marquis, have shown to us."

"Court?" said the marquis, interrogatively, looking with some surprise
at Petit-Pierre.

Petit-Pierre colored and smiled deprecatingly, like an actor who
blunders before a friendly audience.

"I spoke, of course, on presumption, Monsieur le marquis," he said,
with an embarrassment that was obviously factitious. "I said the
court, because that is the sphere where your daughters' name would
naturally place them, and also, because it is there I should like to
see them."

The marquis colored because he had made his guest color. He had just
involuntarily meddled with the incognito the latter seemed anxious to
preserve, and the exquisite politeness of the old gentleman reproached
him bitterly for such a fault.

Petit-Pierre hastened to add:--

"I was saying to you, Monsieur le marquis, when these young ladies did
me the honor to introduce us, that you seem to be one of those who
desire an immediate call to arms."

"I should think so! parbleu! and I am willing to say so to you,
monsieur, who, as I see, are one of us--"

Petit-Pierre nodded in affirmation.

"Yes, that is my desire," continued the marquis; "but no matter what I
say and do, I can't get any one to believe an old man who scorched his
skin in the terrible fire which laid waste the country from 1793 to
1797. No! they listen to a pack of gabblers, lawyers without a brief,
fine dandies who dare not sleep in the open air for fear of spoiling
their clothes, milk-sops, fellows," added the marquis, kicking at
the logs, which revenged themselves by showering his boots with
sparks,--"fellows who--"

"Papa!" said Mary, gently, observing a furtive smile on Petit-Pierre's
face. "Papa, do be calm!"

"No, I shall not be calm," continued the fiery old gentleman.
"Everything was ready. Jean Oullier assured me that my division was
boiling over with enthusiasm; and now the affair is adjourned over
from the 14th of May to the Greek Calends!"

"Patience, Monsieur le marquis," said Petit-Pierre, "the time will
soon be here."

"Patience! patience! that's easy for you to say," replied the marquis,
sighing. "You are young, and you have time enough to wait; but I-- Who
knows if God will grant me days enough to unfurl the good old flag I
fought under so gayly once upon a time?"

Petit-Pierre was touched by the old man's regret.

"But have you not heard, Monsieur le marquis, for I have," he said,
"that the call to arms was only postponed because of the uncertainty
that exists as to the arrival of the princess?"

This speech seemed to increase the marquis's ill-humor.

"Let me alone, young man," he said, in an angry tone. "Don't I know
the meaning of that old joke? During the five years that I fought to
the death in La Vendée were not they always telling us that a royal
personage would draw his sword and rally all ambitions round him?
Didn't I myself, with many others, wait for the Comte d'Artois to land
on the shores of the Île Dieu on the 2d of October? We shall no more
see the Duchesse de Berry in 1832 than we saw the Comte d'Artois in
1796. That, however, will not prevent me from getting myself killed on
their behalf, as becomes a loyal gentleman."

"Monsieur le Marquis de Souday," said Petit-Pierre, in a voice of
strange emotion, "I swear to you, myself, that if the Duchesse de
Berry had nothing more than a nutshell at her command she would cross
the seas and place herself under Charette's banner, borne by a hand so
valiant and so noble. I swear to you that she will come now, if not to
conquer, at least to die with those who have risen to defend the
rights of her son."

There was such energy and determination in the tone with which he
spoke, and it seemed so extraordinary that such words should issue
from the lips of a little lad of sixteen, that the marquis looked him
in the face with extreme surprise.

"Who are you?" he said, giving way to his astonishment. "By what right
do you speak thus of the intentions of her Royal Highness, and pledge
your word for her, young man--or rather, child?"

"I think, Monsieur le marquis, that Mademoiselle de Souday did me the
honor to mention my name when she presented me to you."

"True, Monsieur Petit-Pierre," replied the marquis, confused at his
outburst. "I beg your pardon. But," he added conjecturing the youth to
be the son of some great personage, "is it indiscreet to ask your
opinion as to the present likelihood of a call to arms? Young as you
are, you speak with such excellent sense that I do not conceal from
you my desire for your opinion."

"My opinion, Monsieur le marquis, can be all the more readily given
because I see plainly that it is much the same as yours."

"Really?"

"My opinion--if I may permit myself to give one--"

"Heavens! after the pitiful creatures I heard talk to-night you seem to
me as wise as the seven sages of Greece."

"You are too kind. It is my opinion, Monsieur le marquis, that it was
most unfortunate we could not rise, as agreed upon, on the night of
the 13th and 14th of May."

"That's just what I told them. May I ask your reasons, monsieur?"

"My reasons are these: The soldiers were at that time quartered in the
villages, among the inhabitants, scattered here and there, without
object and without a flag. Nothing was easier than to surprise and
disarm them in a sudden attack."

"Most true; whereas now--"

"Now the order has been given to break up the small encampments and
draw into a focus all the scattered military forces and bodies,--not
of mere companies and detachments, but of battalions and regiments. We
shall now need a pitched battle to reach the results we might have
gained by the cost of that one night's sleep."

"That's conclusive!" cried the marquis, enthusiastically, "and I am
dreadfully distressed that out of the forty and one reasons I gave my
opponents to-night I never thought of that. But," he continued, "that
order which you say has been sent to the troops, are you quite sure it
has been actually issued?"

"Quite sure," said Petit-Pierre, with the most modest and deferential
look he could put upon his face.

The marquis looked at him in stupefaction.

"It is a pity," he went on, "a great pity! However, as you say, my
young friend,--you will permit me to give you that title,--it is
better to have patience and wait till our new Maria Theresa comes into
the midst of her new Hungarians, and meantime to drink to the health
of her royal son and his spotless banner. That reminds me that these
young ladies must deign to get our breakfast ready, for Jean Oullier
has gone off, as some one," he added, with a half-angry look at his
daughters, "has taken upon herself to allow him to go to Montaigu
without my orders."

"That some one was I, Monsieur le marquis," said Petit-Pierre, whose
courteous tone was not quite free from command. "I beg your pardon for
having thus employed one of your men; but you were absent, and it was
most urgent that we should judge exactly what we had to expect from
the temper of the peasantry assembled at Montaigu for the fair."

There was a tone of such easy and natural assurance in that soft,
sweet voice, such a consciousness of authority in the person who
spoke, that the marquis was speechless. He ran over in his mind the
various great personages he could think of who might have a son of
this age, and all he managed to say in reply were a few stammered
words of acquiescence.

The Comte de Bonneville entered the room at this moment. Petit-Pierre,
as the older acquaintance of the two, presented him to the marquis.

The open countenance and frank, joyous manner of the count immediately
won upon the old gentleman, already delighted with Petit-Pierre. He
dismissed his ill-humor, and vowed not to think any more of the cold
hearts and backwardness of his late companions; and he inwardly
resolved, as he led his guests to the dining-room, to use all his wit
to extract from the Comte de Bonneville the real name of the youth who
now chose to pass under the incognito of Petit-Pierre.

XXVIII.

IN WHICH THE MARQUIS DE SOUDAY BITTERLY REGRETS THAT
PETIT-PIERRE IS NOT A GENTLEMAN.

The two young men, whom the Marquis de Souday pushed before him,
stopped on the threshold of the dining-room door. The aspect of the
table was literally formidable.

In the centre rose, like an ancient citadel commanding a town, an
enormous pasty of boar's meat and venison. A pike weighing fifteen
pounds, three or four chickens in a stew, and a regular tower of Babel
in cutlets flanked this citadel to the north, south, east, and west;
and for outposts or picket-guards M. de Souday's cook had surrounded
these heavy works with a cordon of dishes, all touching one another,
and containing aliments of many kinds,--hors-d'[oe]uvres, entrées,
entremets, vegetables, salads, fruits, and marmalades,--all huddled
together and heaped in a confusion that was certainly not picturesque,
though full of charm for appetites sharpened by the cutting air of the
forests of the Mauge region.

"Heavens!" cried Petit-Pierre, drawing back, as we have said, at the
sight of such victualling. "You treat poor peasants too royally,
Monsieur de Souday."

"Oh, as for that, I have nothing to do with it, my young friend, and
you must neither blame me nor thank me. I leave all that to these
young ladies. But it is, I hope, unnecessary to say how happy I am
that you honor the board of a poor country gentleman."

So saying, the marquis gently impelled Petit-Pierre, who still seemed
to hesitate, to approach the table. He yielded to the pressure with
some reserve.

"I know I cannot worthily respond to what you expect of me, Monsieur
le marquis," he said; "for I must humbly admit to you that I am a very
poor eater."

"I understand," said the marquis; "you are accustomed to delicate
dishes. As for me, I am a regular peasant, and I prefer good, solid,
succulent food, which repairs the waste of the system, to all the
dainties of a fine table."

"That's a point I have often heard King Louis XVIII. and the Marquis
d'Avaray discuss," said Petit-Pierre.

The Comte de Bonneville touched the youth's arm.

"Then you knew King Louis XVIII. and the Marquis d'Avaray?" said the
old gentleman, in much amazement, looking at Petit-Pierre, as if to
make sure that the youth was not laughing at him.

"Yes, I knew them well, in my youth," replied Petit-Pierre, simply.

"Hum!" said the marquis, shortly.

They had now taken their places round the table, Mary and Bertha with
them, and the formidable breakfast began. But in vain did the marquis
offer dish after dish to his younger guest. Petit-Pierre refused all,
and said if his host were willing he would like a cup of tea and two
fresh eggs from the fowls he heard clucking so cheerfully in the
poultry-yard.

"As for fresh eggs," said the marquis, "that's an easy matter. Mary
shall get you some warm from the nest; but as for tea, the devil! I
doubt if there is such a thing in the house."

Mary did not wait to be sent on this errand. She was already leaving
the room when her father's remark about the tea stopped her, and she
seemed as embarrassed as he. Evidently tea was lacking. Petit-Pierre
noticed the quandary of his hosts.

"Oh!" he said, "don't give yourself any uneasiness. Monsieur de
Bonneville will have the kindness to take a few spoonfuls from my
dressing-case."

"Your dressing-case!"

"Yes," said Petit-Pierre. "As I have contracted the bad habit of
drinking tea, I always carry it with me in travelling."

And he gave the Comte de Bonneville a little key, selecting it from a
bunch that was hanging to a gold chain. The Comte de Bonneville
hastened away by one door as Mary went out by the other.

"Upon my soul!" cried the marquis, engulfing an enormous mouthful of
venison, "you are something of a girl, my young friend; and if it were
not for the opinions I heard you express just now, which I consider
too profound for the female mind, I should almost doubt your sex."

Petit-Pierre smiled.

"Wait till you see me at work, Monsieur le marquis, when we meet
Philippe's troops. You'll soon resign the poor opinion you are forming
of me now."

"What? Do you mean to belong to any of our bands?" cried the marquis,
more and more puzzled.

"I hope so," said the youth.

"And I'll answer for it," said Bonneville, returning and giving
Petit-Pierre the little key he had received from him, "I'll answer for
it you'll always find him in the front rank."

"I am glad of it, my young friend," said the marquis; "but I am not
surprised. God has not measured courage by the bodies to which he
gives it, and I saw in the old war one of the ladies who followed M.
de Charette fire her pistols valiantly."

Just then Mary returned, bringing in one hand a teapot, and in the
other a plate with two boiled eggs on it.

"Thank you, my beautiful child," said Petit-Pierre, in a tone of
gallant protection, which reminded M. de Souday of the seigneurs of
the old court. "A thousand excuses for the trouble I have given you."

[Illustration: Portrait of Louis XVIII.]

"You spoke just now of his Majesty Louis XVIII.," said the Marquis de
Souday, "and his culinary opinions. I have heard it said that he was
extremely fastidious about his meals and his way of eating them."

"That is true," said Petit-Pierre; "he had a fashion of eating
ortolans and cutlets which was his alone."

"And yet," said the Marquis de Souday, setting his handsome teeth into
a cutlet and gnawing off the whole lean of it with one bite, "it seems
to me there is only one way of eating a cutlet."

"Your way, I suppose, Monsieur le marquis," said Bonneville, laughing.

"Yes, faith! and as for ortolans, when by chance Mary and Bertha
condescend to gunning, and bring home, not ortolans, but larks and
fig-peckers, I take them by the beak, salt and pepper them nicely, put
them whole into my mouth, and crunch them off at the neck. They are
excellent eaten that way; only, it requires two or three dozen for
each person."

Petit-Pierre laughed. It reminded him of the story of the Swiss guard
who wagered he would eat a calf in six weeks for his dinner.

"I was wrong in saying that Louis XVIII. had a peculiar way of eating
ortolans and cutlets; I should have said a peculiar way of having them
cooked."

"Bless me!" exclaimed the marquis; "it seems to me there are no two
ways for that either. You roast ortolans on a spit, and you broil
cutlets on a gridiron."

"True," said Petit-Pierre, who evidently took pleasure in all these
recollections; "but his Majesty Louis XVIII. refined upon the process.
As for cutlets, the _chef_ at the Tuileries was careful to cook the
ones which 'had the honor,' as he said, to be eaten by the king
between two other cutlets, so that the middle cutlet got the juices of
the other two. He did something the same thing with the ortolans.
Those that were eaten by the king were put inside a thrush, and the
thrush inside a woodcock, so that by the time the ortolan was cooked
the woodcock was uneatable, but the thrush was excellent, and the
ortolan superlative."

"But really, young man," said the marquis, throwing himself back in
his chair, and looking at Petit-Pierre with extreme astonishment, "one
would think you had seen the good King Louis XVIII. performing all
these gastronomic feats."

"I have seen him," replied Petit-Pierre.

"Did you have a place at court?" asked the marquis, laughing.

"I was page," replied Petit-Pierre.

"Ah! that explains it all," said the marquis. "Upon my soul! you have
seen a good deal for one of your age."

"Yes," replied Petit-Pierre, with a sigh. "Too much, in fact."

The two young girls glanced sympathetically at the young man. The face
which looked so youthful at first sight showed, on closer examination,
that a certain number of years had passed over it, and that troubles
had left their mark there.

The marquis made two or three attempts to continue the conversation;
but Petit-Pierre, buried in thought, seemed to have said all he meant
to say, and whether he did not hear the various theories the marquis
advanced on dark meats and white meats, and on the difference of
flavor between the wild game of the forest and the domesticated game
of the poultry-yard, or whether he did not think it worth while to
approve or to confute, he maintained an absolute silence.

Nevertheless, in spite of this non-responsiveness, the marquis, now in
high good-humor after the generous satisfaction of his appetite, was
enchanted with his young friend. They returned to the salon; but
there, Petit-Pierre, instead of remaining with the two young girls and
the count and marquis near the fireplace,--where a fire which
testified to an abundance of wood from the neighboring forest was
blazing,--Petit-Pierre, thoughtful or dreamy as the reader chooses,
went straight to the window and rested his forehead against the glass.

An instant later, as the marquis was making sundry compliments to the
count on his young companion, the latter's name, pronounced in a curt,
imperious tone, made him start with astonishment.

Petit-Pierre called to Bonneville, who turned hastily and ran rather
than walked in the direction of the young peasant. The latter spoke
for some moments and seemed to be giving orders. At each sentence
uttered by the youth Bonneville bowed in token of assent, and as soon
as Petit-Pierre had ended what he had to say the count took his hat,
saluted every one present, and left the room.

Petit-Pierre then approached the marquis.

"Monsieur de Souday," he said, "I have just assured the Comte de
Bonneville that you will not object to his taking one of your horses
to make a trip to all the châteaus in the neighborhood and call a
meeting here at Souday, this evening, of those very men whom you
quarrelled with this morning. They are no doubt still assembled at
Saint-Philbert. I have therefore enjoined him to make haste."

"But," said the marquis, "some of those gentlemen must be affronted
with me for the manner in which I spoke to them this morning; they
will probably refuse to come to my house."

"An order shall be given to those who resist an invitation."

"An order! from whom?" asked the marquis, in surprise.

"Why, from Madame la Duchesse de Berry, from whom M. de Bonneville has
full powers. But," said Petit-Pierre, with a certain hesitation,
"perhaps you fear that such a meeting at the château de Souday may
have some fatal result for you or for your family. In that case,
marquis, say so at once. The Comte de Bonneville has not yet started."

"God bless me!" cried the marquis, "let him go, and take my best
horse, and founder him if he chooses!"

The words had scarcely left his lips before the Comte de Bonneville,
as though he had heard them and meant to profit by the permission,
rode at full speed past the windows and through the great gates to the
main-road, which led to Saint-Philbert.

The marquis went to the window to follow the rider with his eyes, and
did not leave it until he was lost to sight. Then he turned to speak
to Petit-Pierre; but Petit-Pierre had disappeared, and when the
marquis asked his daughters where he was they answered that the young
man had gone to his room, remarking that he had letters to write.

"Queer little fellow!" muttered the marquis to himself.

XXIX.

THE VENDÉANS OF 1832.

The same day, about five in the afternoon the Comte de Bonneville
returned. He had seen five of the principal leaders and they agreed to
be at Souday that night between eight and nine o'clock.

The marquis, always hospitable, ordered his cook to tax the
poultry-yard and the larder to the utmost, and to get ready the most
plentiful supper she could possibly manage.

The five leaders who agreed to assemble that evening were Louis
Renaud, Pascal, C[oe]ur-de-Lion, Gaspard, and Achille. Those of our
readers who are somewhat familiar with the events of 1832 will easily
recognize the personages who concealed their identity under these
_noms de guerre_ for the purpose of throwing the authorities off the
scent in case of intercepted despatches.

By eight o'clock Jean Oullier, to the marquis's deep regret, had not
returned. Consequently, the care of the entrance gates was intrusted
to Mary, who was not to open them unless in reply to a knock given in
a peculiar manner.

The salon, with shutters closed and curtains drawn, was the place
selected for the conference. By seven o'clock four persons were ready
and waiting in this room,--namely, the Marquis de Souday, the Comte de
Bonneville, Petit-Pierre, and Bertha. Mary, as we have said, was
stationed at the gates, in a sort of little lodge, which had an
iron-barred window toward the road, through which it was possible to
see whoever rapped, and so admit none until assured of the visitor's
identity.

Of all those in the salon the most impatient was Petit-Pierre, whose
dominant characteristic did not seem to be calmness. Though the clock
said barely half-past seven, and the meeting was fixed for eight, he
went restlessly to the door again and again to hear if any sounds
along the road announced the expected gentlemen. At last, precisely at
eight o'clock, a knock was heard at the gate, or rather three knocks
separated in a certain manner, which indicated the arrival of a
leader.

"Ah!" exclaimed Petit-Pierre, going eagerly to the door.

But the Comte de Bonneville stopped him with a respectful smile and
gesture.

"You are right," said the young man, and he went back and seated
himself in the darkest corner of the salon. Almost at the same moment
one of the expected leaders appeared in the doorway.

"M. Louis Renaud," said the Comte de Bonneville, loud enough for
Petit-Pierre to hear him, and to recognize the man under the disguise
of the assumed name.

The Marquis de Souday went forward to meet the new-comer, with all the
more eagerness because this young man was one of the few at the
conference of the morning who had favored an immediate call to arms.

"Ah, my dear count," said the marquis, "come in. You are the first to
arrive, and that's a good omen."

"If I am the first, my dear marquis," replied Louis Renaud, "I assure
you it is not that others are less eager; but my home being nearer to
the château I have not so far to come, you know."

So saying, the personage who called himself Louis Renaud, and who was
dressed in the ordinary simple clothes of a Breton peasant, advanced
into the room with such perfect juvenile grace and bowed to Bertha
with an ease so essentially aristocratic, that it was quite evident he
would have found it difficult to assume, even momentarily, the manners
and language of the social caste whose clothes he borrowed.

These social duties duly paid to the marquis and Bertha, the new-comer
turned his attention to the Comte de Bonneville; but the latter,
knowing the impatience of Petit-Pierre, who, though he remained in his
corner, was making his presence known by movements the count alone
could interpret, at once proceeded to open the question.

"My dear count," he said to the so-called Louis Renaud, "you know the
extent of my powers, you have read the letter of her Royal Highness
Madame, and you know that, momentarily at least, I am her intermediary
to you. What is your opinion on the situation?"

"My opinion, my dear count, I may not give precisely as I gave it this
morning. Here, where I know I am among the ardent supporters of
Madame, I shall risk telling the plain truth."

"Yes, the plain truth," said Bonneville; "that is what Madame desires
to know. And whatever you tell me, my dear count, she will know
exactly as if she heard it."

"Well, my opinion is that nothing ought to be done until the arrival
of the maréchal."

"The maréchal!" exclaimed Petit-Pierre. "Is he not at Nantes?"

Louis Renaud, who had not before noticed the young man in his corner,
turned his eyes to him on hearing this question. Then he bowed, and
replied:--

"On reaching home this morning I heard for the first time that the
maréchal had left Nantes as soon as he heard of the failure at
Marseille, and no one knows either the road he has taken or the
purpose that carried him away."

Petit-Pierre stamped his foot with impatience.

"But," he cried, "the maréchal is the soul of the enterprise. His
absence will check the uprising and diminish the confidence of our
men. Unless he commands, all the leaders will be of equal rank, and we
shall see the same rivalries among them that were so fatal to the
royalist party in the old wars of La Vendée."

Seeing that Petit-Pierre assumed the conversation, Bonneville stepped
backward, giving place to the youth, who now advanced into the circle
of light cast by the lamps and candles. Louis Renaud looked with
amazement at a young man, apparently almost a child, who spoke with
such assurance and decision.

"It is a delay, monsieur," he said; "that is all. You may be sure that
as soon as the maréchal knows of the arrival of Madame in La Vendée,
he will instantly return to his post."

"Did not M. de Bonneville tell you that Madame was on the way and
would be speedily among her friends?"

"Yes, he did tell me so; and the news has given me the keenest
satisfaction."

"Delay! delay!" murmured Petit-Pierre. "I have always heard it said
that any uprising in your part of the country ought to take place
during the first two weeks in May. After that the inhabitants are busy
with their agriculture and are not so easily aroused. Here it is the
14th, and we are already late. As for the leaders, they are convoked,
are they not?"

"Yes, monsieur," said Louis Renaud, with a certain sad gravity, "they
are; and I ought to add that you can hardly count on any but the
leaders." Then he added, with a sigh, "And not all of them either, as
M. le Marquis de Souday discovered this morning."

"You surely do not mean to say that, monsieur!" cried Petit-Pierre.
"Lukewarmness in La Vendée! and that too, when our friends in
Marseille--and I can speak confidently, for I have just arrived from
there--are so furious at their failure that they are longing to take
revenge!"

A pale smile crossed the lips of the young leader.

"You are from the South, monsieur," he said, "though you have not the
accent of it."

"You are right; I am," answered Petit-Pierre. "What of it?"

"You must not confound the South with the West, the Marseillais with
the Vendéans. A proclamation may rouse the South, and a check rebuff
it. Not so in La Vendée. When you have been here some time you will
appreciate the truth of what I say. La Vendée is grave, cold, silent.
All projects are discussed slowly, deliberately; the chances of
success and defeat are each considered. Then, if La Vendée sees a
prospect of success she holds out her hand, says _yes_, and dies, if
need be, to fulfil her promise. But as she knows that _yes_ and _no_
are words of life and death to her, she is slow in uttering them."

"You forget enthusiasm, monsieur," said Petit-Pierre.

"Ah, enthusiasm!" he replied; "I heard that talked of in my boyhood.
It is a divinity of a past age which has stepped from its pedestal
since the days when so many pledges were made to our fathers only to
be forgotten. Do you know what passed this morning at Saint-Philbert?"

"In part, yes; the marquis told me."

"But after the marquis left?"

"No; I know nothing."

"Well, out of the twelve leaders present who were appointed to command
the twelve divisions, seven protested in the name of their men, and
they have by this time sent those men back to their homes, all the
while declaring, every one of them, that personally and under all
circumstances, they would shed their blood for Madame; only they would
not, they added, take before God the terrible responsibility of
dragging their peasantry into an enterprise which promised to be
nothing more, so it seemed to them, than a bloody skirmish."

"Then it comes to this," said Petit-Pierre. "Must we renounce all
hope, all effort?"

The same sad smile crossed the lips of the young leader.

"All _hope_, yes, perhaps; all effort, _no_. Madame has written that
she is urged forward by the committee in Paris; Madame assures us that
she has ramifications in the army. Let us therefore make the attempt!
Possibly a riot in Paris, combined with a defection in the army, may
prove her judgment to have been better than ours. If we make no
attempt on her behalf, Madame will always be convinced that had it
been made it would have been successful; and no doubt ought to be left
in Madame's mind."

"But if the attempt fails?" cried Petit-Pierre.

"Five or six hundred men will have been uselessly killed, that is all.
It is well that from time to time a party, even if it fails, should
give such examples, not only to its own country but to neighboring
nations."

"You are not of those who have sent back their men, then?" asked
Petit-Pierre.

"No, monsieur; but I am of those who have sworn to die for her Royal
Highness. Besides," he added, "perhaps the affair has already begun,
and there may be no choice but to follow the movement."

"How so?" asked Petit-Pierre, Bonneville, and the marquis, in one
breath.

"Shots were fired to-day at the fair at Montaigu--"

"And firing is going on now at the fords of the Boulogne," said an
unknown voice from the doorway, on the threshold of which a new
personage now appeared.

XXX.

THE WARNING.

The person we now introduce, or rather the person who now
introduced himself into the salon of the Marquis de Souday, was the
commissary-general of the future Vendéan army, who had changed his
name, well-known at the bar of Nantes, for that of Pascal.

He had gone several times into foreign lands to confer with Madame,
and knew her personally. It was scarcely two months since he had last
seen her, on which occasion after delivering to her Royal Highness the
news from France, he had received her last instructions in return. It
was he who had come into La Vendée to tell the adherents to hold
themselves in readiness.

"Aha!" exclaimed the Marquis de Souday, with a motion of the lips
which meant that he did not hold lawyers in cherished admiration, "M.
le Commissaire-général Pascal."

"Who brings news, apparently," said Petit-Pierre, with the evident
intention of drawing upon himself the attention of the new-comer. The
latter, when he heard the voice, turned immediately to the young man,
who made him an almost imperceptible sign with lips and eyes, which,
however, sufficed to let him know what was expected of him.

"News? Yes," he said.

"Good or bad?" asked Louis Renaud.

"Mixed. But we'll begin with the good."

"Go on."

"Her Royal Highness has crossed the South successfully, and is now
safe and sound in La Vendée."

"Are you sure of that?" asked the Marquis de Souday and Louis Renaud
in one breath.

"As sure as that I see you all five here in good health," replied
Pascal. "Now let us go to the other news."

"Have you heard anything from Montaigu?" asked Louis Renaud.

"They fought there yesterday," said Pascal; "that is, a few shots were
fired by the National Guard and some peasants were killed and
wounded."

"What occasioned it?" asked Petit-Pierre.

"A dispute at the fair, which became a riot."

"Who commands at Montaigu?" again asked Petit-Pierre.

"A mere captain usually," replied Pascal; "but yesterday, in
consequence of the fair, the sub-prefect and the general commanding
the military sub-division were both there."

"Do you know the general's name?"

"Dermoncourt."

"And pray, who is General Dermoncourt?"

"Under what head do you desire to know of him, monsieur,--man,
opinions, or character?"

"All three heads."

"As a man, he is from sixty to sixty-two years old, and he belongs to
that iron race which fought the wars of the Revolution and the Empire.
He will be night and day in the saddle, and not leave us an instant's
rest."

"Very good," said Louis Renaud, laughing. "Then we'll try to tire him
out; and as we are, none of us, half his age we shall be very unlucky
or very stupid if we fail."

"His opinions?" asked Petit-Pierre.

"At heart I believe him to be a republican."

"In spite of twelve years' service under the Empire! He must have been
dyed in the wool."

"There are many like him. You remember what Henri IV. said of the
Leaguers,--'The barrel smells of the herring.'"

[Illustration: Portrait of Dermoncourt.]

"His character?"

"Oh, as for that, loyalty itself! He is neither an Amadis nor a
Galahad. He's a Ferragus, and if ever Madame had the misfortune to
fall into his hands--"

"What are you talking about, Monsieur Pascal?" exclaimed Petit-Pierre.

"I am a lawyer, monsieur," replied the civil commissary, "and in that
capacity I foresee all the chances of a case. I repeat, therefore,
that if Madame were unfortunately to fall into the hands of General
Dermoncourt she would have full opportunity to recognize his
courtesy."

"Then," said Petit-Pierre, "that is the sort of enemy Madame would
choose for herself,--brave, vigorous, and loyal. Monsieur, we are
fortunate-- But you spoke of shots at the fords of the river?"

"I presume that those I heard on my way came from there."

"Perhaps," said the marquis, "Bertha had better go and reconnoitre.
She will soon let us know what is happening."

Bertha rose.

"What!" exclaimed Petit-Pierre, "do you send mademoiselle?"

"Why not?" asked the marquis.

"I think it is a man's duty, not a woman's."

"My young friend," said the old gentleman, "in such matters I rely
first upon myself, next upon Jean Oullier, and after Jean Oullier on
Bertha and on Mary. I desire the honor of staying here with you; my
fellow, Jean Oullier, is off amusing himself. Consequently, Bertha
must go."

Bertha went toward the door; but on the threshold she met her sister
and exchanged a few words with her in a low voice.

"Here is Mary," she said, turning back.

"Ah!" exclaimed the marquis; "did you hear the firing, my girl?"

"Yes, father," said Mary; "they are fighting."

"Where?"

"At the springs of Baugé."

"You are sure?"

"Yes; the shots came from the marsh."

"You see," said the marquis; "the news is precise. Who keeps the gate
in your absence?"

"Rose Tinguy."

"Listen!" said Petit-Pierre.

Loud raps were heard upon the gate.

"The devil!" cried the marquis; "that's not one of us."

They all listened attentively.

"Open! open!" cried a voice. "There's not an instant to lose!"

"It is his voice!" exclaimed Mary, eagerly.

"His voice?--whose voice?" said the marquis.

"Yes, I recognize it," said Bertha,--"the voice of young Baron
Michel."

"What does that cabbage-grower want here?" said the marquis, making a
step toward the door as if to prevent his entrance.

"Let him come, let him come, marquis!" cried Bonneville. "I'll answer
for him; there's nothing to fear."

He had hardly said the words before the sound of a rapid step was
heard, and the young baron rushed into the salon, pale, breathless,
covered with mud, dripping with perspiration, and with scarcely breath
enough to say:--

"Not a moment to lose! Fly! Escape! They are coming!"

He dropped on one knee, resting one hand on the ground, for his breath
failed him, his strength was exhausted. He had done, as he promised
Jean Oullier, nearly a mile and a half in six minutes.

There was a moment of trouble and confusion in the salon.

"To arms!" cried the marquis. Springing to his own gun, he pointed to
a rack at the corner of the room, where three or four carbines and
fowling-pieces were hanging.

The Comte de Bonneville and Pascal, with one and the same movement,
threw themselves before Petit-Pierre as if to defend him.

Mary sprang to the young baron to raise him and give him what help he
needed, while Bertha ran to a window looking toward the forest and
opened it.

Shots were then heard, evidently coming nearer, though still at some
distance.

"They are on the Viette des Biques," said Bertha.

"Nonsense!" said the marquis; "impossible they should attempt such a
dangerous path!"

"They are there, father," said Bertha.

"Yes, yes," gasped Michel. "I saw them there; they have torches. A
woman is guiding them, marching at their head; the general is second."

"Oh, that cursèd Jean Oullier! Why isn't he here?" said the marquis.

"He is fighting, Monsieur le marquis," said Michel. "He sent me; he
couldn't come himself."

"He!" exclaimed the marquis.

"But I was coming, mademoiselle; I was coming myself. I knew yesterday
the château was to be attacked, but I was a prisoner; I got down from
a second-story window."

"Good God!" cried Mary, turning pale.

"Bravo!" exclaimed Bertha.

"Gentlemen," said Petit-Pierre, tranquilly, "I think we must decide on
a course. Shall we fight? If we do, we must arm ourselves at once, bar
the gates, and take our posts. Shall we escape? If so, there is even
less time to lose."

"Let us fight!" said the marquis.

"No, escape!" cried Bonneville. "When Petit-Pierre is safe we will
fight."

"What is that you say, count?" exclaimed Petit-Pierre.

"I say that nothing is ready; we are not prepared to fight. Are we,
gentlemen?"

"Oh, yes, we can always fight," said the youthful, light-hearted voice
of a new-comer, addressing himself partly to those in the salon, and
partly to two other young men who were following him, and whom, no
doubt, he had met at the gate.

"Ah, Gaspard! Gaspard!" cried Bonneville.

Springing to meet the new arrival, he whispered something in his ear.

"Gentlemen," said Gaspard, turning to the others, "the Comte de
Bonneville is perfectly right; we must retreat." Then addressing the
marquis, he added, "Haven't you some secret door or issue to the
castle, marquis? We have no time to lose; the last shots we heard at
the gate--Achille, C[oe]ur-de-Lion, and I--were not half a mile
distant."

"Gentlemen," said the Marquis de Souday, "you are in my house, and it
is for me to assume the responsibility. Silence! listen to me and obey
me to-night; I will obey you to-morrow."

All were silent.

"Mary," said the marquis, "close the gates, but do not barricade them;
leave them so that they can be opened at the first rap. Bertha, to the
underground passage instantly, and don't lose a moment. My daughters
and I will receive the general and do the honors of the château to
him. To-morrow, wherever you are, we will join you; only, let us know
where that will be."

Mary sprang from the room to execute her father's order, while Bertha,
signing to Petit-Pierre to follow her, went out by the opposite door,
crossed the inner courtyard, entered the chapel, took two wax tapers
from the altar, lighted them, gave one to Bonneville, one to Pascal,
and then, pushing a spring which made the front of the altar turn of
itself, she pointed to a stairway, leading to the vaults in which the
lords of Souday were formerly buried.

"You can't lose your way," she said; "you will find a door at the
farther end, and the key is in it. That door leads into the open
country. These gentlemen all know how to find their way there."

Petit-Pierre took Bertha's hand and pressed it warmly. Then he sprang
down the steps to the vault behind Bonneville and Pascal, who lighted
the way.

Louis Renaud, Achille, C[oe]ur-de-Lion, and Gaspard followed
Petit-Pierre.

Bertha closed the aperture behind them. She noticed that Michel was
not among the fugitives.

XXXI.

MY OLD CRONY LORIOT.

The Marquis de Souday, after watching the fugitives with his eyes
until they entered the chapel, gave one of those deep exclamations
which mean that the breast is relieved of a heavy weight; then he
returned to the vestibule. But instead of proceeding from the
vestibule to the salon, he went from the vestibule to the kitchen.

Contrary to all his habits and to the great astonishment of his cook,
he walked to the fire, raised the covers of the saucepans anxiously,
made sure that no ragout was sticking to the bottom of them, and put
back the spits a trifle so that no unexpected flame should dishonor
the roasts; having done this he returned to the vestibule, thence to
the dining-room, where he inspected the bottles, doubled their number,
looked to see if the table was properly set, and then, satisfied with
the inspection, returned to the salon.

There he found his daughters, the castle gate being intrusted to
Rosine, whose only duty was to open it on the first rap.

The girls were seated beside the fire when their father entered. Mary
was anxious, Bertha dreamy. Both were thinking of Michel. Bertha was
intoxicated with that pungent joy which follows the revelation of love
in the heart of the one we love; she fancied she read in the glances
of the young baron the assurance that it was for her the poor lad, so
timid, so hesitating, had conquered his weakness and braved real
perils. She measured the greatness of the love she supposed him to
feel by the revolution that love had evidently made in his nature. She
built her castles in the air, and blamed herself bitterly for not
having urged him to return to the château when she noticed that he did
not follow those whom his devotion had saved. Then she smiled; for
suddenly a thought crossed her mind: if he had remained behind he must
be hidden in some corner of the château, and was it not for the
pleasure of meeting her privately? Perhaps if she went into the
shrubbery of the park he would start up beside her and say: "See what
I have done to obtain a word with you!"

The marquis had scarcely seated himself in his accustomed easy-chair,
and had not had time to notice the preoccupation of his daughters,
which he would, of course, attribute to another cause than the
true one, when a single rap was heard on the gate. The marquis
started,--not because he did not expect the rap, but because this rap
was not the one he expected. It was timid, almost obsequious, and,
consequently, there was nothing military about it.

"Oh! oh!" exclaimed the marquis; "whom have we here, I'd like to
know."

"Some one knocked," said Bertha, coming out of her revery.

"One rap," said Mary.

The marquis shook his head as if to say, "That's not the point," and
then, deciding to see for himself what the matter was, he left the
salon, crossed the vestibule, and advanced as far as the top step of
the portico.

There, instead of the bayonets and sabres he was expecting to see
glitter in the darkness, instead of the soldierly figures and
moustaches with which he proposed to make acquaintance, the Marquis de
Souday saw nothing but the enormous dome of a blue cotton umbrella,
which approached him, point forward, up the steps of the portico.

As this umbrella, steadily advancing like a turtle's carapace,
threatened to put out his eye with its point, which stuck forth like
the central spot of an ancient shield, the marquis raised the orb of
this buckler and came face to face with a weasel's muzzle, surmounted
by two little, glittering eyes, like carbuncles, and topped with a
very tall hat, extremely narrow in the brim and so much brushed and
rebrushed that it shone in the dusky light as though it were
varnished.

"By all the devils of hell!" cried the marquis, "if it isn't my old
crony Loriot!"

"Ready to offer you his little services if you think him worthy,"
replied a falsetto voice which its owner endeavored to make
ingratiating.

"You are very welcome indeed to Souday, Maître Loriot," said the
marquis, in a tone of good-humor and as if he expected some genuine
pleasure from the presence of the person he welcomed so cordially. "I
expect quite a numerous party this evening, and you shall help me do
the honors. Come in, and see the young ladies."

Thereupon the old gentleman, with an easy air that showed how
convinced he was of the distance between a Marquis de Souday and a
village notary, preceded his guest into the salon. It is true that
Maître Loriot took so much time to wipe his boots on the mat which lay
at the door of that sanctuary that the politeness of the marquis, had
he exercised it in remaining behind his visitor, would have been
sorely tried and lessened.

Let us profit by the moment when the legal functionary shuts his
umbrella and dries his feet to sketch his portrait, if indeed the
undertaking is not beyond our powers.

Maître Loriot, the notary of Machecoul, was a little old fellow, thin
and slim and seeming smaller than he really was from his habit of
never speaking except half double in an attitude of the profoundest
respect. A long, sharp nose was the whole of his face; nature, in
developing beyond all reason that feature of his countenance, had
economized on the rest with such extraordinary parsimony that it was
necessary to look at him for some time before perceiving that Maître
Loriot had a mouth and chin and eyes like other men; but when that
knowledge was once attained it was observable that the eyes were
vivacious and the mouth not by any means devoid of shrewdness.

Maître Loriot fulfilled the promises of his physiognomical prospectus;
and he was clever enough to wring some thirty thousand francs out of a
country practice in which his predecessors had hardly managed to make
both ends meet. To attain this result, supposed until he came to be
impossible, M. Loriot had studied, not the Code, but men; he had
learned from that study that vanity and pride were the dominant
instincts of mankind; and he had, in consequence, endeavored to make
himself agreeable to those two vices, in which effort he succeeded so
well that he soon became absolutely necessary to those who possessed
them.

By reason of this system of behavior, politeness in Maître Loriot had
become servility; he did not bow, he prostrated himself; and, like the
fakirs of India, he had so trained his body to certain submissive
motions that this attitude was now habitual with him. Never would he
have addressed a titled person, were that person only a baron or even
a chevalier, in any other than the third person. He showed a gratitude
both humble and overflowing for all affability bestowed upon him;
and as, at the same time, he manifested an exaggerated devotion to the
interests confided to him, he had finally, little by little,
obtained a very considerable _clientèle_ among the nobility of the
neighborhood.

But the thing above all others which contributed to the success of
Maître Loriot in the department of the Loire-Inférieure and even in
the adjoining departments, was the ardor of his political opinions. He
was one of those who might well be called "more royalist than the king
himself." His little gray eye flamed when he heard the name of a
Jacobin, and to his mind all who had ever belonged to the liberal
side, from M. de Chateaubriand to M. de la Fayette were Jacobins.
Never would he have recognized the monarchy of July, and he always
called the King Louis-Philippe "Monsieur le Duc d'Orléans," not even
allowing him the title of Royal Highness which Charles X. did grant
him.

Maître Loriot was a frequent visitor to the Marquis de Souday. It was
part of his policy to parade an extreme respect for this illustrious
relic of the former social order,--a social order he deeply regretted;
and his respect had gone so far that he had made various loans to the
marquis, who, being very careless, as we have said, in the matter of
money, neglected as a matter of course to pay the interest on them.

The Marquis de Souday always welcomed Maître Loriot, partly on account
of the said loans; also because the old gentleman's fibre was not less
sensitive than that of others to agreeable flattery; and, lastly,
because the coolness which existed between the owner of Souday and the
other proprietors of the neighborhood made him rather lonely, and he
was glad of any distraction to the monotony of his life.

When the little notary thought his boots were cleaned of every vestige
of mud he entered the salon. There he again bowed to the marquis, who
had returned to his usual easy chair, and then he began to compliment
the two young girls. But the marquis did not leave him time to do much
of that.

"Loriot," he said, "I am always glad to see you."

The notary bowed to the ground.

"Only," continued the marquis, "you will permit me to ask, won't you?
what brings you here into our desert at half-past nine o'clock of a
rainy night. I know that when a man has such an umbrella as yours the
sky above him is always blue, but--"

The notary judged it proper not to allow such a joke to be made by a
marquis without laughing, and murmuring "Ah, good! very good!" Then,
making a direct answer, he said:--

"I was at the château de la Logerie very late, having been there to
carry some money to Madame la baronne on an order I did not receive
till two in the afternoon. I was coming back on foot, as I usually do,
when I heard noises of evil portent in the forest, which confirmed
what I already knew of a riot at Montaigu. I feared, if I went any
farther, that I might meet the soldiers of the Duc d'Orléans; and to
avoid that unpleasantness I thought that M. le marquis would deign to
let me lodge here for the night."

At the mention of la Logerie Mary and Bertha raised their heads like
two horses who hear from afar and suddenly the sound of the bugle.

"Oh! you have come from la Logerie, have you?" said the marquis.

"Yes, as I have just had the honor of mentioning to Monsieur le
marquis," replied Maître Loriot.

"Well! well! well! We have had another visitor from la Logerie this
evening."

"The young baron, perhaps?" suggested the notary.

"Yes."

"I am looking for him."

"Loriot," said the marquis, "I am astonished to hear you--a man whose
principles I have always considered sound--to hear you prostituting a
title which you habitually respect by attaching it to the name of
those Michels."

As the marquis uttered this remark with an air of superb disdain
Bertha turned crimson and Mary turned pale. The impression produced by
his words was lost upon the old gentleman, but it did not escape the
little gray eye of the notary. He was about to speak when Monsieur de
Souday made a sign with his hand that he had not finished his remarks.

"And I wish to know why you, my old crony," he continued, "whom we
have always treated well and kindly, why you think it necessary to put
forward a subterfuge in order to enter my house."

"Monsieur le marquis!" stammered Loriot.

"You came here to look for young Michel, didn't you? That's all very
well, but why lie about it?"

"I beg Monsieur le marquis to accept my most humble excuses. The
mother of the young man, whom I have been obliged to accept as a
client, being a legacy with the practice of my predecessor, is very
anxious. Her son got out of a window on the second story at the risk
of breaking his neck, and in defiance of her maternal wishes he has
run away; consequently Madame Michel requests me--"

"Ha! ha!" cried the marquis, "did he really do that?"

"Literally, Monsieur le marquis."

"Well, that reconciles me to him,--not perhaps altogether, but
somewhat."

"If Monsieur le marquis would indicate to me where I am likely to find
the young man," said Loriot, "I could take him back to his mother."

"As for that, the devil knows where he has taken himself, I don't! Do
you know, girls?" asked the marquis, turning to his daughters.

Bertha and Mary both made signs in the negative.

"You see, my dear crony, that we can't be of the least use to you,"
said the marquis. "But do tell me why mother Michel locked up her
son."

"It seems," replied the notary, "that young Michel, hitherto so
gentle, and docile, and obedient, has fallen suddenly in love."

"Ah, ha! taken the bit in his teeth? I know what that is! Well, Maître
Loriot, if you are called in counsel, do you tell mother Michel to
give him his head and keep a light rein on him; that's better than a
martingale. He strikes me as a pretty good little devil, what I have
seen of him."

"An excellent heart, Monsieur le marquis; and then, an only son!--more
than a hundred thousand francs a year!" said the notary.

"Hum!" exclaimed the marquis, "if that's all he has, it is little
enough to cover the villanies of the name he bears."

"Father!" said Bertha, while Mary only sighed, "You forget the service
he did us to-night."

"Hey! hey!" thought Loriot, looking at Bertha, "can the baroness be
right after all? It would be a fine contract to draw."

And he began to add up the fees he might expect from a marriage
contract between Baron Michel de la Logerie and the daughter of the
Marquis de Souday.

"You are right, my child," said the marquis; "we'll leave Loriot to
hunt up mother Michel's lost lamb, and say no more about them." Then,
turning to Loriot, he added: "Are you going any further on your quest,
Mr. Notary?"

"If Monsieur le marquis will deign to permit, I would prefer--"

"Just now, you gave me, as a pretext for staying here, your dread of
encountering the soldiers," interrupted the marquis. "Are you really
afraid of them? Heavens and earth, what's the meaning of that? You,
one of us, afraid of soldiers!"

"I am not afraid," replied Loriot; "Monsieur le marquis may believe
me. But those cursed Blues turn my stomach; I feel such an aversion
for them that after I have seen even one of their uniforms I can't eat
anything for twenty-four hours."

"That explains your leanness; but the saddest part of it is that this
aversion of yours obliges me to turn you out of my house."

"Monsieur le marquis is making fun of his humble servant."

"Indeed I am not; I don't wish your death, that's all."

"My death?"

"Yes, if the sight of one soldier gives you twenty-four hours of
inanition, you'll certainly die of starvation outright if you pass a
whole night under the same roof as a regiment."

"A regiment?"

"Yes, a regiment. I have invited a regiment to sup at Souday to-night;
and the regard I have for you obliges me to send you off, hot foot, at
once. Only, be careful which way you go because those scamps the
soldiers if they catch you in the fields, or rather in the woods, at
this time of night may take you for what you are not--I mean to say,
for what you are."

"What then?"

"What then! why, they'd honor you with a shot or two, and the muskets
of M. le Duc d'Orléans are loaded with ball, you know."

The notary turned pale and stammered a few unintelligible words.

"Decide; you have the choice,--death by hunger, or by guns. You've no
time to lose; I hear the tramp of men--and there! precisely!--that's
the general knocking at the gate."

Sure enough, the knocker resounded; this time it was vigorously
handled, as became the guest whose arrival it announced.

"In company with Monsieur le marquis," said Loriot, "I will conquer my
aversion, invincible as it is."

"Good! then take that torch and go with me to meet my guests."

"Your guests? Why, really, Monsieur le marquis, I can't believe--"

"Come, come, _Thomas_ Loriot, you shall see first, and believe
afterwards."

And the Marquis de Souday, taking a torch himself, advanced to the
portico. Bertha and Mary followed him; Mary thoughtful, Bertha
anxious,--both looking earnestly into the shadows of the courtyard to
see if they could discover any sign of the presence of him they were
both thinking of.

XXXII.

THE GENERAL EATS A SUPPER WHICH HAD NOT BEEN
PREPARED FOR HIM.

According to the instructions of the marquis transmitted by Mary to
Rosine, the gate was opened to the soldiers at the first rap. No
sooner was this done than they filed into the courtyard and hastened
to surround the house.

Just as the old general was about to dismount he saw the two
torchbearers on the portico, and beside them, partly in shadow, partly
in the light, the two young girls. They all came toward him with a
gracious, hospitable manner which greatly amazed him.

"Faith! general," said the marquis, coming down the last step, as if
to go as far as possible to meet the general. "I began to despair of
seeing you, this evening at least."

"You despaired of seeing me, Monsieur le marquis!" exclaimed the
general, astonished at this exordium.

"Yes, I despaired of seeing you. At what hour did you leave
Montaigu,--at seven?"

"At seven precisely?"

"Well, that's just it! I calculated that it would take you about two
hours to march here, and I expected you at nine or half-past, and here
it is half-past ten. I was just wondering if some accident could have
happened to deprive me of the honor of receiving so brave and gallant
a soldier."

"Then you expected me, monsieur?"

"Why, of course, I did. I'll bet it was that cursed ford at Pont-Farcy
which detained you. What an abominable country it is, general!--brooks
that become impassible torrents from the slightest rain; roads--call
them roads indeed! I call them bogs! How did you get over those
dreadful springs of Baugé?--a sea of mud in which you are sure to
flounder to the waist, and are lucky enough if it doesn't come over
your head. But even that is nothing to the Viette des Biques. When I
was a young fellow and a frantic hunter I used to think twice before
risking myself over it. Really, general, I feel very grateful for this
visit when I think what trouble and fatigue it has caused you."

The general saw that, for the moment, he had to do with as shrewd a
player as himself; and he resolved to eat with a good grace the dish
that the marquis served to him.

"I beg you to believe, Monsieur le marquis," he replied, "that I
regret having kept you waiting, and that the fault of the delay is
none of mine. In any case, I will try to profit by the lesson you give
me, and the next time I come I will set out in time to defy fords,
bogs, and precipices from hindering my arrival politely in season."

At this moment an officer came up to the general to take his orders
about the search to be made of the château.

"It is useless, my dear captain," replied the general; "the marquis
tells me we have come too late; in other words, we have nothing to do
here,--the château is all in order."

"But, my dear general!" said the marquis, "in order or not, my house
is at your disposal; pray do exactly as you like with it."

"You offer it with such good grace I cannot refuse."

"Well, young ladies, what are you about," exclaimed the marquis, "that
you let me keep these gentlemen talking here in the rain? Pray come
in, general, come in, gentlemen; there's an excellent fire in the
salon which will dry your clothes--which that cursed ford must have
soaked thoroughly."

"How shall I thank you for all your considerateness?" said the
general, biting his moustache and secretly his lips.

"Oh! you are a man I am glad to serve, general," replied the marquis,
preceding the officers whom he was lighting, the little notary
modestly bringing up the rear with the other torch. "But permit me,"
he added, "to present to you my daughters. Mesdemoiselles Bertha and
Mary de Souday."

"Faith, marquis," said the general, gallantly, "the sight of two such
charming faces is worth the risks of taking cold at the fords, or
getting muddy in the bog, or even breaking one's neck on the Viette
des Biques."

"Well, young ladies," said the marquis, "make use of your pretty eyes
to see if supper, which has long been waiting for these gentlemen,
intends to keep us waiting now."

"Really, marquis," said Dermoncourt, turning to his officers, "we are
quite confounded by such kindness; and our gratitude--"

"Is amply relieved by the pleasure your visit affords us. You can
easily believe, general, that having grown accustomed to the two
pretty faces you compliment so charmingly, and being moreover their
father, I should sometimes find life in my little castle a trifle
insipid and monotonous. You can understand, therefore, that when an
imp of my acquaintance came and whispered in my ear, 'General
Dermoncourt started from Montaigu at seven o'clock, with his staff, to
pay you a visit,' I was delighted."

"Ah! it was an imp who told you?"

"Yes; there is always such a being in every cottage and every castle
in this region of country. So the prospect of the pleasant evening I
should owe to your coming, general, gave me something of my old
elasticity, which, alas! I am losing. I hurried my people and put my
hen-house and larder under contribution, set my daughters in motion,
and kept my old crony Loriot, the Machecoul notary, to do you honor;
and I have even, God damn me! put my own hand in the pie, and we have
managed, among us, to prepare a supper which is ready for you, and
also for your soldiers--for I don't forget I was once a soldier
myself."

"Ah! you have served in the army, Monsieur le marquis?" said
Dermoncourt.

"Perhaps in the same wars as yourself; though, instead of saying that
I served, I ought only say that I fought."

"In this region?"

"Yes, under the orders of Charette."

"Ah ha!"

"I was his aide-de-camp."

"Then this is not the first time we have met, marquis."

"Is that really so?"

"Yes, I made the campaigns of 1795 and 1796 in La Vendée."

"Ah! bravo! that delights me," cried the marquis; "then we can talk at
dessert of our youthful prowess--Ah, general," said the old gentleman,
with a certain melancholy, "it is getting to be a rare thing on either
side to find those who can talk of the old campaigns. But here come
the young ladies to tell us that supper is ready. General, will you
give your arm to one of them? the captain will take the other." Then,
addressing the rest of the officers, he said, "Gentlemen, will you
follow the general into the dining-room?"

They sat down to table,--the general between Mary and Bertha, the
marquis between two officers. Maître Loriot took the seat next to
Bertha, intending, in the course of the meal, to get in a word about
Michel. He had made up his mind that, so far as he was concerned, the
marriage contract should be drawn in his office.

For some minutes nothing was heard but the clatter of plates and
glasses; all present were silent. The officers, following the example
of their general, accepted complacently this unexpected termination of
their intended attack. The marquis, who usually dined at five o'clock,
and was therefore nearly six hours late in getting anything to eat,
was making up to his stomach for its lost time. Mary and Bertha, both
of them pensive, were not sorry to have an excuse for their silent
reflections in the aversion they felt to the tricolor cockade.

The general was evidently reflecting on some means of getting even
with the marquis. He understood perfectly well that Monsieur de Souday
had received warning of his approach. Practised in Vendéan warfare, he
well knew the facility and rapidity with which news is communicated
from one village to another. Surprised at first by the heartiness of
the Marquis de Souday's welcome, he had gradually recovered his
coolness and returned to his habits of minute observation. All he saw,
whether it was his host's extreme attentions, or the profusion of the
repast, far too sumptuous to have been prepared for enemies, only
confirmed his suspicions; but, patient as all good hunters of men and
game should be, and certain that if his illustrious prey had taken
flight (as he believed she had) it would be useless to pursue her in
the darkness, he resolved to postpone his more serious investigations
and to let no indication of what was below the surface escape him.

It was the general who first broke silence.

"Monsieur le marquis," he said, raising his glass, "the choice of a
toast may be as difficult for you as for us; but there is one that
cannot be embarrassing, and has, indeed, the right to precede all
others. Permit me to drink to the health of the Demoiselles de Souday,
thanking them for their share in the courteous reception with which
you have honored us."

"My sister and I thank you, monsieur," said Bertha; "and we are very
glad to have pleased you in accordance with our father's wishes."

"Which means," said the general, smiling, "that you are only gracious
to us under orders, and that our gratitude for your attentions is
really due to Monsieur le marquis. Well, that's all right; I like such
military frankness, which would induce me to leave the camp of your
admirers and enter that of your friends, if I thought I could be
received there wearing, as I do, the tricolor cockade."

"The praises you give to my frankness, monsieur," replied Bertha,
"induce me to say honestly that the colors you wear are not those I
like to see upon my friends; but, if you really wish for that title I
will grant it, hoping that the day may come when you will wear mine."

"General," said the marquis, scratching his ear, "your remark is
perfectly true; what toast can I give in return for your graceful
compliment to my daughters without compromising either of us? Have you
a wife?"

The general was determined to nonplus the marquis.

"No," he said.

"A sister?"

"No."

"A mother, perhaps?"

"Yes," said the general, issuing from the ambush in which he seemed to
have been awaiting the marquis, "France, our common mother."

"Ah, bravo! then I drink to France! and may the glory and the grandeur
that her kings have given her for the last eight centuries long
continue."

"And, permit me to add, the half-century of liberty which she owes to
her sons."

"That is not only an addition, but a modification," said the marquis.
Then, after an instant's silence, he added, "Faith! I'll accept that
toast! White or tricolor, France is always France!"

All the guests touched glasses, and Loriot himself, carried off his
balance by the enthusiasm of the marquis, emptied his glass.

Once launched in this direction, and moistened abundantly, the
conversation became so lively and even vagabond that after the supper
was two thirds through, Mary and Bertha, thinking they had better not
wait till the end of it, rose from table and passed without remark
into the salon.

Maître Loriot, who seemed to have come there as much for the daughters
as for their father, rose a few moments later and followed them.

XXXIII.

IN WHICH MAÎTRE LORIOT'S CURIOSITY
IS NOT EXACTLY SATISFIED.

Maître Loriot profited, as we have said, by the example of the young
ladies, and left the marquis and his guests to evoke at ease their
memories of the "war of giants." He rose from table and followed the
Demoiselles de Souday into the salon. There he advanced toward them,
bending almost double, and rubbing his hands.

"Ah!" said Bertha; "you seem to be pleased about something, Monsieur
le notaire."

"Mesdemoiselles," replied Maître Loriot, in a low voice, "I have done
my best to second your father's trick. I hope that if need be you will
not refuse to certify to the coolness and self-possession I have shown
under the circumstances."

"What trick do you mean, dear Monsieur Loriot," said Mary, laughing.
"Neither Bertha nor I know what you mean."

"Good heavens!" said the notary; "I don't know any more than you know,
but it seems to me that Monsieur le marquis must have some serious and
powerful reasons to treat as old friends, and even better than some
old friends are treated, those hateful bullies whom he has admitted to
his table. The attentions he is paying to those hirelings of the
usurper strike me as very strange, and I fancy they have a purpose."

"What purpose?" asked Bertha.

"Well, that of filling those fellows' minds with such a sense of
security that they will neglect to look after their own safety, and
then--taking advantage of their carelessness, to make them share the
fate--"

"The fate?"

"The fate of--" repeated the notary.

"The fate of whom?"

The notary passed his hand across his throat.

"Holofernes, perhaps?" cried Bertha, laughing.

"Exactly," said Maître Loriot.

Mary joined her sister in the peals of laughter this assurance called
forth. The little notary's supposition delighted the sisters beyond
measure.

"So you assign us the part of Judith!" cried Bertha, endeavoring to
check her laughter.

"But, mesdemoiselles--"

"If my father were here, Monsieur Loriot, he might be angry that you
suppose him capable of such proceedings, which would be in my opinion,
a little too Biblical. But don't be uneasy; we will tell neither papa
nor the general, who certainly would not be flattered at the meaning
you put upon our attentions."

"Young ladies," entreated Loriot, "forgive me if my political fervor,
my horror for all the partisans of the present unfortunate doctrines,
carried me rather too far."

"I forgive you, Monsieur Loriot," replied Bertha, who, having been, in
consequence of her frank, decided nature, the most suspicious, felt
that she had the most to pardon,--"I forgive you; and in order that
you may not make such mistakes in future I shall give you the key-note
of the situation. You must know that General Dermoncourt, whom you
regard as Antichrist, has merely come to Souday to make exactly the
same search that is made in all the neighboring châteaus."

"If that's the case," said the little notary, who was getting himself
deeper and deeper into trouble, "why treat him with,--yes, I will say
the word,--with such luxury and splendor? The law is precise."

"The law! How so?"

"Yes; it forbids all magistrates and civil and military officers
charged with the execution of judicial authority to seize, carry away,
or appropriate any articles other than those named in the warrant.
What are these men now doing with the viands and wines of all
sorts which are on the table of the Marquis de Souday? They are
ap-pro-pri-ating them!"

"It seems to me, my dear Monsieur Loriot," said Mary, "that my father
has the right to invite whom he chooses to his table."

"Even those who come to execute--to bring into his home--an odious and
tyrannical power? Certainly he has the right, mademoiselle; but you
will allow me to regard it as a most unnatural thing, and to suppose
it has some secret cause or object."

"In other words, Monsieur Loriot, you see a secret which you want to
penetrate."

"Oh, mademoiselle--"

"Well, I'll confide it to you, as well as I can, my dear Monsieur
Loriot. I am willing to trust you, if you, on your side, will tell me
how it happened that having to look for Monsieur Michel de la Logerie,
you came straight to the château de Souday."

Bertha said the words in a firm, incisive way, and the notary, to whom
they were addressed, heard them with more embarrassment than was felt
by the lady who uttered them.

As for Mary, she came up to her sister, slipped her arm within
Bertha's, and resting her head upon the latter's shoulder, awaited,
with a curiosity she did not seek to disguise, the answer of Maître
Loriot.

"Well, if you really wish to know why, young ladies--"

The notary made a pause, as though expecting to be encouraged; and
Bertha did encourage him with a nod.

"I came," continued Maître Loriot, "because Madame la Baronne de la
Logerie informed me that the château de Souday was probably the place
to which her son went on taking flight from his home."

"And on what did Madame la Baronne de la Logerie base that
supposition?" asked Bertha, with the same questioning look and the
same firm, incisive voice.

"Mademoiselle," replied the notary, more and more embarrassed, "after
what I said to your father, really I do not know whether, in spite of
the reward you promise to my frankness, I have the courage to say
more."

"Why not?" said Bertha, with the same coolness. "Shall I help you? It
is because she thinks, I believe you said, that the object of Monsieur
Michel's love is at Souday."

"Yes, mademoiselle, that is just it."

"Very good; but what I desire to know, and what I shall insist on
knowing, is Madame de la Logerie's opinion of that love."

"Her opinion is not exactly favorable, mademoiselle," returned the
notary; "that I must admit."

"That's a point on which my father and the baroness will agree," said
Bertha, laughing.

"But," continued the notary, pointedly, "Monsieur Michel will be of
age in a few months,--consequently, free as to his actions, and the
master of an immense fortune."

"As to his actions," said Bertha, "so much the better for him."

"In what way, mademoiselle?" asked the notary, maliciously.

"Why to rehabilitate the name he bears and efface the evil memories
his father left behind him. As to the fortune, if I were the woman
Monsieur Michel honored with his affection, I should advise him to
make such use of it that there would soon be no name in the whole
province more honored than his."

"What use would you advise him to make of it?" exclaimed the notary,
much astonished.

"To return that money to those from whom they say his father got it,
and to make restitution to the former proprietors of the national
domain which M. Michel bought."

"But in that case, mademoiselle, you would ruin the man who had the
honor to be in love with you," said the little notary, quite
bewildered.

"What would that matter if he obtained the respect of all, and the
regard of her who advised the sacrifice?"

Just then Rosine appeared at the door of the salon.

"Mademoiselle," she said, not addressing herself particularly to
either Mary or Bertha, "will you please come here?"

Bertha wanted to continue her conversation with the notary. She was
eager for information as to the feelings Madame de la Logerie had
against her; and, moreover, she enjoyed talking, however vaguely, of
projects which for some time past had been the theme of her
meditations. So she told Mary to go and see what was wanted.

But Mary, on her side, was rather unwilling to leave the salon. She
was frightened to see to what lengths Bertha's love had developed
within the last few days; every word her sister said echoed painfully
in her soul. She felt sure that Michel's love was wholly her own, and
she thought with actual terror of Bertha's despair when she should
discover how strangely she had deceived herself. Besides, in spite of
Mary's immense affection for her sister, love had already poured into
her heart the little dose of selfishness which always accompanies that
emotion, and she was quite joyful, from another point of view, at what
she was now hearing. The part which Bertha was tracing out for the
wife of Michel she felt should be her own. So it happened that Bertha
was obliged to ask her for the second time to see what Rosine wanted.

"Go, dearest," she said, kissing Mary's forehead, "go; and while you
are there please give orders about preparing Monsieur Loriot's room;
for I fear, in all this turmoil, it has been forgotten."

Mary was accustomed to obey, and she obeyed. Of the two sisters, she
was by far the most docile and gentle. She found Rosine at the door.

"What do you want of us?" she asked.

Rosine did not reply. Then, as if she feared to be overheard from the
dining-room, where the marquis was narrating the last day of
Charette's life, she took Mary by the arm and drew her under the
staircase at the farther end of the vestibule.

"Mademoiselle," she said, "he is hungry."

"He is hungry?" repeated Mary.

"Yes; he has just told me so."

"Who is it you are talking of? Who is hungry?"

"He, the poor lad."

"Who is he?"

"Why, Monsieur Michel."

"Monsieur Michel here!"

"Didn't you know it?"

"No."

"Two hours ago--after Mademoiselle Bertha returned from the chapel,
just before the soldiers arrived--he came to the kitchen."

"Didn't he go away with Petit-Pierre?"

"No."

"And you say he went to the kitchen?"

"Yes; and he was so tired, it was quite pitiful. 'Monsieur Michel,' I
said like that, 'why don't you go into the salon?' 'My dear Rosine,'
said he, in his gentle way, 'they didn't ask me.' Then he wanted to go
and sleep at Machecoul, for he said he wouldn't go back to La Logerie
for all the world. It seems his mother meant to take him to Paris. So
I wouldn't let him leave the house."

"You did quite right, Rosine. Where is he now?"

"I put him in the tower chamber; but as the soldiers have taken the
ground-floor, we can't get in there now except through the passage at
the end of the hay-loft, and I came to ask you for the key."

Mary's first thought (it was her good thought) was to tell her sister;
but a second thought succeeded the first, and that, it must be owned,
was less generous. It was no other than to see Michel first and alone.
Rosine gave her the opportunity.

"I'll tell you where the key is," said Mary.

"Oh, mademoiselle," replied Rosine, "do come with me. There are so
many men about that I don't like to be alone, and I should die of
fright to go up there by myself; whereas if you, the marquis's
daughter, were with me they would all respect us."

"But the provisions?"

"Here they are."

"Where?"

"In this basket."

"Oh, very good; then come."

And Mary sprang up the stairs with the agility of the kids she
sometimes hunted among the rocks in the forest of Machecoul.

XXXIV.

THE TOWER CHAMBER.

When Mary reached the second floor she stopped before the room
occupied by Jean Oullier. The key she wanted was kept in that room.

Then she opened a door which gave entrance from this floor on a
winding stairway which led to the upper portion of the tower, where,
preceding Rosine whose basket hindered her, she continued her
ascension, which was somewhat dangerous, for the stairs of the
half-abandoned tower had fallen into a state of dilapidation and
decay. It was at the top of this tower, in a little chamber under the
roof, that Rosine and the cook, forming themselves into a committee of
deliberation, had shut up the young Baron Michel de la Logerie.

The intention of these honest girls was excellent; the result was in
no sense equal to their good-will. It would be impossible to imagine a
more miserable refuge, or one where it would be less possible to
obtain even a slight repose. The room was, in fact, used by Jean
Oullier to store the seeds, tools, and other necessary articles for
his various avocations as Jack-at-all-trades. The walls were literally
palisaded with branches of beans, cabbages, lettuce, onions, of
diverse varieties, all gone to seed and exposed to the air for the
purpose of ripening and drying them. Unfortunately, these botanic
specimens had acquired such a coating of dust, while awaiting the
period of their return to earth, that the least movement made in the
narrow chamber sent up a cloud of leguminous atoms which affected the
atmosphere disagreeably.

The sole furniture of this room was a wooden bench, which was not a
very comfortable seat, certainly; and Michel, unable to endure it, had
betaken himself to a pile of oats of a rare species, which obtained,
on account of their rarity, a place in this collection of precious
germs. He seated himself in the midst of the mound, and there, in
spite of some inconveniencies, he found enough elasticity to rest his
limbs, which were cramped with fatigue.

But after a time Michel grew weary of lying on this movable and
prickly sofa. When Guérin threw him down into the brook a goodly
quantity of mud became attached to his garments, and the dampness soon
penetrated to his skin. His stay before the kitchen fire had been
short, so short that the dampness now returned, more penetrating than
ever. He began, therefore, to walk up and down in the turret-room,
cursing the foolish timidity to which he owed not only the cold,
stiffness, and hunger he began to feel, but also--more dismal
still--the loss of Mary's presence. He scolded himself for not
securing his own profit out of the valiant enterprise he had
undertaken, and for losing courage to end successfully an affair he
had so well begun.

Let us hasten to say here, in order that we may not misrepresent our
hero's character, that the consciousness of his mistake did not make
him a whit more courageous, and it never for an instant occurred to
him to go frankly to the marquis and ask for hospitality,--a desire
for which had been one of the determining motives of his flight.

Meantime the soldiers had arrived, and Michel, attracted by the noise
to the narrow casement of his turret-chamber, saw the Demoiselles de
Souday, their father, the general, and his officers, passing and
repassing before the brilliantly lighted windows of the main building.
It was then that, seeing Rosine in the courtyard beneath, he asked,
with all the modesty of his character, for a bit of bread, and
declared himself hungry.

Hearing, soon after, a light step apparently approaching his room, he
began to feel a lively satisfaction under two heads: first, he was
likely to get something to eat; and next, he should probably hear news
of Mary.

"Is that you, Rosine?" he asked, when he heard a hand endeavoring to
open the door.

"No, it is not Rosine; it is I, Monsieur Michel," said a voice.

Michel recognized it as Mary's voice; but he could not believe his
ears. The voice continued:--

"Yes, I,--I, who am very angry with you!"

As the tone of the voice was not in keeping with the words, Michel was
less alarmed than he might have been.

"Mademoiselle Mary!" he cried; "Mademoiselle Mary! Good heavens!"

He leaned against the wall to keep himself from falling. Meanwhile the
young girl had opened the door.

"You!" cried Michel,--"you, Mademoiselle Mary! Oh, how happy I am!"

"Not so happy as you say."

"Why not?"

"Because, as you must admit, in the midst of your happiness you are
dying of hunger."

"Ah, mademoiselle! who told you that?" stammered Michel, coloring to
the whites of his eyes.

"Rosine. Come, Rosine, quick!" continued Mary. "Here, put your lantern
on this bench, and open the basket at once; don't you see that
Monsieur Michel is devouring it with his eyes?"

These laughing words made the young baron rather ashamed of the vulgar
need of food he had expressed to his foster-sister. It came into his
head that to seize the basket, fling it out of the window, at the risk
of braining a soldier, fall upon his knees, and say to the young girl
pathetically, with both hands pressed to his heart, "Can I think of my
stomach when my heart is satisfied?" would be a rather gallant
declaration to make. But Michel might have had such ideas in his head
for a number of consecutive years without ever bringing himself to act
in so cavalier a manner. He therefore allowed Mary to treat him
exactly like a foster-brother. At her invitation he went back to his
seat on the oats, and found it a very enjoyable thing to eat the food
cut for him by the delicate hand of the young girl.

"Oh, what a child you are!" said Mary. "Why, after doing so gallant an
act and rendering us a service of such importance, at the risk, too,
of breaking your neck,--why didn't you come to my father, and say to
him, as it was so natural to do, 'Monsieur, I cannot go home to my
mother to-night; will you keep me till to-morrow morning?'"

"Oh, I never should have dared!" cried Michel, letting his arms drop
on each side of him, like a man to whom an impossible proposal was
made.

"Why not?" asked Mary.

"Because your father awes me."

"My father! Why, he is the kindest man in the world. Besides, are you
not our friend?"

"Oh, how good of you, mademoiselle, to give me that title." Then,
venturing to go a step farther, he added. "Have I really won it?"

Mary colored slightly. A few days earlier she would not have hesitated
to reply that Michel was indeed her friend, and that she was
constantly thinking of him. But during those few days Love had
strangely modified her feelings and produced an instinctive reticence
which she was far from comprehending. The more she was revealed to
herself as a woman, by sensations hitherto unknown to her, the more
she perceived that the manners, habits, and language resulting from
the education she had received were unusual; and with that faculty of
intuition peculiar to women she saw what she lacked on the score of
reserve, and she resolved to acquire it for the sake of the emotion
that filled her soul and made her feel the necessity of dignity.

Consequently, Mary, who up to this time had never concealed a single
thought, began to see that a young girl must sometimes, if not lie, at
least evade the truth; and she now put in practice this new discovery
in her answer to Michel's question.

"I think," she replied, "that you have done quite enough to earn the
name of friend." Then without giving him time to return to a subject
on hazardous ground, she continued, "Come, give me proof of the
appetite you were boasting of just now by eating this other wing of
the chicken."

"Oh, mademoiselle, no!" said Michel, artlessly, "I am choking as it
is."

"Then you must be a very poor eater. Come, obey; if not, as I am only
here to serve you, I shall go."

"Mademoiselle," said Michel, stretching out both his hands, in one of
which was a fork, in the other a piece of bread,--"mademoiselle, you
cannot be so cruel. Oh! if you only knew how sad and dismal I have
been here for the last two hours in this utter solitude--"

"You were hungry; that explains it," said Mary, laughing.

"No, no, no; that was not it! I could see you from here, going and
coming with all those officers."

"That was your own fault. Instead of taking refuge like an owl in this
old turret, you ought to have come into the salon and gone with us to
the dining-room and eaten your supper sitting, like a Christian, on a
proper chair. You would have heard my father and General Dermoncourt
relating adventures to make your flesh creep, and you would have seen
the old weasel Loriot--as my father calls him--eating his supper,
which was scarcely less alarming."

"Good God!" cried Michel.

"What?" asked Mary, surprised by the sudden exclamation.

"Maître Loriot, of Machecoul?"

"Maître Loriot, of Machecoul," repeated Mary.

"My mother's notary?"

"Ah, yes, that's true; so he is!" said Mary.

"Is he here?" asked Michel.

"Yes, of course he is here; and what do you think he came for?"
continued Mary, laughing.

"What?"

"To look for you."

"For me?"

"Exactly; sent by the baroness."

"But, mademoiselle," cried Michel, much alarmed, "I don't wish to go
back to La Logerie."

"Why not?"

"Because,--well, because they lock me up, they detain me; they want to
keep me at a distance from--from my friends."

"Nonsense! La Logerie is not so very far from Souday."

"No; but Paris is far from Souday, and the baroness wants to take me
to Paris. Did you tell that notary I was here?"

"No, indeed."

"Oh! I thank you, mademoiselle."

"You need not thank me, for I did not know it myself."

"But now that you do know it--"

Michel hesitated.

"Well, what?"

"You must not tell him, Mademoiselle Mary," said Michel, ashamed of
his weakness.

"Upon my word, Monsieur Michel," replied Mary, "you must allow me to
say one thing."

"Say it, mademoiselle; say it!"

"Well, it seems to me if I were a man Maître Loriot should not disturb
me under any circumstances."

Michel seemed to gather all his strength in order to take a
resolution.

"You are right," he said; "and I will go and tell him that I will not
return to La Logerie."

At this moment they were startled by loud cries from the cook, calling
to Rosine.

"Good heavens!" they both cried, one as frightened as the other.

"Do you hear that, mademoiselle?" said Rosine.

"Yes."

"They want me."

"Oh!" said Mary, rising, and all ready to flee away, "can they know we
are here?"

"Suppose they do," said Rosine; "what does it matter?"

"Nothing," said Mary; "but--"

"Listen!" exclaimed Rosine.

They were silent, and the cook was heard to go away. Presently her
voice was heard in the garden.

"Dear me!" said Rosine; "there she is, calling me outside."

And Rosine was for running down at once.

"Heavens!" cried Mary; "don't leave me here alone."

"Why, you are not alone," said Rosine, naïvely. "Monsieur Michel is
here."

"Yes, but to get back to the house," stammered Mary.

"Why, mademoiselle," cried Rosine, astonished, "have you suddenly
turned coward,--you so brave, who are in the woods by night as much as
by day! It isn't a bit like you."

"Never mind; stay, Rosine."

"Well, for all the help I have been to you for the last half-hour I
might as well go."

"Very true; but that's not what I want of you."

"What do you want?"

"Well, don't you see?"

"What?"

"Why, that this unfortunate boy can't pass the night here, in this
room."

"Then where can he pass it?" asked Rosine.

"I don't know; but we must find him another room."

"Without telling the marquis?"

"Oh, true! my father doesn't know he is here. Good heavens! what's to
be done? Ah, Monsieur Michel, it is all your fault!"

"Mademoiselle, I am ready to leave the house if you demand it."

"What makes you say that?" cried Mary, quickly. "No; on the contrary,
stay."

"Mademoiselle Mary, an idea!" interrupted Rosine.

"What is it?"

"Suppose I go and ask Mademoiselle Bertha what we had better do?"

"No," replied Mary, with an eagerness which surprised herself; "no,
that's useless! I will ask her myself presently when I go down, after
Monsieur Michel has finished his wretched little supper."

"Very good; then I'll go now," said Rosine.

Mary dared not keep her longer. Rosine disappeared, leaving the two
young people entirely alone.

XXXV.

WHICH ENDS QUITE OTHERWISE THAN AS MARY EXPECTED.

The little room was lighted only by the lantern, the rays of which
were concentrated on the door, leaving in darkness, or at any rate in
obscurity, the rest of the room,--if, indeed, the word "room" can be
applied to the sort of pigeon-loft in which the two young people were
now alone.

Michel was still sitting on the heap of oats. Mary was kneeling on the
ground, looking into the basket with more embarrassment than interest,
ostensibly in search of some dainty which might still be forthcoming
to conclude the repast.

But so many things had now happened that Michel was no longer hungry.
His head was resting on his hand and his elbow on his knee. He was
watching with a lover's eye the soft, sweet face before him, now
foreshortened by the girl's attitude in a way to double the charm of
her delicate features. He breathed in with delight the waves of
perfumed air that came to him from the long fair curls, which the
breeze entering through the window gently raised and wafted to his
lips. At that contact, that perfume, that sight, his blood circulated
more rapidly in his veins. He heard the arteries of his temples
beating; he felt a quiver running through every limb until it reached
his brain. Under the influence of sensations so new to him the young
man felt his soul animated by unknown aspirations; he learned to
_will_.

What he willed he felt to the depths of his soul; he willed to find
some way of telling Mary that he loved her. He sought the best; but
with all his seeking he found no better way than the simple means of
taking her hand and carrying it to his lips. Suddenly he did it,
without really knowing what he did.

"Monsieur Michel! Monsieur Michel!" cried Mary, more astonished than
angry; "what are you doing?"

The young girl rose quickly. Michel saw that he had gone too far and
must now go farther still and say all. It was he who now took Mary's
posture; that is, he fell upon his knees and again took the hand which
had escaped him. It is true that hand made no effort to avoid his
clasp.

"Oh! can I have offended you?" he cried. "If that were so I should be
most unhappy, and ask pardon of you on my knees."

"Monsieur Michel!" began the young girl, without knowing what she
meant to say.

But the baron, afraid that the little hand might be snatched away from
him, folded it in both his own; and as, on his side, he did not very
well know what he was saying, he continued:--

"If I have abused your goodness, mademoiselle, tell me,--I implore
you,--tell me that you are not angry with me."

"I will say so, monsieur, when you rise," said Mary, making a feeble
effort to withdraw her hand. But the effort was so feeble it had no
other result than to show Michel its captivity was not altogether
forced upon her.

"No," said the young baron, under the influence of a growing ardor
caused by the change from hope into something that was almost
certainty,--"no, leave me at your feet. Oh! if you only knew how many
times, since I have known you, I have dreamed of the moment when I
should kneel thus at your feet; if you knew how that dream, mere dream
as it was, gave me the sweetest sensations, the most delightful agony,
you would let me enjoy the happiness which is at this moment a
reality."

"But, Monsieur Michel," replied Mary, in a voice of increasing
emotion as she spoke, for she felt she had reached the moment when she
could have no further doubt as to the nature of his affection for
her,--"Monsieur Michel, we should not kneel except to God and to the
saints."

"I know not to whom we ought to kneel, nor why I kneel to you," said
the young man. "What I feel is far beyond all that I ever felt
before,--greater than my affection for my mother, so great that I do
not know where to place or what to call the sentiment that leads me to
adore you. It is something which belongs to the reverence you speak
of, which we offer to God and to the saints. For me you are the whole
creation; in adoring you it seems to me that I adore the universe
itself."

"Oh, monsieur, cease to say such things! Michel! my friend!"

"No, no, leave me as I am; suffer me to consecrate myself to you with
an absolute devotion. Alas! I feel,--believe me, I am not mistaken,--I
feel, since I have seen men who are truly men, that the devotion of a
timid, feeble child, which, alas! I am, is but a paltry thing at best;
and yet it seems to me that the joy of suffering, of shedding my
blood, of dying, if need be, for you, must be so infinite that the
hope of winning it would give me the strength and courage that I
lack."

"Why talk of suffering and of death?" said Mary, in her gentle voice.
"Do you think death and suffering absolutely necessary to prove an
affection true?"

"Why do I speak of them, Mademoiselle Mary? Why do I call them to my
aid? Because I dare not hope for another happiness; because to live
happy, calm, and peaceful beside you, to enjoy your tenderness, in
short, to make you my wife, seems to me a dream beyond all human hope.
I cannot picture to my mind that such a dream should ever be reality
for me."

"Poor child!" said Mary, in a voice of at least as much compassion as
tenderness; "then you do indeed love me truly?"

"Oh, Mademoiselle Mary, why must I tell you? Why should I repeat it?
Do you not see it with your eyes and with your heart? Pass your hand
across my forehead bathed in sweat, place it on my heart that is
beating wildly; see how my body trembles, and can you doubt I love
you?"

The feverish excitement, which suddenly transformed the young man into
another being, was communicated to Mary; she was no less agitated, no
less trembling than himself. She forgot all,--the hatred of her father
for all that bore the name of Michel, the repugnance of Madame de la
Logerie toward her family, even the delusions Bertha cherished of
Michel's love to herself, delusions which Mary had so many times
determined to respect. The native warmth and ardor of her vigorous and
primitive nature gained an ascendency over the reserve she had for
some time thought it proper to assume. She was on the point of
yielding wholly to the tenderness of her heart and of replying to that
passionate love by a love even, perhaps, more passionate, when a
slight noise at the door caused her to turn her head.

There stood Bertha, erect and motionless, on the threshold. The eye of
the lantern, as we have said, was turned toward the door, so that the
light was concentrated on Bertha's face. Mary could therefore see
plainly how white her sister was, and also how pain and anger were
gathering upon that frowning brow and behind those lips so violently
contracted. She was so terrified by the unexpected and almost menacing
apparition that she pushed away the young man, whose hand had not left
hers, and went up to her sister.

But Bertha, who had now entered the turret, did not stop to meet Mary.
Pushing her aside with her hand as though she were an inert object,
she went straight to Michel.

"Monsieur," she said, in a ringing voice, "has my sister not told you
that Monsieur Loriot, your mother's notary, is in the salon and wishes
to speak to you?"

Michel muttered a few words.

"You will find him in the salon," continued Bertha, in the tone of
voice she would have used in giving an order.

Michel, cast suddenly back into his usual timidity and all his
terrors, stood up in a confused and vacillating manner without saying
a word, and turned to leave the room, like a child detected in a fault
who obeys without having the courage to excuse himself.

Mary took the lantern to light him down, but Bertha snatched it from
her hand and put it into that of the young man, making him a sign to
go.

"But you, mademoiselle?" he ventured to say.

"We know the house," replied Bertha. Then stamping her foot
impatiently, as she noticed that Michel's eyes were seeking those of
Mary, "Go, go! I tell you; go!" she exclaimed.

The young man disappeared, leaving the two young girls without other
light than the pale gleam of a half-veiled moon, which entered the
turret through the narrow casement.

Left alone with her sister, Mary expected to be severely blamed for
the impropriety of her conduct in permitting such a _tête-à-tête_,--an
impropriety of which she herself was now fully aware. In this she was
mistaken. As soon as Michel had disappeared down the spiral stairway,
and Bertha, with her ears strained to the door, had heard him leave
the tower, she seized her sister's hand, and pressing it with a force
which proved the violence of her feelings, asked in a choking voice:--

"What was he saying to you on his knees?"

For all answer Mary threw herself on her sister's neck, and in spite
of Bertha's efforts to repulse her she wound her arms about her and
kissed her, moistening Bertha's face with the tears that flowed from
her own eyes.

"Why are you angry with me, dear sister?" she said.

"It is not being angry with you, Mary, to ask what a young man whom I
find kneeling at your feet was saying to you."

"But this is not the way you usually speak to me."

"What matters it how I usually speak to you? What I wish and what I
exact is that you answer my question."

"Bertha! Bertha!"

"Come, answer me; speak! What was he saying? I ask you what he said?"
cried the girl, harshly, shaking her sister so violently by the arm
that Mary gave a cry and sank to the floor as if about to faint.

The cry recalled Bertha to her natural feeling. This impetuous and
violent nature, fundamentally kind, softened at the expression of the
pain and distress she had wrung from her sister. She did not let her
fall to the ground, but took her in her arms, raised her as though she
were a child, and laid her on the bench, holding her all the while
tightly embraced. Then she covered her with kisses, and a few tears,
gushing from her eyes like sparks from a brazier, dropped upon Mary's
cheek. Bertha wept as Maria Theresa wept,--her tears, instead of
flowing, burst forth like lightning.

"Poor little thing! poor little thing!" she said, speaking to her
sister as if to a child she had chanced to injure; "forgive me! I have
hurt you, and, worse still, I have grieved you; oh, forgive me!" Then,
gathering herself together, she repeated, "Forgive me! It is my fault.
I ought to have opened my heart to you before letting you see that the
strange love I feel for that man--that child," she added with a touch
of scorn--"has such power over me that it makes me jealous of one whom
I love better than all the world, better than life itself, better than
I love him,--jealous of you! Ah! if you only knew, my poor Mary, the
misery this senseless love, which I know to be beneath me, has already
brought upon me! If you knew the struggles I have gone through to
subdue it! how bitterly I deplore my weakness! There is nothing in him
of all I respect, nothing of what I love,--neither distinction of
race, nor religious faith, nor ardor, nor vigor, nor strength, nor
courage; and yet, in spite of all, I love him! I loved him the first
moment that I saw him. I love him so much that sometimes, breathless,
frantic, bathed in perspiration, and suffering almost unspeakable
anguish, I have cried aloud like one possessed, 'My God! make me die,
but let him love me!' For the last few months--ever since, to my
misfortune, we met him--the thought of this man has never left me for
an instant. I feel for him some strange emotion, which must be that a
woman feels to a lover, but which is really far more like the
affection of a mother for her child. Each day that passes, my life is
more bound up in him; I put not only my thoughts, but all my dreams,
my hopes on him. Ah, Mary! Mary! just now I was asking you to pardon
me; but now I say to you, pity me, sister! Oh, my sister, have pity
upon me!"

And Bertha, quite beside herself, clasped her sister frantically in
her arms.

Poor Mary had listened, trembling, to this explosion of an almost
savage passion, such as the powerful and self-willed nature of Bertha
alone could feel. Each cry, each word, each sentence tore to shreds
the rosy vapors which a few moments earlier she had seen on the
horizon. Her sister's impetuous voice swept those fragments from her
sight, as the gust of a rising tempest sweeps the light, fleecy clouds
before it. Her grief and bewilderment was such during Bertha's last
words that the latter's silence alone warned her she was expected to
reply. She made a great effort over herself, striving to check her
sobs.

"Oh, sister," she said, "my heart is breaking; my grief is all the
greater because what has happened to-night is partly my fault."

"No, no!" cried Bertha, with her accustomed violence. "It was I who
ought to have looked to see what became of him when we left the
chapel. But," she continued, with that pertinacity of ideas which
characterizes persons who are violently in love, "what was he saying
to you? Why was he kneeling at your feet?"

Mary felt that Bertha shuddered as she asked the question; she herself
trembled violently at the thought of what she had to answer. It seemed
to her that each word by which she was forced to explain the truth to
Bertha would scorch her lips as they left her heart.

"Come, come!" said Bertha, weeping, her tears having more effect on
Mary than her anger,--"Come, tell me, dear sister; have pity on me!
The suspense is worse a hundred-fold than any pain. Tell me, tell me;
did he speak to you of love?"

Mary could not lie; or rather, self-devotion had not yet taught her to
do so.

"Yes," she said.

"Oh, my God! my God!" cried Bertha, tearing herself from her sister's
breast and falling, with outstretched arms, her face against the wall.

There was such a tone of absolute despair in the cry that Mary was
terrified. She forgot Michel, she forgot her love; she forgot all
except her sister. The sacrifice before which her heart had quailed at
the moment when she first heard that Bertha loved Michel, she now made
valiantly, with sublime self-abnegation; for she smiled, with a
breaking heart.

"Foolish girl that you are!" she cried, springing to Bertha's neck;
"let me finish what I have to say."

"Did you not tell me that he spoke of love?" replied the suffering
creature.

"Yes; but I did not tell you whom he loves."

"Mary! Mary! have pity on my heart!"

"Bertha! dear Bertha!"

"Was it of me he spoke?"

Mary had not the strength to reply in words; she made a sign of
acquiescence with her head.

Bertha breathed heavily, passed her hand several times over her
burning forehead. The shock had been too violent to allow her to
recover instantly her normal condition.

"Mary," she said, "what you have just told me seems so unlikely, so
impossible, that you must swear it. Swear to me--" She hesitated.

"I will swear what you will, sister," said Mary, who was eager herself
to put some insurmountable barrier between her heart and her love.

"Swear to me that Michel does not love you, and that you do not love
him." She laid her hand on her sister's shoulder. "Swear it by our
mother's grave."

"I swear, by the grave of our mother," said Mary, resolutely, "that I
will never marry Michel."

She threw herself into her sister's arms, seeking compensation for her
sacrifice in the caresses the latter gave her. If the room had been
less dark Bertha might have seen on Mary's features the anguish that
oath had cost her. As it was, it restored all Bertha's calmness. She
sighed gently, as though her heart were lightened of a heavy weight.

"Thank you!" she said; "oh, thank you! thank you! Now let us return to
the salon."

But, half-way down, Mary made an excuse to go to her room. There she
locked herself in to pray and weep.

The company had not yet left the supper-table. As Bertha crossed the
vestibule to reach the salon she heard bursts of laughter from the
guests.

When she entered the salon Monsieur Loriot was arguing with the young
baron, endeavoring to persuade him that it was his interest as well as
his duty to return to La Logerie. But the negative silence of the
young man was so eloquent that the notary presently found himself at
the end of his arguments. It is true, however, that he had been
talking for half an hour.

Michel was probably not less embarrassed than the notary himself, and
he welcomed Bertha as a battalion formed in a hollow square and
attacked on all sides welcomes an auxiliary who will strengthen its
defence. He sprang to meet her with an eagerness which owed as much to
his present difficulty as to the closing scene of his interview with
Mary.

To his great surprise, Bertha, incapable of concealing for a moment
what she was feeling, stretched out her hand and pressed his with
effusion. She mistook the meaning of the young man's eager advance,
and from being content she became radiant.

Michel, who expected quite another reception, did not feel at his
ease. However, he immediately recovered himself so far as to say to
Loriot:--

"You will tell my mother, monsieur, that a man of principle finds
actual duties in his political opinions, and that I decide to die, if
need be, in accomplishing mine."

Poor boy! he was confounding love with duty.

XXXVI.

BLUE AND WHITE.

It was almost two in the morning when the Marquis de Souday proposed
to his guests to return to the salon. They left the table in that
satisfied condition which always follows a plenteous repast if the
master of the house is in good-humor, the guests hungry, and the
topics of conversation interesting enough to fill the spare moments of
the chief occupation.

In proposing to adjourn to the salon the marquis had probably no other
idea than change of atmosphere; for as he rose he ordered Rosine and
the cook to follow him with the liqueurs, and to array the bottles
with a sufficient number of glasses on a table in the salon.

Then, humming the great air in "Richard, C[oe]ur-de-Lion," and paying
no heed to the fact that the general replied by a verse from the
"Marseillaise," which the noble panels of the castle of Souday heard,
no doubt, for the first time, the old gentleman, having filled all
glasses, was preparing to resume a very interesting controversy as to
the treaty of Jaunaye, which the general insisted had only sixteen
articles, when the latter, pointing to the clock, called his attention
to the time of night.

Dermoncourt said, laughing, that he suspected the marquis of intending
to paralyze his enemies by the delights of a new Capua; and the
marquis, accepting the joke with infinite tact and good-will, hastened
to yield to his guests' wishes and took them at once to the bedrooms
assigned to them, after which he betook himself to his own.

The Marquis de Souday, excited by the warlike inclinations of his mind
and by the conversation which enlivened the evening, dreamed of
combats. He was fighting a battle, compared to which those of Torfou,
Laval, and Sanmur were child's play; he was in the act of advancing
under a shower of shot and shell, leading his division to the assault
of a redoubt, and planting the white flag in the midst of the enemy's
intrenchments, when a rapping at his door interrupted his exploits.

In the dozing condition which preceded his full awakening, the dream
continued, and the noise at his door was the roar of cannon. Then,
little by little, the clouds rolled away from his brain, the worthy
old gentleman opened his eyes, and, instead of a battlefield covered
with broken gun-carriages, gasping horses, and dead bodies, over which
he thought he was leaping, he found himself lying on his narrow camp
bed of painted wood draped with modest white curtains edged with red.

The knocking was renewed.

"Come in!" cried the marquis, rubbing his eyes. "Ha! bless me,
general, you've come just in time," he cried; "two minutes more, and
you were dead."

"How so?"

"Yes, by a sword-thrust I was just putting through you."

"By way of retaliation, my good friend," said the general, holding out
his hand.

"That's how I take it. But I see you are looking rather puzzled by my
poor room; its shabbiness surprises you. Yes, there is some difference
between this bare, forlorn place, with its horsehair chairs and
carpetless floor, and the fine apartments of your Parisian lords. But
I can't help it. I spent one third of my life in camps and another
third in penury, and this little cot with its thin mattress seems to
me luxury enough for my old age. But what in the world brings you here
at this early hour, general? It is hardly light yet."

"I came to bid you good-bye, my kind host," replied the general.

"Already? Ah, see what life is! I must tell you now that only
yesterday I had all sorts of prejudices against you before your
arrival."

"Had you? And yet you welcomed me most cordially."

"Bah!" said the marquis, laughing; "you've been in Egypt. Did you
never receive a few shots from the midst of a cool and pleasant
oasis?"

"Bless me, yes! The Arabs regard an oasis as the best of ambuscades."

"Well, I was something of an Arab last night; and I say my _mea
culpa_, regretting it all the more because I am really and truly sorry
you leave me so soon."

"Is it because there is still an unexplored corner of your oasis you
want me to see?"

"No; it is because your frankness, loyalty, and the community of
dangers we have shared (in opposite camps) inspired me--I scarcely
know why, but instantly--with a sincere and deep regard for you."

"On your word as a gentleman?"

"On my word as a gentleman and a soldier."

"Well, then, I offer you my friendship in return, my dear enemy,"
replied Dermoncourt. "I expected to find an old _émigré_, powdered
like a white frost, stiff and haughty, and larded with antediluvian
prejudices--"

"And you've found out that a man may wear powder and have no
prejudices,--is that it, general?"

"I found a frank and loyal heart and an amiable,--bah! let's say the
word openly,--jovial nature, and this with exquisite manners, which
might seem to exclude all that; in short, you've seduced an old
veteran, who is heartily yours."

"Well, it gives me a great deal of pleasure to hear you say so. Come,
stay one more day with me!"

"Impossible!"

"Well, I have nothing to say against that decisive word; but make me a
promise that you will pay me a visit after the peace, if we are both
of us still living."

"After the peace!" cried the general, laughing. "Are we at war?"

"We are between peace and war."

"Yes, the happy medium."

"Well, let us say after the happy medium. Promise you will come and
see me then?"

"Yes, I give you my word."

"And I shall hold you to it."

"But come, let us talk seriously," said the general, taking a chair
and sitting down at the foot of the old _émigré's_ bed.

"I am willing," replied the latter, "for once in a way."

"You love hunting?"

"Passionately."

"What kind?"

"All kinds."

"But there must be one kind you prefer?"

"Yes, boar-hunting. That reminds me most of hunting the Blues."

"Thanks."

"Boars and Blues,--they both charge alike."

"What do you say to fox-hunting?"

"Peuh!" exclaimed the marquis, sticking out his underlip like a prince
of the House of Austria.

"Well, it is a fine sport," said the general.

"I leave that to Jean Oullier, who has wonderful tact and patience in
watching a covert."

"He is good at watching other game than foxes, your Jean Oullier,"
remarked the general.

"Yes, yes; he's clever at all game, no doubt."

"Marquis, I wish you would take a fancy to fox-hunting."

"Why?"

"Because England is the land for it; and I have a fancy that the air
of England would be very good just now for you and your young ladies."

"Goodness!" said the marquis, sitting up in bed.

"Yes, I have the honor to tell you so, my dear host."

"Which means that you are advising me to emigrate? No, thank you."

"Do you call an agreeable little trip emigration?"

"My dear general, those little trips, I know what they are,--worse
than a journey round the world; you know when they begin, but nobody
knows when they'll end. And, besides, there is one thing--you will
hardly, perhaps, believe it--"

"What is that?"

"You saw yesterday, I may say this morning, that in spite of my age I
have a very tolerable appetite; and I can certify that I never had an
indigestion in my life. I can eat anything without being made
uncomfortable."

"Well?"

"Well, that devilish London fog, I never could digest it. Isn't that
curious?"

"Very good; then go to Italy, Spain, Switzerland, wherever you please,
but don't stay at Souday. Leave Machecoul; leave La Vendée."

"Ha! ha! ha!"

"Yes, yes."

"Can it be that I am compromised?" said the marquis, half to himself,
and rubbing his hands cheerfully.

"If you are not now, you will be soon."

"At last!" cried the old gentleman, joyously.

"No joking," said the general, becoming serious. "If I listened to my
duty only, my dear marquis, you would find two sentries at your door
and a sub-lieutenant in the chair where I am now sitting."

"Hey!" cried the marquis, a shade more serious.

"Yes, upon my word, that's the state of things. But I can understand
how a man of your age, accustomed as you are to an active life in the
free air of the forests, would suffer cooped up in a prison where the
civil authorities would probably put you; and I give you a proof of my
sympathetic friendship in what I said just now, though in doing so I
am, in a measure, compromising with my strict duty."

"But suppose you are blamed for it, general?"

"Pooh! do you suppose I can't find excuses enough? A senile old man,
worn-out, half-imbecile, who tried to stop the column on its march--"

"Of whom are you speaking, pray?"

"Why, you, of course."

"I a senile old man, worn-out, half-imbecile!" cried the marquis,
sticking one muscular leg out of bed. "I'm sure I don't know, general,
why I don't unhook those swords on the wall and stake our breakfast on
the first blood, as we did when I was a lad and a page forty-five
years ago."

"Come, come, old child!" cried Dermoncourt; "you are so bent on
proving I have made a mistake that I shall have to call in the
soldiers after all."

And the general pretended to rise.

"No, no," said the marquis; "no, damn it! I am senile, worn-out,
half-imbecile, wholly imbecile,--anything you like, in short."

"Very good; that's all right."

"But will you tell me how and by whom I am, or shall be, compromised?"

"In the first place, your servant, Jean Oullier--"

"Yes."

"The fox man--"

"I understand."

"Your servant, Jean Oullier,--a thing I neglected to tell you last
night, supposing that you knew as much about it as I did,--your man,
Jean Oullier, at the head of a lot of seditious rioters, attempted to
stop the column which was ordered to surround the château de Souday.
In attempting this he brought about several fights, in which we lost
three men killed, not counting one whom I myself did justice on, and
who belongs, I think, in these parts."

"What was his name?"

"François Tinguy."

"Hush! general, don't mention it here, for pity's sake. His sister
lives in this house,--the young girl who waited on you at table last
night,--and her father is only just buried."

"Ah, these civil wars! the devil take them!" said the general.

"And yet they are the only logical wars."

"Maybe. However, I captured your Jean Oullier, and he got away."

"He did well,--you must own that?"

"Yes; but if he falls into my grip again--"

"Oh, there's no danger of that; once warned, I'll answer for him."

"So much the better, for I shouldn't be indulgent to him. I haven't
talked of the great war with him, as I have with you."

"But he fought through it, though, and bravely, too."

"Reason the more; second offence."

"But, general," said the marquis, "I can't see, so far, how the
conduct of my keeper can be twisted into a crime of mine."

"Wait, and you will see. You said last night that imps came and told
you all I did between seven and ten o'clock that evening."

"Yes."

"Well, I have imps, too, and they are every bit as good as yours."

"I doubt it."

"They have told me all that happened in your castle yesterday."

"Go on," said the marquis, incredulously; "I'm listening."

"On the previous evening two persons came to stay at the château de
Souday."

"Good! you are better than your word. You promised to tell me what
happened yesterday, and now you begin with the day before yesterday."

"These two persons were a man and a woman."

The marquis shook his head, negatively.

"So be it; call them two men, though one of them had nothing but the
clothes of our sex."

The marquis said nothing, and the general continued:

"Of these two personages, one, the smaller, spent the whole day at the
castle; the other rode about the neighborhood, and gave rendezvous
that evening at Souday to a number of gentlemen. If I were indiscreet
I would tell you their names; but I will only mention that of the
gentleman who summoned them,--namely, the Comte de Bonneville."

The marquis made no reply. He must either acknowledge or lie.

"What next?" he said.

"These gentlemen arrived at Souday, one after the other. They
discussed various matters, the most calming of which was certainly not
the glory, prosperity, and duration of the government of July."

"My dear general, admit that you are not one whit more in love than I
with your government of July, though you serve it."

"What's that you are saying?"

"Eh? good God! I'm saying that you are a republican, blue, dark-blue;
and a true dark-blue is a fast color."

"That's not the question."

"What is it then?"

"I am talking of the strangers who assembled in this house last night
between eight and nine o'clock."

"Well, suppose I did receive a few neighbors, suppose I even welcomed
two strangers, where's the crime, general? I've got the Code at my
fingers' ends,--unless, indeed, the old revolutionary law against
suspected persons is revived."

"There is no crime in neighbors visiting you; but there is crime when
those neighbors assemble for a conference in which an uprising and
resort to arms is discussed."

"How can that be proved?"

"By the presence of the two strangers."

"Pooh!"

"Most certainly; for the smaller and fairer of the strangers, the one
who, being fair, wore a black wig to disguise herself, was no less a
person than the Princess Marie-Caroline, whom you call regent of the
kingdom,--her Royal Highness Madame la Duchesse de Berry, who is now
pleased to call herself Petit-Pierre."

The marquis bounded in his bed. The general was better informed than
he, and what he was now told entered his mind like a flash of light.
He could hardly contain himself for joy at the thought that he had
received Madame la Duchesse de Berry under his roof; but, unhappily,
as joy is never perfect in this world, he was forced to repress his
satisfaction.

"Go on," he said; "what next?"

"Well, the next is that just as you had reached the most interesting
part of the discussion, a young man, whom one would scarcely expect to
find in your camp, came and warned you that I and my troops were on
our way to the château. And then you, Monsieur le marquis (you won't
deny this, I am sure), you proposed to resist; but the contrary was
decided on. Mademoiselle, your daughter, the dark one--"

"Bertha."

"Mademoiselle Bertha took a light. She left the room, and every one
present, except you, Monsieur le marquis, who probably set about
preparing for the new guests whom Heaven was sending you,--every one
present followed her. She crossed the courtyard and went to the
chapel; there she opened the door, passed in first, and went straight
to the altar. Pushing a spring hidden in the left forepaw of the lamb
carved on the front of the altar, she tried to open a trap-door. The
spring, which had probably not been used for some time, resisted. Then
she took the bell used for the mass, the handle of which is of wood,
and pressed it on the button. The panel instantly yielded, and opened
the way to a staircase leading to the vaults. Mademoiselle Bertha then
took two wax-tapers from the altar, lighted them, and gave them to two
of the persons who accompanied her. Then, your guests having gone down
into the vault, she closed the panel behind them, and returned, as did
another person, who did not immediately enter the house, but, on the
contrary, wandered about the park for some time. As for the fugitives,
when they reached the farther end of the subterranean passage, which
opens, you know, among the ruins of the old château that I see from
here, they had some difficulty in forcing their way through the piles
of stones that cover the ground. One of them actually fell. However,
they managed to reach the covered way which skirts the park wall;
there they stopped to deliberate. Three took the road from Nantes to
Machecoul, two followed the crossroad which leads to Légé, and the
sixth and seventh doubled themselves,--I should rather say, made
themselves into one--"

"Look here! is this a fairy tale you are telling me, general?"

"Wait, wait! You interrupt me at the most interesting part of all. I
was telling you that the sixth and seventh doubled up; that is, the
larger took the smaller on his back and went to the little brook that
runs into the great rivulet flowing round the base of the Viette des
Biques. Now as they are the ones I prefer among your company, I shall
set my dogs of war on them."

"But, my dear general," cried the Marquis de Souday, "I do assure you
all this exists only in your imagination."

"Come, come, my old enemy! You are Master of Wolves, are not you?"

"Yes."

"Well, when you see the print of a young boar's paw sharply defined in
soft earth,--a clear trail as you call it,--would you let any one
persuade you into thinking it was only the ghost of a tusker? Well,
marquis, that trail, I have seen it, or rather, I should say, I have
read it."

"The devil!" cried the marquis, turning in his bed with the admiring
curiosity of an amateur; "then I wish you'd just tell me how you did
it."

"Willingly," replied the general. "But we have still a good half-hour
before us. Order up a pâté and a bottle of wine, and I'll tell you the
rest between two mouthfuls."

"On one condition."

"And that is?"

"That I may share the meal."

"At this early hour?"

"Real appetites don't carry a watch."

The marquis jumped out of bed, put on his flannel trousers, slipped
his feet into his slippers, rang, ordered up a breakfast, covered a
table, and sat down before the general with an interrogating air.

The general, put to the test of proving his words, began, as he said,
between two mouthfuls. He was a good talker, and a better eater than
even the marquis.

XXXVII.

WHICH SHOWS THAT IT IS NOT FOR FLIES ONLY THAT
SPIDERS' WEBS ARE DANGEROUS.

"You know, my dear marquis," began the general, by way of exordium,
"that I don't inquire into any of your secrets. I am so perfectly
sure, so profoundly convinced that everything happened precisely as I
tell you, that I'll excuse you from telling me that I am mistaken or
not mistaken. All I want to do is to prove to you, as a matter of
self-respect, that we have as good a nose for a scent in our camp as
you have in your forest,--a small satisfaction of vanity which I am
bent on getting, that's all."

"Go on, go on!" cried the marquis, as impatient as if Jean Oullier had
come to tell him on a fine snowy day that he had roused a wolf.

"We'll begin with the beginning. I knew that M. le Comte de Bonneville
had arrived at your house the night before last, accompanied by a
little peasant, who had all the appearance of being a woman in
disguise, and whom we suspect to be Madame. But this is only a report
of spies; it doesn't figure in my own inventory," added the general.

"I should hope not; pah!" said the marquis.

"But when I arrived here in person, as we military fellows say in our
bulletin French, without being, I must assure you, at all misled by
the extreme politeness which you lavished upon us, I at once remarked
two things."

"What were they?"

"First, that out of ten places laid at the supper-table, five had
napkins rolled up, evidently belonging to certain regular guests;
which fact, in case of a trial, my dear marquis--don't forget
this--would be an eminently extenuating circumstance."

"Why so?"

"Because if you had known the rank and quality of your guests you
would hardly have allowed them to roll their napkins like ordinary
country neighbors, would you? The linen closets of Souday can't be so
short of napkins that Madame la Duchesse de Berry couldn't have a
clean one for every meal. I am therefore inclined to believe that the
blonde lady disguised in the black wig was nothing more to your mind
than a dark young lad."

"Go on, go on!" cried the marquis, biting his lips at this revelation
of a perspicacity so far exceeding his own.

"I intend to go on," said the general. "So, as I say, I noticed five
rolled napkins, which proved that the supper, or dinner, was not so
entirely prepared for us as you tried to make me believe, and that you
simply gave us the places of Monsieur de Bonneville and his companion
and others, who had judged it best not to wait for our arrival."

"Now for your second observation?" said the marquis.

"Mademoiselle Bertha, whom I suppose and believe to be a very neat
young lady, was, when you did me the honor to present me to her,
singularly covered with cobwebs; they were even in her beautiful
hair."

"Well?"

"Well, certain as I was that she had not chosen that style of
adornment out of coquetry, I looked about this morning for a part of
the château that was well supplied with the toil of those interesting
insects, the spiders."

"And you discovered--?"

"Faith! what I discovered doesn't redound to the honor of your
religious sentiments, my dear marquis, or, at any rate, to your
practice of them; for it was precisely across the doorway of your
chapel that I found a dozen spiders working with unimaginable zeal to
repair the damage done last night to their webs,--a zeal no doubt
inspired by the belief that the opening of the door where they had
fixed their homes was only an accident not likely to occur again."

"You must allow, my dear general, that all these indications are
somewhat vague."

"Yes, but when your hounds turn their noses to the wind and strain at
the leash, that is nothing more than a vague indication, is it? And
yet on that indication yon beat the woods with care, and very great
care, too."

"Certainly," said the marquis.

"Well, that's my way also. Then, on your paths (where, by the bye,
gravel is essentially lacking), I have discovered some very
significant tracks."

"Steps of men and women?" exclaimed the marquis. "Pooh! they are
everywhere."

"No, there are not everywhere steps crowded together and going in one
direction, according to what I suppose to be the number of actors on
the scene,--steps, too, of persons who were not walking, but running
together."

"But how in the world could you tell that those persons were running?"

"Why, marquis, that's the A B C of the business."

"Tell me, quick!"

"Because their footmarks are more from the toes than the heels, and
the earth is pushed backward. Isn't that the way to tell, my dear
Master of Wolves?"

"Right," said the marquis, with the air of a connoisseur; "quite
right. What next?"

"Next?"

"Yes."

"I examined the footprints; there were men's steps of various sizes
and shapes, boots, shoes, and hob-nail soles. Then in the midst of all
these masculine feet what did I see but the print of a woman's foot,
slender and arched, Cinderella's foot,--a foot to put all the
Andalusian women to shame from Cordova to Cadiz; and that, too, in
spite of the heavy nailed shoes which contained it."

"Well, well! skip that."

"Skip it! why?"

"Because, if you say another word you'll be in love with that delicate
foot in a hobnailed shoe."

"The truth is, I would give anything to hold it. Perhaps I shall. It
was on the steps of the chapel and on the pavement within it that
these traces were most observable; mud had left its own marks on the
polished floor. I also found, near the altar, droppings from
wax-tapers close to a long, thin footprint, which I would swear to be
Mademoiselle Bertha's; and as other droppings were close to the
outside of the trap-door, I concluded that your daughter held the
light in her left hand, while she put the key with her right into the
lock. However, without this last proof, the cobwebs--in fragments at
the door, and tangled in her hair--proved to me conclusively that it
was she who aided the escape."

"Very well; continue."

"The rest is hardly worth telling. The lamb's paw was broken, and left
exposed a small steel button which worked a spring; therefore I had no
merit in that discovery. It resisted my efforts as it did those of
Mademoiselle Bertha, who, by the bye, scratched her finger and drew
blood, leaving a little fresh trace of it on the carved wood. Like
her, I looked for some hard thing to push in the little button, and
like her again, I spied the wooden handle of the bell, which retained
not only the marks of the pressure of the night before but also a
little trace of blood."

"Bravo!" cried the marquis, evidently beginning to take a double
interest in the narration.

"So, as you will readily believe," continued Dermoncourt, "I went down
into the vault. The footprints of the fugitives were perfectly
distinct on the damp, sandy soil. One of the party fell as they went
through the ruins; I know this because I saw a thick tuft of nettles
bruised and beaten down, which we may be sure, considering the
unamiable nature of that plant, was not done intentionally. In a
corner of the ruins, opposite to the door, stones had been moved, as
if to facilitate the passage of some delicate person. Among the
nettles growing beside the wall I found the two tapers, thrown away as
soon as the party reached the open air. Finally, and in conclusion, I
found footsteps in the road, and then, as they separated there, I was
able to class them in the manner I have already described to you."

"No, no; that's not the conclusion."

"Not the conclusion? yes, it is."

"No; who told you that one of these persons took another on his back?"

"Ah, marquis, you want to catch me tripping in discernment. The pretty
little foot in the hobnailed shoe,--that charming foot that captivates
me so much that I have neither peace nor rest till I have overtaken
it, that delicate little foot, no longer than a child's nor wider than
my two fingers,--well, I saw it in the vaults, also in the covered way
behind the ruins, and at the place where they all stopped and
deliberated before they parted. Then, suddenly, close to a huge stone,
which the rain must usually keep clean, but which, on the contrary, I
now found covered with mud, those dainty footsteps disappeared. From
that moment, like the hippogriffs who no longer exist in our days,
Monsieur de Bonneville, I presume, took his companion on his back. The
footprints of the said Monsieur de Bonneville became suddenly heavier;
they were no longer those of a lively, active youth, such as you and I
were at his age, marquis. Don't you remember how the wild-sows when
with young make heavier tracks, and their hoof-marks, instead of just
pricking the earth, are placed flat with the two points separate?
Well, from the stone I spoke of, M. de Bonneville's footsteps grew
heavier in the same way."

"But you have forgotten something, general."

"I think not."

"Oh! I sha'n't let you off yet. What makes you think that Monsieur de
Bonneville spent the day riding about to summon my neighbors to
council?"

"You told me yourself you had not gone out."

"Well?"

"Well, your horse, the one you always ride,--as that pretty little
wench who took my bridle told me,--your favorite horse, which I saw in
the stable when I went to make sure that my own Bucephalus had his
provender, was covered with mud to the withers. Now, some one had
ridden that horse, and you would never have lent him to any one for
whom you did not feel some special consideration."

"Good! Now another question."

"Certainly; I am here to answer questions."

"What makes you think that Monsieur de Bonneville's companion is the
august personage you named just now?"

"Partly because she is evidently made to pass first, before others,
and the stones are moved out of her way."

"Can you tell by a mere footprint whether the person who made it is
fair or dark?"

"No; but I can find it out in another way."

"How? This shall be my last question; and if you answer it--"

"If I answer it, what?"

"Nothing. Go on."

"Well, my dear marquis, you were so good as to give me the bedroom
occupied the night before by Monsieur de Bonneville's companion."

"Yes, I did so; what of it?"

"Well, here is a pretty little tortoise-shell comb, which I found at
the foot of the bed. You must admit, my dear marquis, that it is too
dainty and coquettish to belong to a peasant lad. Besides, it
contained, and still contains, as you may see, some long meshes of
light brown hair, not at all of the golden shade that adorns your
younger daughter's head,--the only blond head in your house."

"General!" cried the marquis, bounding from his chair, and flinging
his knife and fork across the room, "arrest me if you like, but I tell
you, once for all, I won't go to England; no, I won't, I won't, I
won't!"

"Well, well, marquis, what's the matter with you, hey?"

"The devil! You've stimulated my ambition, you've spurred my pride and
my self-love. Though I know, if you come to Souday--as you've
promised, mind you, after the campaign is over--I shall have nothing
to tell you equal to your own performances."

"Listen to me, my old and excellent enemy," said the general. "I have
given you my word not to arrest you, this time at least, and whatever
you may do, or rather, whatever you may have done, I shall keep my
word; but I do entreat you, in the name of the interest you have
inspired in me, in the name of your charming daughters, do not commit
the folly on which you are bent, and if you will not leave France, at
least stay quietly at home."

"And why?"

"Because the memories of those heroic times, which are making your
heart beat now are but memories; because the emotions of the great and
glorious actions you would like to see renewed are gone forever;
because the day of great deeds of arms, of devotion without
conditions, of deaths sublime in constancy, are passed without recall.
Oh! I knew her, I knew her well, that unconquerable Vendée. I can say
so,--I who bear the scars of her steel upon my breast. Well, I have
been for the last month in the midst of her, in the midst of the
places of the past, and I tell you I look for her old self in vain; I
cannot find it, and no one can find it. My poor marquis, count up the
few young gallant fellows, whose brave hearts dare to face the
struggle, count up the veteran heroes who, like you, think that the
duty of 1793 is still a duty in 1832, and see for yourself that a
struggle so unequal is sheer madness."

"It will not be less glorious for that, my dear general," cried the
marquis, forgetting in his enthusiasm the political position of his
companion.

"No, no; it will not be glorious in any sense. All that
happens,--you'll see, and when you do, remember that I foretold it to
you,--all that is now about to happen will be colorless, barren, puny,
stunted; and on both sides, too. Yes, my God! with us as well as with
you: with us, petty motives, base betrayals; with you, self-seeking
compromises, contemptible meannesses, which will cut you to the heart,
my poor marquis, which will kill you,--you, whom the balls of the
Blues have left untouched."

"You see things as a partisan of the established government, general;
you forget that we have many friends even in your own ranks, and that
when we say the word this whole region will rise as one man."

The general shook his shoulders.

"In my time, old comrade,--allow me to call you so," he said,--"all
that was Blue was Blue; all that was White was White. There was, to be
sure, something red,--the executioner and his guillotine: but don't
let us speak of that. You had no friends in our ranks, we had none in
yours; and it was that which made us equally strong, equally great,
equally terrible. At a word from you La Vendée will rise, you say? You
are mistaken. La Vendée, which went to its death in 1795, relying on
the coming of a prince whose word she trusted, and who failed her,
will not rise now; no, not even when she sees the Duchesse de Berry
within her borders. Your peasants have lost that political faith which
moves human mountains, which drives them one against another, clashing
together until they sink in a sea of blood,--that faith which begets
and perpetuates martyrs. We ourselves, marquis,--I am forced to
acknowledge it,--no longer possess that passion for liberty, progress,
glory, which shook the old worlds to their centres, and gave birth to
heroes. The civil war which is about to break out--if, indeed, there
must be a civil war, and if it must break out--will be just such a war
as Barême describes: a war in which victory is certain to be on the
side of the big battalions, the best exchequer. And that is why I say
to you, count the cost, count it twice over, before you fling yourself
into this mad folly."

"You are mistaken; I tell you, general, you are mistaken. We are not
without an army, without soldiers; and, more fortunate than in former
times, we have a leader whose sex will electrify the cautious, rally
all devotions, and silence contending ambitions."

"Poor, valorous young woman! poor, noble, poetic spirit!" said the old
soldier, in a tone of the deepest pity, dropping his scarred brow upon
his breast. "Presently she will have no more relentless enemy than
myself; but while I am still in this room, on neutral ground, I will
tell you how I admire her resolution, her courage, her persistent
tenacity, and how truly I deplore that she was born in an epoch that
is no longer of the measure of her soul. The times have changed,
marquis, since Jeanne de Montfort had but to strike the soil of
Brittany with her mailed heel for warriors to spring up fully armed
from it. Marquis, remember what I predict to you this day, and repeat
it to that poor woman, if you see her,--namely, that her noble heart,
more valiant even than that of Comtesse Jeanne, will receive, as the
reward of her abnegation, her energy, her devotion, her sublime
elevation of soul as princess and mother, only indifference,
ingratitude, baseness, cowardice, treachery of all kinds. And now, my
dear marquis, make your decision, say your last word."

"My last word, general, is like my first."

"Repeat it, then."

"I will not go to England," said the old man, firmly.

"Listen," continued Dermoncourt, laying a hand on the marquis's
shoulder, and looking him in the eyes. "You are as proud as a Gascon,
Vendéan though you be. Your revenues are small, I know that,--oh,
don't begin to frown in that way; let me finish what I have to
say,--damn it, you know I wouldn't offer you anything I wouldn't
accept myself."

The marquis's face returned to its first expression.

"I was saying," continued the general, "that your revenues are
slender; and in this cursed region of country it is not enough to
possess revenues, great or small,--you must also collect them. Well,
that's difficult; and if you can't get the money to cross the straits
and hire a little cottage somewhere in England,--well, I'm not rich, I
have only my pay, but I have managed to lay by a few hundred louis (a
comrade accepts such things, you know); won't you take them? After the
peace, as you say, you can pay them back."

"Stop! stop!" said the marquis; "you know me only since yesterday, and
you treat me like a friend of twenty years' standing." The old Vendéan
scratched his ear, and added, as if speaking to himself, "How could I
ever show my gratitude for such an act?"

"Then you accept it?"

"No, no; I refuse it."

"But you will go?"

"I stay."

"God keep you then in health and safety!" said the old general, his
patience exhausted. "Only, it is likely that chance, the devil take
it! will bring us face to face together once more, as we were
formerly; and now that I know you, if there is a hand-to-hand fight,
such as there used to be in the old days, at Laval, hey? I swear I'll
seek you out."

"And I'll seek you," cried the marquis; "I'll shout for you with all
my lungs. I'd be thankful and proud to show these greenhorns what the
men of the old war were."

"Well, there's the bugle sounding; I must go. Adieu, marquis, and
thank you for your hospitality."

"_Au revoir_, general, and thanks for a friendship which I must prove
to you I share."

The two old men shook hands, and Dermoncourt went away. The marquis,
as he dressed himself, watched the little column disappearing up the
avenue in the direction of the forest. At a couple of hundred paces
from the château the general ordered a half-turn to the right; then,
stopping his horse, he gave a last look at the little pointed turrets
of his new friend's abode. Seeing the marquis at a window, he waved
him a last adieu, and then, turning rein, he rejoined his men.

After following with his eyes, as long as they were visible, the
detachment and the man who commanded it, the marquis turned from the
window, and as he did so he heard a slight scratching on a little door
behind his bed, which communicated, through a dressing-room, with the
backstairs.

"Who the devil is coming this way?" he thought, drawing the bolt.

The door opened immediately, and gave entrance to Jean Oullier.

"Jean Oullier!" cried the marquis, in a tone of actual joy. "Is it
you? are you really here, my good Jean Oullier? Ha! faith! the day has
begun under good auspices."

He held out his hand to his keeper, who pressed it with a lively
expression of respect and gratitude. Then, disengaging his hand, Jean
Oullier produced from his pocket and gave to the marquis a piece of
coarse paper folded into the shape of a letter. M. de Souday opened
and read it. As he read his face beamed with joy unspeakable.

"Jean Oullier," he said, "call the young ladies; assemble all my
people! No, no; stop! don't assemble any of them yet. Polish up my
sword, my pistols, my carbine, all my war accoutrements; give Tristan
oats. The campaign opens! My dear Jean Oullier, the campaign is
opening! Bertha! Mary! Bertha!"

"Monsieur le marquis," said Jean Oullier, calmly, "the campaign has
been opened for me since yesterday at three o'clock."

The sisters now rushed in, hearing their father's call, Mary's eyes
were red and swollen. Bertha was radiant.

"Young ladies! girls!" cried the marquis; "you are in it! You are to
come with me! Here, read this."

And he held out to Bertha the letter Jean Oullier had just given him.
The letter was thus worded:--

MONSIEUR LE MARQUIS DE SOUDAY,--It is desirable for the cause of King
Henri V. that you hasten by several days the call to arms. Have the
goodness, therefore, to assemble all the most devoted men that you
have in the district which you command, and hold yourself and them,
especially yourself, at my immediate orders.

I think that two more amazons in our little army will help to spur on
the love and the self-love of our friends, and I ask you, my dear
marquis, to be so very kind as to grant me your beautiful and charming
huntresses as my aides-de-camp.

Your affectionate
PETIT-PIERRE.

"Well," said Bertha, "are we to go?"

"Of course!" exclaimed the marquis.

"Then allow me, papa," said Bertha, "to present to you a recruit."

"As many as you like."

Mary was silent and motionless. Bertha left the room, and returned in
a few moments, leading Michel by the hand.

"Baron Michel de la Logerie," said the girl, dwelling on the title,
"wishes to prove to you papa, that his Majesty Louis XVIII. was not
mistaken in granting his family a patent of nobility."

The marquis, who had frowned at the name of Michel, softened his
aspect.

"I shall follow with interest any efforts Monsieur Michel may make
with that object in view," he said, at last, uttering those dignified
words in a tone the Emperor Napoleon might have used on the eve of the
battle of Marengo.

XXXVIII.

IN WHICH THE DAINTIEST FOOT OF FRANCE AND OF NAVARRE
FINDS THAT CINDERELLA'S SLIPPER DOES NOT FIT IT AS
WELL AS SEVEN-LEAGUE BOOTS.

Here we are obliged to double in our tracks, as Jean Oullier would say
in hunting parlance, and ask our reader's permission to retrograde a
few hours, and follow the Comte de Bonneville and Petit-Pierre, who,
as we have probably made it clear, are not the least important
personages of our history.

The general's suppositions were perfectly correct. When the fleeing
party left the subterranean passage, the Vendéan gentlemen crossed the
ruins, entered the covered way, and there deliberated for a few
moments on the proper course to pursue. The one whose identity was
concealed under the name of Gaspard[2] thought it advisable to move
cautiously. Bonneville's excitement when Michel announced the approach
of the column had not escaped him; he heard an exclamation the count
could not restrain,--"We must put Petit-Pierre in safety!"
Consequently, he watched during their flight (as well as the feeble
gleam of the torches would allow) the features of the little peasant,
the result being that his manners became not only reserved but
profoundly respectful.

---------------

[Footnote 2: I refer those of my readers who would like to have a key
to the real names of these men to the careful and interesting book of
General Dermoncourt entitled "La Vendée and Madame."]

---------------

"You said, monsieur," he now exclaimed, addressing the Comte de
Bonneville, "that the safety of the person who accompanies you was to
be considered before our own, being of the utmost importance to the
cause we are resolved to sustain. Ought we not therefore to remain as
a bodyguard to that person, so that if any danger threatens him,--and
we are likely now to meet danger everywhere,--we may be at hand to
make a rampart of our bodies for him."

"You would be right no doubt, monsieur, if the question were one of
fighting," said the Comte de Bonneville. "But just now our object is
flight, and for that the fewer we are in number, the easier and more
certain our escape."

"Remember, count," said Gaspard, frowning, "that you take upon
yourself at twenty-two years of age the responsibility of a very
precious treasure."

"My devotion has already been judged, monsieur," replied the count,
haughtily. "I shall endeavor to be worthy of the confidence with which
I am honored."

Petit-Pierre, who had hitherto held his place silently in the midst of
the little group, now thought the time had come to interfere.

"Come, come," he said; "the safety of a poor little peasant must not
be made an apple of discord between the noblest champions of the cause
you mention. I see it is necessary that I should say a word; we have
no time to lose in useless discussion. But I wish, in the first place,
my friends," said Petit-Pierre, in a tone of grateful affection, "to
ask your pardon for the disguise I have thought best to keep up, even
with you, for one purpose only, that of hearing your real thoughts,
your frank opinions, unaffected by your desire to comply with what is
known to be my most ardent desire. Now that Petit-Pierre has gained
the information he sought, the regent will take part in your
discussions. Meantime, let us separate here; the poorest place is all
I need to pass the rest of the night, and Monsieur de Bonneville, who
knows the country well, can easily find it for me."

"When may we be admitted to confer with her Royal Highness?" asked
Pascal, bowing low before Petit-Pierre.

"As soon as her Royal Highness can find a suitable abode for her
wandering majesty, Petit-Pierre will summon you; it will not be long.
Remember that Petit-Pierre is firmly resolved never to abandon his
friends."

"Petit-Pierre is a gallant lad!" cried Gaspard, gayly, "and his
friends will prove, I hope, that they are worthy of him."

"Farewell, then," said Petit-Pierre. "Now that the mask is off, I
thank you heartily, my gallant Gaspard, for not being deceived by it.
Come, it is time to shake hands and part."

Each gentleman, in turn, took the hand that Petit-Pierre held out to
him and kissed it respectfully. Then they all separated on their
different ways, some to the right, others to the left, and soon
disappeared from sight. Bonneville and Petit-Pierre were left alone.

"Well, what shall we do?" said the latter.

"Follow a direction diametrically opposed to those gentlemen."

"Forward, then, without losing another minute," cried Petit-Pierre,
running toward the road.

"Oh! wait, wait a moment!" cried Bonneville. "Not in that way, if you
please. Your Highness must--"

"Bonneville," said Petit-Pierre, "don't forget our agreement."

"True; Madame must please excuse--"

"Again! why, you are incorrigible!"

"I was about to say that Petit-Pierre must allow me to take him on my
back."

"Very good; here's a great stone that seems planted here for the very
purpose. Come nearer, count; come nearer."

Petit-Pierre was already on the stone as he spoke. The young count
approached, and Petit-Pierre mounted astride his shoulders.

"You take to it famously," said Bonneville, starting.

"_Parbleu!_" exclaimed Petit-Pierre. "Saddle-my-nag was a fashionable
game when I was young; I have often played at it."

"A good education, you see, is never wasted," said Bonneville,
laughing.

"Count," said Petit-Pierre, "it isn't forbidden to speak, is it?"

"On the contrary."

"Well, then, as you are an old Chouan, and I am only beginning my
apprenticeship at Chouannerie, do tell me why I am perched on your
shoulders."

"What an inquisitive little person is Petit-Pierre!" said Bonneville.

"No; for I did as you requested, instantly, without discussion, though
the position is a rather questionable one, you must admit, for a
princess of the House of Bourbon."

"A princess of the House of Bourbon! Is there any such person here?"

"Ah! true. Well then, please to tell me why Petit-Pierre, who can walk
and run and jump ditches, is perched on the shoulders of his friend
Bonneville, who can't do any of those things with Petit-Pierre on his
back."

"Well, I'll tell you; it is because Petit-Pierre has such a tiny
foot."

"Tiny, yes; but firm, too!" exclaimed Petit-Pierre, as if his vanity
was ruffled.

"Yes, but firm as it may be, it is too small not to be recognized."

"By whom?"

"By those who are on our traces."

"Good heavens!" exclaimed Petit-Pierre, with comic sadness; "who would
ever have told me that some day, or some night, I should regret that
my foot was not as large as that of Madame la Duchesse de ----"

"Poor Marquis de Souday, who was so fluttered by what you told him of
your court acquaintances," said Bonneville, laughing, "what would he
think now if he heard you talking with such assurance and experience
of the feet of duchesses?"

"He would set it down to my rôle of page." Then after a moment's
silence, "I understand very well that you should want them to lose my
tracks; but you know we can't travel long in this way. Saint
Christopher himself would get tired; and, sooner or later, that
wretched little foot will leave its imprint on a patch of mud."

"We'll baffle the hounds for a short time, at any rate."

The young man bore to the left, attracted by the sound of a brook.

"What are you about?" asked Petit-Pierre. "You will lose the path; you
are knee-deep in water now."

"Of course I am," said Bonneville, hoisting Petit-Pierre a little
higher on his shoulders; "and now let thou look for our traces!" he
cried, hurrying up the bed of the brook.

"Ha, ha! that is clever of you!" cried Petit-Pierre. "You have missed
your vocation, Bonneville; you ought to have been born in a primeval
forest, or on the pampas of South America. The fact is that, to follow
us, a trail is needed, and here there is none."

"Don't laugh. The man who is after us is an old hand at such pursuits;
he fought in La Vendée in the days when Charette, almost
single-handed, gave the Blues a terrible piece of work to do."

"Well, so much the better," cried Petit-Pierre, gayly; "better far to
fight with those who are worth the trouble."

But in spite of the confidence he thus expressed, Petit-Pierre, after
uttering the words, grew thoughtful, while Bonneville struggled
bravely against the rolling stones and fallen branches which impeded
him greatly, for he still followed the course of the brook.

After another quarter of an hour of such advance the brook fell into a
second and a wider stream, which was really the one that circles at
the base of the Viette des Biques. Here the water came to Bonneville's
waist, and presently, to his great regret, he was forced to land and
continue his way along one or the other bank of the little stream.

But the fugitives had only gone from Scylla to Charybdis, for the
shores of the mountain-torrent, bristling with thorns, interlaced with
trunks and roots of fallen trees, soon became impassable.

Bonneville placed Petit-Pierre on the ground, finding it impossible to
carry him further, and struck boldly into the thicket, requesting
Petit-Pierre to follow closely through the opening made by his body;
and thus, in spite of all obstacles, in spite too of the darkness of
the night and the deeper darkness of the woods, he advanced in a
straight line, as none but those who have constant experience in
forests can succeed in doing.

The plan succeeded well, for after going some fifty yards they struck
one of those paths called "lines," which are cut parallel to each
other through forests, partly to mark the limits of felling, and
partly to facilitate the transportation of the wood.

"Oh, what a good find!" said Petit-Pierre, who found it hard to walk
through the tangle of underbrush and briers which rose at times above
his head. "Here, at least, we can stretch our legs."

"Yes, and without leaving tracks," replied Bonneville, striking the
ground, which was hard and rocky.

"Now all we want to know is which way to go," said Petit-Pierre.

"As we have, I believe, thrown those who are after us off the scent,
we can now go whichever way you think best," replied Bonneville.

"You know that to-morrow night I have a rendezvous at La Cloutière
with our friends from Paris."

"We can get to La Cloutière from here almost without leaving the
woods, where we are safer than we should be in the open. We can take a
path I know of to the forest of Touvois and the Grandes-Landes, to the
west of which is La Cloutière; only, it is impossible for us to get
there to-day."

"Why not?"

"Because we should have to make a number of detours, which would take
us at least six hours; and that is very much more than you have
strength for."

Petit-Pierre stamped his foot impatiently.

"I know a farmhouse," continued Bonneville, "about three miles this
side of La Benaste, where we should be welcome, and where you could
rest awhile before doing the remainder of the way."

"Very good," said Petit-Pierre; "then let us start at once. Which
way?"

"Let me precede you," said Bonneville. "We must go to the right."

Bonneville took the direction he named, and stalked on with the
persistency he had shown on leaving the banks of the stream.
Petit-Pierre followed him.

From time to time the Comte de Bonneville stopped to reconnoitre the
way and give his companion time to breathe. He warned him of the
various obstacles in the path before they came to them, with a
minuteness which showed how thoroughly familiar he was with the forest
of Machecoul.

"You see I am avoiding the paths," he said to his companion, during
one of their halts.

"Yes; and why do you do so?"

"Because they will be certain to look for us in the paths where the
ground is soft; whereas here, where there has not been so much
trampling, our steps are less likely to be observed."

"But perhaps this way is the longer."

"Yes, but safer."

They walked on for ten minutes in silence, when Bonneville stopped and
caught his companion by the arm. The latter asked what the trouble
was.

"Hush! or speak very low," said Bonneville.

"Why?"

"Don't you hear anything?"

"No."

"I hear voices."

"Where?"

"There, about five hundred yards in that direction. I fancy I can
distinguish through the branches a ruddy gleam of light."

"Yes, and so can I."

"What do you suppose it is?"

"I ask you that."

"The devil!"

"Can it be charcoal-burners?"

"No; this is not the time of year when they start their kilns. And if
they were charcoal-burners, I should not like to trust them; I have no
right, being your guide, to run any risks."

"Is there any other road we could take?"

"Yes."

"Then suppose we try it."

"I don't want to take it till reduced to the last extremity."

"Why not?"

"Because it crosses a marsh."

"Pooh! you who can walk on the water like Saint Peter! Don't you know
the marsh?"

"I know it very well. I have often shot snipe there; but--"

"But?"

"It was by daylight."

"And this marsh--"

"Is a bog where, even in the daytime, I have come near sinking."

"Then let us risk an encounter with these worthy people. I should not
be sorry to warm myself at their fire."

"Stay here; and let me go and reconnoitre."

"But--"

"Don't be afraid."

So saying, Bonneville disappeared noiselessly in the darkness.

XXXIX.

PETIT-PIERRE MAKES THE BEST MEAL HE EVER MADE
IN HIS LIFE.

Petit-Pierre, left alone, leaned against a tree, and there, silent,
motionless, with fixed eyes and straining ears, he waited, striving to
catch every sound as it passed him. For five minutes he heard nothing
except a sort of hum which came from the direction of the lights.

Suddenly the neighing of a horse echoed through the forest.
Petit-Pierre trembled. Almost at the same moment a light sound came
from the bushes, and a shadow rose before him; it was Bonneville.

Bonneville, who did not see Petit-Pierre leaning against the trunk of
a tree, called him twice gently. Petit-Pierre bounded toward him.

"Quick! quick!" said Bonneville, dragging Petit-Pierre away.

"What is it?"

"Not an instant to lose! Come! come!"

Then, as he ran, he said:--

"A camp of soldiers. If there were men only I might have warmed myself
at their fire without their seeing or hearing me; but a horse smelt me
out and neighed."

"I heard it."

"Then you understand; not a word. We must take to our legs, that's
all."

As he spoke they were running along a wood-road, which fortunately
came in their way. After a time Bonneville drew Petit-Pierre into the
bushes.

"Get your breath," he said.

While Petit-Pierre rested, Bonneville tried to make out where they
were.

"Are we lost?" asked Petit-Pierre, uneasily.

"Oh, no danger of that!" said Bonneville. "I'm only looking for a way
to avoid that horrid marsh."

"If it leads us straight to our object we had better take it," said
Petit-Pierre.

"We must," replied Bonneville; "I don't see any other way."

"Forward, then!" cried Petit-Pierre; "only, you must guide me."

Bonneville made no answer; but in proof of urgency, he started at
once, and instead of following the "line" path on which they were, he
turned to the right and plunged into the thicket. At the end of ten
minutes' march the underbrush lessened. They were nearing the edge of
the forest, and they could hear before them the swishing of the reeds
in the wind.

"Aha!" cried Petit-Pierre, recognizing the sound; "we are close to the
marsh now."

"Yes," said Bonneville; "and I ought not to conceal from you that this
is the most critical moment of our flight."

So saying, the young man took from his pocket a knife, which might, if
necessary, be used as a dagger, and cut down a sapling, removing all
the branches, but taking care to hide each one as he lopped it off.

"Now," he said, "my poor Petit-Pierre, you must resign yourself and go
back to your former place on my shoulders."

Petit-Pierre instantly did as he was told, and Bonneville went forward
toward the marsh. His advance under the weight he carried, hindered by
the long sapling which he used to test the condition of the ground at
every step, was horribly difficult. Often he sank into the slough
almost to his knees, and the earth, which seemed soft enough as it
gave way under him, offered a positive resistance when he sought to
extricate himself. It was, in fact, with the utmost difficulty that he
could get his legs out of it; it seemed as though the gulf that opened
at their feet was unwilling to relinquish its prey.

"Let me give you some advice, my dear count," said Petit-Pierre.

Bonneville stopped and wiped his brow.

"If, instead of paddling in this mire, you stepped from tuft to tuft
of those reeds which are growing here, I think you would find a better
foothold."

"Yes," said Bonneville, "I should; but we should leave more visible
traces." Then, a moment later, he added, "No matter. You are right; it
is best."

And changing his direction a little, Bonneville took to the reeds. The
matted roots of the water-plants had, in fact, made little islets of a
foot or more in circumference, which gave a fairly good foothold over
the boggy ground. The young man felt them, one after the other, with
the end of his stick and stepped from each to each.

Nevertheless, he slipped constantly. Burdened with Petit-Pierre's
weight, he had great difficulty in recovering himself; and before long
this toilsome struggle so completely exhausted him he was forced to
ask Petit-Pierre to get down and let him rest awhile.

"You are worn out, my poor Bonneville," said Petit-Pierre. "Is it very
much farther, this marsh of yours?"

"Two or three hundred yards more, and then we re-enter the forest as
far as the line-path to Benaste, which will take us direct to the
farm."

"Can you go as far as that?"

"I hope so."

"Good God! how I wish I could carry you myself, or at any rate, walk
beside you."

These words restored the count's courage. Giving up his second method
of advancing from tuft to tuft, he plunged resolutely into the mire.
But the more he advanced, the more the slough appeared to move and
deepen. Suddenly Bonneville, who had made a mistake and placed his
foot on a spot he had not had time to sound, felt himself sinking
rapidly and likely to disappear.

"If I sink altogether," he said, "fling yourself either to right or
left. These dangerous places are never very wide."

Petit-Pierre sprang off at once, not to save himself, but to lighten
Bonneville of the additional weight.

"Oh, my friend!" he cried, with an aching heart and eyes wet with
tears as he listened to that generous cry of devotion and
self-forgetfulness, "think only of yourself, I command you."

The young count had already sunk to the waist. Fortunately, he had
time to put his sapling across the bog before him; and as each end
rested on a tuft of reeds sufficiently strong to bear a weight, he was
able, thanks to the support they gave, and aided by Petit-Pierre, who
held him by the collar of his coat, to extricate himself from the
dangerous place.

Soon the ground became more solid; the black line of the woods which
had all along marked the horizon came nearer and increased in height.
The fugitives were evidently approaching the end of the bog.

"At last!" cried Bonneville.

"Ouf!" exclaimed Petit-Pierre, slipping off Bonneville's shoulders as
soon as he felt that the earth was solid beneath their feet. "Ouf! you
must be worn out, my dear count."

"Out of breath, that's all," replied Bonneville.

"Good heavens!" cried Petit-Pierre; "to think that I should have
nothing to give you,--not even the flask of a soldier or pilgrim, or
the crust of a beggar's loaf!"

"Pooh!" said the count; "my strength doesn't come from my stomach."

"Tell me where it does come from, my dear count, and I will try to be
as strong as you."

"Are you hungry?"

"I'll admit that I could eat something."

"Alas!" said the count; "you make me regret now what I cared little
for a moment ago."

Petit-Pierre laughed; and then, for the purpose of keeping up his
companion's heart, he cried out gayly:--

"Bonneville, call the usher and let him notify the chamberlain on duty
to order the stewards to bring my lunch-basket. I would like one of
those snipe I hear whistling about us."

"Her Royal Highness is served," said the count, kneeling on one knee,
and offering on the top of his hat an object which Petit-Pierre seized
eagerly.

"Bread!" he cried.

"Black bread," said Bonneville.

"Oh, no matter! I can't see the color at night."

"Dry bread! doubly dry!"

"But it is bread, at any rate."

And Petit-Pierre set his handsome teeth into the crust, which had been
drying in the count's pocket for the last two days.

"And when I think," said Petit-Pierre, "that General Dermoncourt is
probably at this moment eating my supper at Souday, isn't it
aggravating?" Then, suddenly, "Oh! forgive me, my dear guide," he went
on, "but my stomach got the better of my heart; I forgot to offer you
half my supper."

"Thanks," replied Bonneville; "but my appetite isn't strong enough yet
to munch stones. In return for your gracious offer, I'll show you how
to make your poor supper less husky."

Bonneville took the bread, broke it, not without difficulty, into
little bits, soaked it in a brook that was flowing quite near them,
called Petit-Pierre, sat down himself on one side the brook, while
Petit-Pierre sat on the other, and taking out one by one the softened
crusts, presented them to his famished companion.

"Upon my honor!" said the latter, when he came to the last crumb, "I
haven't eaten such a good supper for twenty years. Bonneville, I
appoint you steward of my household."

"Meantime," said the count, "I am your guide. Come, luxury enough; we
must continue our way."

"I'm ready," said Petit-Pierre, springing gayly to his feet.

Again they started through the woods, and half an hour's walking
brought them to a river which they were forced to cross. Bonneville
tried his usual method; but at the first step, the water came to his
waist, at the second to his shoulders. Feeling himself dragged by the
current he caught at the branch of a tree and returned to the bank.

It was necessary to find a way to cross. At a distance of about three
hundred yards Bonneville thought he had found one; but it was nothing
more than the trunk of a tree lately blown down by the wind, and still
bearing all its branches.

"Do you think you can walk over that?" he asked Petit-Pierre.

"If you can, I can," replied the latter.

"Hold on to the branches, and don't have any conceit about your
powers; don't raise one foot till you are quite sure the other is
firm," said Bonneville, climbing first on to the trunk of the tree.

"I'm to follow, I suppose?"

"Wait till I can give you a hand."

"Here I am! Goodness! what a number of things one ought to know in
order to roam the wilds; I never should have thought it."

"Don't talk, for God's sake! pay attention to your feet. One moment!
Stop where you are; don't move. Here's a branch you can't get by; I'll
cut it."

Just as he stooped to do as he said, the count heard a smothered cry
behind him and the fall of a body into the water. He looked back.
Petit-Pierre had disappeared.

Without losing a second, Bonneville dropped into the same place; and
his luck served him well, for going to the bottom of the river, which
was not more than eight feet deep at this place, his hand came in
contact with Petit-Pierre's leg.

He seized it, trembling with emotion, and paying no heed to the
uncomfortable position in which he held the body he struck out for the
bank of the stream, which was, happily, as narrow as it was deep.
Petit-Pierre made no movement. Bonneville took him in his arms and
laid him on the dry leaves, calling, entreating, even shaking him.

Petit-Pierre continued silent and motionless. The count tore his hair
in his anguish.

"Oh, it is my fault! my fault!" he cried. "O God, you have punished my
pride! I counted too much on myself; I thought I could save her. Oh,
my life,--take my life, God! for one sigh, one breath--"

The cool night air did more to bring Petit-Pierre to life than all
Bonneville's lamentations; at the end of a few minutes he opened his
eyes and sneezed.

Bonneville, who, in his paroxysm of grief, swore not to survive the
being whose death he thought he had caused, gave a cry of joy and fell
on his knees by Petit-Pierre, who was now sufficiently recovered to
understand his last words.

"Bonneville," said Petit-Pierre, "you didn't say 'God bless you!' when
I sneezed, and now I shall have a cold in my head."

"Living! living! living!" cried Bonneville, as exuberant in his joy as
he was in his grief.

"Yes, living enough, thanks to you. If you were any other than you
are, I would swear to you never to forget it."

"You are soaked!"

"Yes, my shoes especially, Bonneville. The water keeps running down,
running down in a most disagreeable manner."

"And no fire! no means to make one!"

"Pooh! we shall get warm in walking. I speak in the plural, for you
must be as wet as I am; in fact, it's your third bath,--one was of
mud."

"Oh, don't think of me! Can you walk?"

"I believe so, as soon as I empty my shoes."

Bonneville helped Petit-Pierre to get rid of the water which filled
her shoes. Then he took off his own thick jacket, and having wrung the
water from it, he put it over her shoulders, saying:--

"Now for Benaste, and fast, too!"

"Ha! Bonneville," exclaimed Petit-Pierre; "a fine gain we have made by
trying to avoid that camp-fire which would be everything to us just
now!"

"We can't go back and deliver ourselves up," said Bonneville, with a
look of despair.

"Nonsense! don't take my little joke as a reproach. What an
ill-regulated mind you have! Come, let us march, march! Now that I use
my legs I feel I am drying up; in ten minutes I shall begin to
perspire."

There was no need to hasten Bonneville. He advanced so rapidly that
Petit-Pierre could barely keep up with him; and from time to time she
was forced to remind him that her legs were not as long as his.

But Bonneville could not recover from the shock of emotion caused by
the accident to his young companion, and he now completely lost his
head on discovering that, among these bushes he once knew so well, he
had missed his way. A dozen times he had stopped as he entered a
"line" path and looked about him, and each time, after shaking his
head, he plunged onward in a sort of frenzy.

At last Petit-Pierre, who could scarcely keep up with him, except by
running, said, as she noticed his increasing agitation:--

"Tell me what is the matter, dear count."

"The matter is that I am a wretched man," said Bonneville. "I relied
too much on my knowledge of these localities, and--and--"

"We have lost our way?"

"I fear so."

"And I am sure of it. See, here is a branch I remember breaking when
we passed here just now; we are turning in a circle. You see how I
profit by your lessons, Bonneville," added Petit-Pierre, triumphantly.

"Ah!" said Bonneville; "I see what set me wrong."

"What was it?"

"When we left the water I landed on the side we had just left, and in
my agitation at your accident, I did not notice the mistake."

"So that our plunge bath was absolutely useless!" cried Petit-Pierre,
laughing heartily.

"Oh! for God's sake, Madame, don't laugh like that; your gayety cuts
me to the heart."

"Well, it warms me."

"Then you are cold?"

"A little; but that's not the worst."

"What is worse?"

"Why, for half an hour you have not dared to tell me we are lost, and
for half an hour I've not dared to tell you that my legs seem to be
giving way and refusing to do their duty."

"Then what is to become of us?"

"Well, well! am I to play your part as man and give you courage? So be
it. The council is open; what is your opinion?"

"That we cannot reach Benaste to-night."

"Next?"

"That we must try to get to the nearest farmhouse before daylight."

"Very good," said Petit-Pierre. "Have you any idea of where we are?"

"No stars in the sky, no moon--"

"And no compass," added Petit-Pierre, laughing, and trying by a joke
to revive her companion's nerve.

"Wait."

"Ah! you have an idea, I'm sure!"

"I happened to notice the vane on the castle just at dusk; the wind
was east."

Bonneville wet his finger in his mouth and held it up.

"What's that for?"

"A weathercock. There's the north," he said, unhesitatingly; "if we
walk in the teeth of the wind we shall come out on the plain near
Saint-Philbert."

"Yes, by walking; but that's the difficulty."

"Will you let me carry you in my arms?"

"You have enough to carry in yourself, my poor Bonneville."

The duchess rose with an effort, for during the last few moments she
had seated herself, or rather let herself drop, at the foot of a tree.

"There!" she said; "now I am on my feet, and I mean that these
rebellious legs shall carry me. I will conquer them as I would all
rebels; that's what I'm here for."

And the brave woman made four or five steps; but her fatigue was so
great, her limbs so stiffened by the icy bath she had taken, that she
staggered and came near falling. Bonneville sprang to support her.

"Heart of God!" she cried; "let me alone, Monsieur de Bonneville. I
will put this miserable body that God has made so frail and delicate
on the level of the soul it covers. Don't give it any help, count;
don't support it. Ha! you stagger, do you? ha! you are giving way?
Well, if you won't march at the common step you shall be made to
charge, and we'll see if in a week you are not as submissive to my
will as a beast of burden."

So saying, and joining the action to the word, Petit-Pierre started
forward at such a pace that her guide had some difficulty in
overtaking her. But the last effort exhausted her; and when Bonneville
did rejoin her, she was once more seated, with her face hidden in her
two hands. Petit-Pierre was weeping,--weeping with anger rather than
pain.

"O God!" she muttered; "you have set me the task of a giant, but you
have given me only the strength of a woman."

Willing or not, Bonneville took Petit-Pierre in his arms and hurried
along. The words that Gaspard had said to him as they left the vaults
rang in his ears. He felt that so delicate a body could not bear up
any longer under these violent shocks, and he resolved to spend his
last strength in putting the treasure confided to him in a place of
safety. He knew now that a few moments wasted might mean death to his
companion.

For over fifteen minutes the brave man kept on rapidly. His hat fell
off, but no longer caring for the trail he left behind him, the count
did not stop to pick it up. He felt the body of the duchess shuddering
with cold in his arms, he heard her teeth chattering; and the sound
spurred him as the applause of a crowd spurs a race-horse, and gave
him superhuman energy.

But, little by little, this fictitious strength gave way. Bonneville's
legs would only obey him mechanically; the blood seemed to settle on
his chest and choked him. He felt his heart swell; he could not
breathe; his breath rattled; a cold sweat poured from his brow; his
arteries throbbed as if his head must burst. From time to time a thick
cloud covered his eyes, marbled with flame. Soon he staggered at every
slope, stumbled at every stone; his failing knees, powerless to
straighten themselves, could only go forward by a mighty effort.

"Stop! stop! Monsieur de Bonneville," cried Petit-Pierre; "stop, I
command you!"

"No, I will not stop," replied Bonneville. "I have still some
strength, thank God! and I shall use it to the end. Stop? stop? when
we are almost into port? when at the cost of a little further effort I
shall put you in safety? There! see that; look there!"

And as he spoke they saw at the end of the path they were following a
broad band of ruddy light which rose above the horizon; and on that
glow a black and angular shape stood out distinctly, indicating a
house. Day was dawning. They had now reached the end of the wood and
were at the edge of fields.

But just as Bonneville gave that cry of joy, his legs bent under him;
he fell to his knees. Then, with a last supreme effort, he cast
himself gently backward as if at the moment when his consciousness
left him he meant to spare his precious burden from the dangers of a
fall. Petit-Pierre released herself from his grasp and stood at his
feet, but so feebly that she seemed scarcely stronger than her
companion. She tried to raise the count, but could not do it.
Bonneville, for his part, put his hands to his mouth,--no doubt to
give the owl's cry of the Chouans; but his breath failed him, and he
scarcely uttered the words, "Don't forget--" before he fainted
entirely.

The house they had seen was not more than seven or eight hundred steps
from the place where Bonneville had fallen. Petit-Pierre determined to
go there and ask at all risks for assistance to her friend. Making a
supreme effort she started in that direction. Just as she passed a
crossway Petit-Pierre saw a man on one of the paths that led to it.
She called to him, but he did not turn his head.

Then Petit-Pierre, either by a sudden inspiration or because she gave
that meaning to Bonneville's last words, utilized a lesson the count
had taught her. Putting her hands to her mouth she uttered, as best
she could, the cry of the screech-owl.

The man stopped instantly, turned back, and came to Petit-Pierre.

"My friend," she cried, as soon as he came within reach of her voice,
"if you need gold, I will give it to you; but, for God's sake, come
and help me save an unfortunate man who is dying."

Then, with all her remaining strength, and seeing that the man was
following her, Petit-Pierre hurried back to Bonneville and raised his
head by an effort. The count was still unconscious.

As soon as the new-comer reached them and glanced at the prostrate
man, he said:--

"You need not offer me gold to induce me to help Monsieur le Comte de
Bonneville."

Petit-Pierre looked at the man attentively.

"Jean Oullier!" she cried, recognizing the Marquis de Souday's keeper
in the dawning light,--"Jean Oullier, can you find a safe refuge for
my friend and for me close by?"

"There is no house but this within a mile or two," he said.

He spoke of it with repugnance, but Petit-Pierre either did not or
would not notice the tone.

"You must guide me and carry him."

"Down _there?_" cried Jean Oullier.

"Yes; are not they royalists?--the persons who live in that house, I
mean."

"I don't know yet," said Jean Oullier.

"Go on; I put our lives in your hands, Jean Oullier, and I know that
you deserve my utmost confidence."

Jean Oullier took Bonneville, still unconscious, on his shoulders, and
led Petit-Pierre by the hand. He walked toward the house, which was
that belonging to Joseph Picaut and his sister-in-law, the widow of
Pascal.

Jean Oullier mounted the hedge-bank as easily as though he were only
carrying a game-bag, instead of the body of a man. Once in the
orchard, however, he advanced cautiously. Every one was still sleeping
in Joseph's part of the house; but it was not so in the widow's room.
In the gleam from the windows a shadow could be seen passing to and
fro behind the curtains.

Jean Oullier seemed now to decide between two courses.

"Faith! weighing one against the other," he muttered to himself, "I
like it as well this way."

And he walked resolutely to that part of the house which belonged to
Pascal. When he reached the door he opened it. Pascal's body lay on
the bed. The widow had lighted two candles, and was praying beside the
dead. Hearing the door open, she rose and turned round.

"Widow Pascal," said Jean Oullier, without releasing his burden or the
hand of Petit-Pierre, "I saved your life to-night at the Viette des
Biques."

Marianne looked at him in astonishment, as if trying to recall her
recollections.

"Don't you believe me?"

"Yes, Jean Oullier, I believe you; I know you are not a man to tell a
lie, were it even to save your life. Besides, I heard the shot and I
suspected whose hand fired it."

"Widow Pascal, will you avenge your husband and make your fortune at
one stroke? I bring you the means."

"How?"

"Here," continued Jean Oullier, "are Madame la Duchesse de Berry and
Monsieur le Comte de Bonneville, who might have died, perhaps, of
hunger and fatigue, if I had not come, as I have, to ask you to
shelter them; here they are."

The widow looked at all three in stupefaction, yet with a visible
interest.

"This head, which you see here," continued Jean Oullier, "is worth its
weight in gold. You can deliver it up if you so please, and, as I told
you, avenge your husband and make your fortune by that act."

"Jean Oullier," replied the widow, in a grave voice, "God commands us
to do charity to all, whether great or small. Two unfortunate persons
have come to my door; I shall not repulse them. Two exiles ask me to
shelter them, and my house shall crumble about my ears before I betray
them." Then, with a simple gesture, to which her action gave a
splendid grandeur, she added:--

"Enter, Jean Oullier; enter fearlessly,--you, and those who are with
you."

They entered. While Petit Pierre was helping Jean Oullier to place the
count in a chair, the old keeper said to her in a low voice:--

"Madame, put back your own fair hair behind your wig; it made me guess
the truth I have told this woman, but others ought not to see it."

XL.

EQUALITY IN DEATH.

The same day, about two in the afternoon, Courtin left La Logerie to
go to Machecoul under pretence of buying a draught-ox, but in reality
to get news of the events of the night,--events in which the municipal
functionary had a special interest, as our readers will fully
understand.

When he reached the ford at Pont-Farcy, he found some men lifting the
body of Tinguy's son, and around them several women and children, who
were gazing at the dead body with the curiosity natural to their sex
and years. When the mayor of La Logerie, stimulating his pony by a
stick with a leathern thong, which he carried in his hand, made it
enter the river, all eyes were turned upon him, and the conversation
ceased as if by magic, though up to that moment it had been very eager
and animated.

"Well, what's going on, _gars?_" asked Courtin, making his animal
cross the river diagonally so as to reach land precisely opposite to
the group.

"A death," replied one of the men, with the laconic brevity of a
Vendéan peasant.

Courtin looked at the corpse and saw that it wore a uniform.

"Luckily," he said, "it isn't any one who belongs about here."

"You're mistaken. Monsieur Courtin," replied the gloomy voice of a man
in a brown jacket.

The title of _monsieur_ thus given to him, and given, too, with a
certain emphasis, was in no wise flattering to the farmer of La
Logerie. Under the circumstances and in the phase of public feeling La
Vendée had just entered, he knew that this title of monsieur, in the
mouth of a peasant, when it was not given as a testimony of respect,
meant either an insult or a threat,--two things which affected Courtin
quite differently.

In short, the mayor of La Logerie did himself the justice not to take
the title thus bestowed upon him as a mark of consideration, and he
therefore resolved to be prudent.

"And yet I think," he said, in a mild and gentle voice, "that he wears
a chasseur's uniform."

"Pooh! uniform!" retorted the same peasant; "as if you didn't know
that the _man-hunt_" (this was the name the Vendéan peasantry gave to
the conscription) "doesn't respect our sons and brothers more than it
does those of others. It seems to me you ought to know that, mayor as
you are."

Again there was silence,--a silence so oppressive to Courtin that he
once more interrupted it. "Does any one know the name of the poor
_gars_ who has perished so unfortunately?" he asked, making immense
but fruitless efforts to force a tear to his eye.

No one answered. The silence became more and more significant.

"Does any one know if there were other victims? Was any one killed
among our own _gars?_ I hear a number of shots were fired."

"As for other victims," said the same peasant, "I know as yet of only
one,--this one here; though perhaps it is a sin to talk of such
victims beside a Christian corpse."

As he spoke the peasant turned aside and, fixing his eyes on Courtin,
he pointed with his finger to the body of Jean Oullier's dog, lying on
the bank, partly in the water which flowed over it. Maître Courtin
turned pale; he coughed, as if an invisible hand had clutched his
throat.

"What's that?" he said; "a dog? Ha! if we had only to mourn for that
kind of victim our tears would be few."

"Nay, nay," said the man in the brown jacket; "the blood of a dog must
be paid for, Maître Courtin, like everything else. I'm certain that
the master of poor Pataud won't forget the man who shot his dog,
coming out of Montaigu, with leaden wolf-balls, three of which entered
his body."

As he finished speaking the man, apparently thinking he had exchanged
words enough with Courtin, did not wait for any answer, but turned on
his heel, passed up a bank, and disappeared behind its hedge. As for
the other men, they resumed their march with the body. The women and
children followed behind tumultuously, praying aloud. Courtin was left
alone.

"Bah!" he said to himself, jabbing his pony with his one spur; "before
I pay for what Jean Oullier lays to my account, he'll have to escape
the clutches which, thanks to me, are on him at this moment,--it won't
be easy, though, of course, it is possible."

Maître Courtin continued his way; but his curiosity was greater than
ever, and he felt he could not wait till the amble of his steed took
him to Machecoul before satisfying it.

He happened at this moment to be passing the cross of La Bertaudière,
near which the road leading to the house of the Picauts joined the
main road. He thought of Pascal, who could tell him the news better
than any one, as he had sent him to guide the troops the night before.

"What a jackass I am!" he cried, speaking to himself. "It will only
take me half an hour out of my way, and I can hear the truth from a
mouth that won't lie to me. I'll go to Pascal; he'll tell me the
result of the trick."

Maître Courtin turned, therefore, to the right; and five minutes later
he crossed the little orchard and made his entrance over a heap of
manure into the courtyard of Pascal's dwelling.

Joseph, sitting on a horse-collar, was smoking his pipe before the
door of his half of the house. Seeing who his visitor was he did not
think it worth while to disturb himself. Courtin, who had an admirably
keen faculty for seeing all without appearing to notice anything,
fastened his pony to one of the iron rings that were screwed into the
wall. Then, turning to Joseph, he said:--

"Is your brother at home?"

"Yes, he is still there," replied Picaut, dwelling on the word _still_
in a manner that seemed a little strange to the mayor of La Logerie;
"do you want him again to-day to guide the red-breeches to Souday?"

Courtin bit his lips and made no reply to Joseph, while to himself he
said, as he knocked at the door of the other Picaut:--

"How came that fool of a Pascal to tell his rascally brother it was I
who sent him on that errand? Upon my soul, one can't do anything in
these parts without everybody gabbling about it within twenty-four
hours!"

Courtin's monologue hindered him from noticing that his knock was not
immediately answered, and that the door, contrary to the trustful
habits of the peasantry, was bolted.

At last, however, the door opened, and when Courtin's eyes fell upon
the scene before him he was so unprepared for what he saw that he
actually recoiled from the threshold.

"Who is dead here?" he asked.

"Look!" replied the widow, without leaving her seat in the
chimney-corner, which she had resumed after opening the door.

Courtin turned his eyes again to the bed, and though he could see
beneath the sheet only the outline of a man's form, he guessed the
truth.

"Pascal!" he cried; "is it Pascal?"

"I thought you knew it," said the widow.

"I?"

"Yes, you,--you, who are the chief cause of his death."

"I?--I?" replied Courtin, remembering what Joseph had just said to
him, and feeling it all-important for his own safety to deny his share
in the matter. "I swear to you, on the word of an honest man, that I
have not seen your husband for over a week."

"Don't swear," replied the widow. "Pascal never swore; neither did he
lie."

"But who told you that I had seen him?" persisted Courtin. "It is too
bad to blame me for nothing!"

"Don't lie in presence of the dead, Monsieur Courtin," said Marianne;
"it will bring down evil upon you."

"I am not lying," stammered the man.

"Pascal left this house to meet you; you engaged him as guide for the
soldiers."

Courtin made a movement of denial.

"Oh! I don't blame you for that," continued the widow, looking at a
peasant-girl, about twenty-five to thirty years of age, who was
winding her distaff in the opposite corner of the fireplace; "it was
his duty to give assistance to those who want to prevent our country
from being torn by civil war."

"That's my object, my sole object," replied Courtin, lowering his
voice, so that the young peasant-woman hardly heard him. "I wish
the government would rid us once for all of these fomenters of
trouble,--these nobles who crush us with their wealth in peace, and
massacre us when it comes to war. I am doing my best for this end,
Mistress Picaut; but I daren't boast of it, you see, because you never
know what the people about here may do to you."

"Why should you complain if they strike you from behind, when you hide
yourself in striking them?" said Marianne, with a look of the deepest
contempt.

"Damn it! one does as one dares, Mistress Picaut," replied Courtin,
with some embarrassment. "It is not given to all the world to be brave
and bold like your poor husband. But we'll revenge him, that good
Pascal! we'll revenge him. I swear it to you!"

"Thank you; but I don't want you to meddle in that, Monsieur Courtin,"
said the widow, in a voice that seemed almost threatening, so hard and
bitter was it. "You have meddled too much already in the affairs of
this poor household. Spend your good offices on others in future."

"As you please, Mistress Picaut. Alas! I loved your good husband so
truly that I'll do anything I can to please you." Then, suddenly
turning toward the young peasant-woman, whom he had seemed not to
notice up to that time, "Who is this young woman?" he said.

"A cousin of mine, who came this morning from Port-Saint-Père, to help
me in paying the last duties to my poor Pascal, and to keep me
company."

"From Port-Saint-Père this morning! Ha, ha! Mistress Picaut, she must
be a good walker, if she did that distance so quickly."

The poor widow, unused to lying, having never in her life had occasion
to lie, lied badly. She bit her lips, and gave Courtin an angry look,
which, happily, he did not see, being occupied at the moment in a
close examination of a peasant's costume which was drying before the
fire. The two articles which seemed to attract him most were a pair of
shoes and a shirt. The shoes, though iron-nailed and made of common
leather, were of a shape not common among cottagers, and the shirt was
of the finest linen cambric.

"Soft stuff! soft stuff!" he muttered, rubbing the delicate tissue
between his fingers; "it's my opinion it won't scratch the skin of
whoever wears it."

The young peasant-woman now thought it time to come to the help of the
widow, who seemed on thorns and whose forehead was clouding over in a
visibly threatening way.

"Yes," she said; "those are some old clothes I bought of a dealer in
Nantes, to make over for my little nephew."

"And you washed them before sewing them? Faith, you're right, my girl!
for," added Courtin, looking fixedly at her, "no one knows who has
worn the garments of those old-clothes dealers,--it may have been a
prince, or it may have been a leper."

"Maître Courtin," interrupted Marianne, who seemed annoyed by the
conversation, "your pony is getting restless."

Courtin listened.

"If I didn't hear your brother-in-law walking in the garret overhead I
should think he was teasing it, the ill-natured fellow!"

At this new proof of the essentially detective nature of the mayor of
La Logerie, the young peasant-woman turned pale; and her paleness
increased when she heard Courtin, who rose to look after his pony
through the casement, mutter, as if to himself:--

"Why, no; there he is, that fellow! He is tickling my horse with the
end of his whip." Then, returning to the widow, he said, "Who have you
got up in your garret, mistress?"

The young woman was about to answer that Joseph had a wife and
children, and that the garret was common to all; but the widow did not
give her time to begin the sentence.

"Maître Courtin," she said, standing up, "are not your questions
coming to an end soon? I hate spies, I warn you, whether they are
white or red."

"Since when is a friendly talk among friends called spying? Whew! you
have grown very suspicious, all of a sudden."

The eyes of the younger woman entreated the widow to be more cautious;
but her impetuous hostess could no longer contain herself.

"Among friends! friends, indeed!" she said. "Find your friends among
your fellows,--I mean among cowards and traitors; and know, once for
all, that the widow of Pascal Picaut is not among them. Go, and leave
me to my grief, which you have disturbed too long."

"Yes, yes," said Courtin, with an admirably played good-humor; "my
presence must be unpleasant to you. I ought to have thought of that
before, and I beg your pardon for not having done so. You are
determined to see in me the cause of your husband's death, and that
grieves me; oh! it grieves me, Mistress Picaut, for I loved him
heartily and wouldn't have harmed him for the world. But, since you
feel as you do, and drive me out of your house, I'll go, I'll go;
don't take on like that."

Just then the widow, who seemed more and more disturbed, glanced
rapidly at the younger woman and showed her by that glance the
bread-box, which stood beside the door. On that box was a
pocket-inkstand, which had, no doubt, been used to write the order
Jean Oullier had taken in the morning to the Marquis de Souday. This
inkstand was of green morocco, and with it lay a sort of tube,
containing all that was necessary for writing a letter. As Courtin
went to the door he could not fail to see the inkstand and a few
scattered papers that lay beside it.

The young woman understood the sign and saw the danger; and before the
mayor of La Logerie turned round she had passed, light as a fawn,
behind him, and seated herself on the bread-box, so as to hide the
unlucky implement completely. Courtin seemed to pay no attention to
this man[oe]uvre.

"Well, good-bye to you, Mistress Picaut," he said. "I have lost a
comrade in your husband whom I greatly valued; you doubt that, but
time will prove it to you."

The widow did not answer; she had said to Courtin all she had to say,
and she now seemed to take no notice of him. Motionless, with crossed
arms, she was gazing at the corpse, whose rigid form was defined under
the sheet that covered it.

"Ho! so you are there, my pretty girl," said Courtin, stopping before
the younger woman.

"It was too hot near the fire."

"Take good care of your cousin, my girl," continued Courtin; "this
death has made her a wild beast. She is almost as savage as the
she-wolves of Machecoul! Well, spin away, my dear; though you may
twist your spindle or turn your wheel as best you can, and you'll
never weave such fine linen as you've got there in that shirt." Then
he left the room and shut the door, muttering, "Fine linen, very
fine!"

"Quick! quick! hide all those things!" cried the widow. "He has gone
out only to come back."

Quick as thought the young woman pushed the inkstand between the box
and the wall; but rapid as the movement was, it was still too late.
The upper half of the door was suddenly opened, and Courtin's head
appeared above the lower.

"I've startled you; beg pardon," said Courtin. "I did it from a good
motive; I want to know when the funeral takes place."

"To-morrow, I think," said the young woman.

"Will you go away, you villanous rascal!" cried the widow, springing
toward him, and brandishing the heavy tongs with which she moved the
logs in her great fireplace.

Courtin, thoroughly frightened, withdrew. Mistress Picaut, as Courtin
called her, closed the upper shutter violently.

The mayor of La Logerie unfastened his pony, picked up a handful of
straw, and cleaned off the saddle, which Joseph, maliciously and out
of hatred,--a hatred which he inculcated to his children against the
"curs,"--had smeared with cows' dung from pommel to crupper. Then,
without complaining or retaliating, as if the accident he had just
remedied was a perfectly natural one, he mounted his steed with an
indifferent air, and even stopped on his way through the orchard to
see if the apples were properly setting, with the eye of a
connoisseur. But no sooner had he reached the cross of La Bertaudière
and turned his horse into the high-road toward Machecoul than he
seized his stick by the thick end, and using the leather thong on one
flank, and digging his single spur persistently and furiously into the
other flank of his beast, he contrived to make that animal take a gait
of which it looked utterly incapable.

"There, he's gone at last!" said the younger peasant-woman, who had
watched his movements from the window.

"Yes; but that may be none the better for you, Madame," said the
widow.

"What do you mean?"

"Oh! I know what I mean."

"Do you think he has gone to denounce us?"

"He is thought to be capable of it. I know nothing personally, for I
don't concern myself in such gossip; but his evil face has always led
me to think that even the Whites didn't do him injustice."

"You are right," said the young woman, who began to be uneasy; "his
face is one that could never inspire confidence."

"Ah! Madame, why did you not keep Jean Oullier near you?" said the
widow. "There's an honest man, and a faithful one."

"I had orders to send to the château de Souday. He is to come back
this evening with horses so that we may leave your house as soon as
possible, for I know we increase your sorrow and add to your cares."

The widow did not answer. With her face hidden in her hands, she was
weeping.

"Poor woman!" murmured the duchess; "your tears fall drop by drop upon
my heart, where each leaves a painful furrow. Alas! this is the
terrible, the inevitable result of revolutions. It is on the head of
those who make them that the curse of all this blood and all these
tears must fall."

"May it not rather fall, if God is just, on the heads of those who
cause them?" said the widow, in a deep and muffled voice, which made
her hearer quiver.

"Do you hate us so bitterly?" asked the latter, sadly.

"Yes, I hate you," said the widow. "How can you expect me to love
you?"

"Alas! I understand; yes, your husband's death--"

"No, you do not understand," said Marianne, shaking her head.

The younger woman made a sign as if to say, "Explain yourself."

"No," said the widow, "it is not because the man who for fifteen years
has been my all in life will be to-morrow in his bed of earth; it is
not because when I was a child I witnessed the massacres of Légé, and
saw my dear ones killed beneath your banner, and felt their blood
spattering my face; it is not because for ten whole years those who
fought for your ancestors persecuted mine, burned their houses,
ravaged their fields,--no, I repeat, it is not for that, nor all that,
that I hate you."

"Then why is it?"

"Because it seems to me an impious thing that a family, a race, should
claim the place of God, our only master here below,--the master of us
all, such as we are, great and small; impious to declare that we are
born the slaves of that family, to suppose that a people it has
tortured have not the right to turn upon their bed of suffering unless
they first obtain permission! You belong to that selfish family; you
have come of that tyrant race. It is for that I hate you."

"And yet you have given me shelter; you have laid aside your grief to
lavish care not only upon me, but also upon him who accompanies me.
You have taken your own clothes to cover me; you have given him the
clothes of your poor dead husband, for whom I pray here below, and
who, I hope, will pray for me in heaven."

"All that will not hinder me, after you have once left my house, after
I have fulfilled my duty of hospitality,--all that will not prevent me
from praying ardently that those who are pursuing you may capture
you."

"Then why not deliver me up to them, if such are really your
feelings?"

"Because those feelings are less powerful than my respect for
misfortune, my reverence for an oath, my worship of hospitality;
because I have sworn that you shall be saved this day; and also
because, perhaps, I hope that what you have seen here may be a lesson
not wholly lost upon you,--a lesson that may disgust you with your
projects. For you _are_ humane; you _are_ good. I see it!"

"What should make me renounce projects for which I have lived these
eighteen months?"

"This!" said the widow.

And with a rapid, sudden movement, like all she made, she pulled away
the sheet that covered the dead, disclosing the livid face and the
ghastly wound surrounded by purple blotches.

The younger woman turned aside. In spite of her firmness, of which she
had given so many proofs, she could not bear that dreadful sight.

"Reflect, Madame," continued the widow; "reflect that before what you
are attempting can be accomplished, many and many a poor man, whose
only crime is to have loved you well,--many fathers, many sons, many
brothers,--will be, like this one, lying dead. Reflect that many
widows, many sisters, many orphans will be weeping and mourning, as I
do, for him who was all their love and all their stay!"

"My God! my God!" exclaimed the princess, bursting into tears,
as she fell on her knees and raised her arms to heaven; "if we are
mistaken,--if we must render an account to thee for all these hearts
we are about to break--"

Her voice, drowned in tears, died away in a moan.

XLI.

THE SEARCH.

A knock was heard on the trap-door leading to the garret.

"What is the matter?" cried Bonneville's voice.

He had heard a few words of what had passed, and became uneasy.

"Nothing, nothing," said the young woman, pressing the hand of her
hostess with an affectionate strength that showed the impression the
poor widow's words had made upon her. Then, giving another tone to her
voice, she cried out cheerfully, going a few steps up the ladder to
speak more easily, "And you--?"

The trap-door opened, and the smiling face of Bonneville looked down.

"How are you getting on?" said the peasant-woman, ending her sentence.

"All ready to do it over again, if your service requires it," he
replied.

She thanked him by a smile.

"Who was it came here just now?" asked Bonneville.

"A peasant named Courtin, who didn't seem to be one of our friends."

"Ah, ha! the mayor of La Logerie?"

"That's the man."

"I know him," continued Bonneville; "Michel told me about him. He is a
dangerous man. You ought to have had him followed."

"By whom? There is no one here."

"By Joseph Picaut."

"You know our brave Jean Oullier's repugnance to him."

"And yet he's a White," cried the widow,--"a White, who stood by and
let them kill his brother."

The duchess and Bonneville both gave a start of horror.

"Then it is far better we should not mix him in our affairs," said
Bonneville. "He would bring a curse with him. But have you no one we
could put as sentry near the house, Madame Picaut?"

"Jean Oullier has provided some one, and I have sent my nephew on to
the moor of Saint-Pierre; he can see over the whole country from
there."

"But he is only a child," said the pretended peasant-woman.

"Safer than certain men," said the widow.

"After all," remarked Bonneville, "we haven't long to wait; it will be
dark in three hours, and then our friends will be here with horses."

"Three hours!" said the young woman, whose mind had been painfully
pre-occupied ever since her talk with the widow. "Many things may
happen in three hours, my poor Bonneville."

"Some one is running in," cried Marianne Picaut, rushing from the
window to the door, which she opened quickly. "Is it you, nephew?"

"Yes, aunt; yes!" cried the boy, out of breath.

"What is it?"

"Oh, aunt! aunt! the soldiers! They are coming up; they surprised and
killed the man who was on the watch."

"The soldiers?" cried Joseph Picaut, who from his own door heard the
cry of his boy.

"What can we do?" asked Bonneville.

"Wait for them," said the young peasant-woman.

"Why not attempt to escape?"

"If Courtin, the man who was here just now, sends them or brings them,
they have surrounded the house."

"Who talks of escaping?" asked the Widow Picaut.

"Did I not say that this house was safe? Have I not sworn that so long
as you are within it no harm should happen to you?"

Here the scene was complicated by the entrance of another person.
Thinking, probably, that the soldiers were coming after him, Joseph
Picaut appeared on the threshold of the widow's door. The house of his
sister-in-law, who was known to be a Blue, may have seemed to him a
safe asylum. Perceiving the widow's guests, he started back in
surprise.

"Ha! so you have White gentlefolk here, have you? I see now why the
soldiers are coming; you have sold your guests."

"Wretch!" cried Marianne, seizing her husband's sabre, which hung over
the fireplace, and springing at Joseph, who raised his gun and aimed
at her.

Bonneville sprang down the ladder; but the young peasant-woman had
already flung herself between the brother and sister, covering the
widow with her body.

"Lower your gun!" she cried to the Vendéan, in a tone that seemed not
to come from that frail and delicate body, so male and energetic was
it. "Lower your gun! in the king's name I command it!"

"Who are you who speak thus to me?" asked Joseph Picaut, always ready
to rebel against authority.

"I am she who is expected here,--who commands here."

At these words, said with supreme majesty, Joseph Picaut, speechless,
and as if bewildered, dropped his weapon to the ground.

"Now," continued the young woman, "go up in the loft with monsieur."

"But you?" said Bonneville.

"I stay here."

"But--"

"There's no time to argue. Go; go at once!"

The two men mounted the ladder, and the trap-door closed behind them.

"What are you doing?" the young woman asked with surprise, as the
widow began to disarrange the bed on which the body of her husband lay
and to drag it from the wall.

"I am preparing a hiding-place where no one will seek you."

"But I don't mean to hide myself. No one will recognize me in these
clothes. I choose to await them as I am."

"And I choose that you shall not await them," said the Widow Picaut,
in so firm a tone that she silenced her visitor. "You heard what that
man said; if you are discovered while in my house it will be thought
that I sold you, and I do not choose to run the risk of your being
discovered."

"You, my enemy?"

"Yes, your enemy, who would lie down on this bed and die if she saw
you made prisoner."

There was no reply to make. The widow of Pascal Picaut raised the
mattress on which the body lay, and hid the clothes and shirt and
shoes, which had so awakened Courtin's curiosity, beneath it. Then she
pointed to a place between the mattress and the straw bed, on the side
toward the wall, wide enough for a small person to lie, and the young
woman glided into it without resistance, making for herself a
breathing-space at the edge. Then the widow pushed the bedstead back
into its place.

Mistress Picaut had barely time to look carefully into every corner of
the room to make sure that nothing compromising to her guests was left
about, when she heard the click of arms, and the figure of an officer
passed before the casement.

"This must be the place," she heard him say, addressing a companion
who walked behind him.

"What do you want?" asked the widow, opening the door.

"You have strangers here; we wish to see them," replied the officer.

"Ah, _ça!_ don't you recognize me?" interrupted Marianne Picaut,
avoiding a direct reply.

"Yes; of course, I recognize you. You are the woman who served us as
guide last night."

"Well, if I guided you in search of the enemies of the government, it
isn't likely I should be hiding them here now, is it?"

"That's logical enough, isn't it, captain?" said the second officer.

"Bah! one can't trust any of these people; they are brigands from the
breast," replied the lieutenant. "Didn't you notice that boy, a little
scamp not ten years old, who in spite of our shouts and threats ran
across the moor at full speed? He was their sentinel; they have been
warned. Happily, they have not had time to escape; they must be hidden
somewhere here."

"Possibly."

"Certainly." Then, turning to the widow, he said, "We shall not do you
any harm, but we must search the house."

"As you please," she said, with perfect composure.

Seating herself quietly in the corner of the fireplace, she took her
shuttle and distaff, which she had left upon a chair, and began to
spin.

The lieutenant made a sign with his hand to five or six soldiers, who
now entered the room. Looking carefully about him, he went up to the
bed.

The widow grew paler than the flax on her shuttle. Her eyes flamed;
the distaff slipped from her fingers. The officer looked under the
bed, then along the sides of it, and, finally, put out his hand to
raise the sheet that covered the body. Pascal's widow could contain
herself no longer. She rose, bounded to the corner of the room where
her husband's gun was leaning, resolutely cocked it, and threatening
the officer, exclaimed:--

"If you lay a hand on that body, so sure as I am an honest woman, I
will shoot you like a dog."

The second lieutenant pulled away his comrade by the arm. The Widow
Picaut, without laying down the weapon, approached the bed, and for
the second time she raised the sheet that covered the dead.

"See there!" she said. "That man, who was my husband, was killed
yesterday in your service."

"Ah! true; our first guide,--the one that was killed at the ford of
the river," said the lieutenant.

"Poor woman!" said his companion; "let us leave her in peace. It is a
pity to torment her at such a time."

"And yet," replied the first officer, "the information of the man we
met was precise and circumstantial."

"We did wrong not to oblige him to come back with us."

"Have you any other room than this?" said the chief officer to the
widow.

"I have the loft above, and that stable over the way."

"Search the loft and the stable; but first, open all the chests and
closets, and look carefully in the oven."

The soldiers spread themselves through the house to execute these
orders. From her terrible hiding-place the young woman heard every
word of the conversation. She also heard the steps of the soldiers as
they mounted the ladder to the loft, and she trembled with greater
fear at that sound than when the officer had attempted to remove the
death-sheet that concealed her, for she thought, with terror, that
Bonneville's hiding-place was far less safe than her own.

When, therefore, she heard those who had gone to search the loft
coming down, without any sound of a struggle or cry to show that the
men were discovered, her heart was lightened of a heavy load.

The first lieutenant was waiting in the lower room, and was seated on
the bread-box. The second officer was directing the search of eight or
ten of the soldiers in the stable.

"Well," asked the first lieutenant, "have you found anything?"

"No," said a corporal.

"Did you shake the straw, the hay, and everything?"

"We prodded everywhere with our bayonets. If there was a man hidden
anywhere it is impossible he should have escaped being stabbed."

"Very good; then we will go to the adjoining house. These persons must
be somewhere."

The men left the room, and the officer followed them.

While the soldiers continued their exploration the lieutenant stood
leaning against the outer wall of the house, looking suspiciously at a
little pent-house he resolved to search carefully. Suddenly a bit of
plaster, no bigger than a man's finger, fell at his feet. He raised
his head and fancied he saw a hand disappearing under the roof.

"Here!" he cried to his men, in a voice of thunder.

The soldiers surrounded him.

"You are a pretty set of fellows!" he said; "you do your business
finely!"

"What's happened, lieutenant?" asked the men.

"It has happened that the men are up there in the very loft you
pretend to have searched. Go up again, quick! and don't leave a spear
of straw unturned."

The soldiers re-entered the widow's house. They went straight to the
trap-door and tried to raise it; but this time it resisted. It was
fastened from above.

"Good! now the matter is plain enough," said the officer, putting his
own foot upon the ladder. "Come," he cried, raising his voice to be
heard in the loft, "out of your lair, or we'll fetch you."

The sound of a sharp discussion was heard; it was evident that the
besieged were not agreed as to their line of action. This is what had
happened with them:--

Bonneville and his companion, instead of hiding under the thick hay,
where the soldiers would, of course, chiefly look for them, had
slipped under a light pile of it, not more than two feet deep, which
lay close to the trap-door. What they hoped for had happened; the
soldiers almost walked over them, prodding the places where the hay
lay thicker, but neglecting to examine that part of the loft where it
seemed to be only a carpet. The searching party retired, as we have
seen, without finding those they were looking for.

From their hiding-place, with their ears to the floor, which was thin,
Bonneville and the Vendéan could hear distinctly all that was said in
the room below. Hearing the officer give the order to search his
house, Joseph Picaut grew uneasy, for in it was a quantity of
gunpowder, the possession of which might get him into trouble. In
spite of his companion's remonstrances, he left his hiding-place to
watch the soldiers through the chinks left between the wall and the
roof of the loft. It was then that he knocked off the fragment of
plaster which fell near the officer and re-awakened his attention; and
it was Joseph's hand the lieutenant had noticed, which he had rested
against a rafter, while leaning forward to look into the yard.

When Bonneville heard the officer's shout and knew that he and his
companion were discovered, he sprang to the trap-door and fastened it,
bitterly reproaching the Vendéan for the folly of his conduct. But
reproaches were useless now that they were discovered; it was
necessary to decide on a course.

"You saw them, at any rate," said Bonneville.

"Yes," replied Joseph Picaut.

"How many are there?"

"About thirty, I should say."

"Then resistance would be folly. Besides, they have not discovered
Madame, and our arrest would take them away from here, and make her
safety with your brave sister-in-law more secure."

"Then your advice is?" questioned Picaut.

"To surrender."

"Surrender!" cried the Vendéan. "Never!"

"Why not?"

"Oh, I know what you are thinking of! You are a gentleman; you are
rich. They'll put you in a fine prison, where you'll have all your
comforts. But me!--they'll send me to the galleys, where I've already
spent fourteen years. No, no; I'd rather lie in a bed of earth than a
convict's bed,--a grave rather than a cell."

"If a struggle compromised ourselves only," said Bonneville, "I swear
I would share your fate, and, like you, they should not take me
living; but it is the mother of our king that we must save, and this
is no moment to consult our own likings."

"On the contrary, let us kill all we can; the fewer enemies of Henri
V. we leave alive, the better. Never will I surrender, I tell you
that!" cried the Vendéan, putting his foot on the trap-door, which
Bonneville was about to raise.

"Oh," said the count, frowning, "you will obey me, and without
replying, I presume!"

Picaut burst out laughing.

But in the midst of his threatening mirth, a blow from Bonneville's
fist sent him sprawling to the other end of the loft. As he fell he
dropped his gun; but in falling he came against the loft window, which
was closed by a wooden shutter. A sudden idea struck him,--to let the
young man surrender, and profit by the diversion to escape himself.

While, therefore, Bonneville opened the trap-door, he himself undid
the shutter, picked up his gun, and as the count called down from the
top of the ladder, "Don't fire; we surrender!" the Vendéan leaned
forward, discharged his gun into the group of soldiers, turned again,
and sprang with a prodigious bound from the loft to a heap of manure
in the garden; and after drawing the fire of one or two soldiers
stationed as sentinels, he reached the forest and disappeared.

The shot from the loft brought down one man, dangerously wounded. But
ten muskets were instantly pointed on Bonneville; and before the
mistress of the house could fling herself forward and make a rampart
with her body for him, as she tried to do, the unfortunate young man,
pierced by seven or eight balls, rolled down the ladder to the widow's
feet, crying out with his last breath:--

"Vive Henri V!"

To this last cry from Bonneville came an echoing cry of grief and of
despair. The tumult that followed the explosion and Bonneville's fall
hindered the soldiers from noticing this second cry, which came from
Pascal Picaut's bed, and seemed to issue from the breast of the
corpse, as it lay there, majestically calm and impassible amid the
horrors of this terrible scene.

The lieutenant saw, through the smoke, that the widow was on her
knees, with Bonneville's head, which she had raised, pressed to her
breast.

"Is he dead?" he asked.

"Yes," said Marianne, in a voice choking with emotion.

"But you yourself,--you are wounded."

Great drops of blood were falling thick, and fast from the widow's
forehead upon Bonneville's breast.

"I?" she said.

"Yes; your blood is flowing."

"What matters my blood, if not a drop remains in him for whom I could
not die as I had sworn?" she cried.

At this moment a soldier looked down through the trapdoor.

"Lieutenant," he said, "the other has escaped through the loft; we
fired at him and missed him."

"The other!" cried the lieutenant; "it is the other we
want!"--supposing, very naturally, that the one who had escaped was
Petit-Pierre. "But unless he finds another guide we are sure of him.
After him, instantly!" Then reflecting, "But first, my good woman, get
up," he continued. "You men, search that body."

The order was executed; but nothing was found in Bonneville's pocket,
for the good reason that he was wearing Pascal Picaut's clothes, which
the widow had given him while she dried his own.

"Now," said Marianne Picaut, when the order was obeyed, "he is really
mine, is he not?" and she stretched her arm over the body of the young
man.

"Yes; do what you please with him. But thank God that you were useful
to us last night, or I should have sent you to Nantes to be taught
there what it costs to give aid and comfort to rebels."

With these words, the lieutenant assembled his men and marched quickly
away in the direction the fugitive had taken. As soon as they were
well out of sight the widow ran to the bed, and lifting the side of
the mattress, she drew out the body of the princess, who had swooned.

Ten minutes later Bonneville's body was laid beside that of Pascal
Picaut; and the two women,--the presumptive regent and the humble
peasant,--kneeling beside the bed, prayed together for these, the
first two victims of the last insurrection of La Vendée.

XLII.

IN WHICH JEAN OULLIER, SPEAKS HIS MIND ABOUT
YOUNG BARON MICHEL.

While the melancholy events we have just related were taking place in
the house where Jean Oullier had left poor Bonneville and his
companion, all was excitement, movement, joy, and tumult in the
household of the Marquis de Souday.

The old gentleman could hardly contain himself for joy. He had reached
the moment he had coveted so long! He now chose for his war-apparel
the least shabby hunting-clothes he could find in his wardrobe. Girt,
in his quality as corps-commander, with a white scarf (which his
daughters had long since embroidered for him in anticipation of this
call to arms), with the bloody heart upon his breast, and a rosary in
his button-hole,--in short, the full-dress insignia of a royalist
chief on grand occasions,--he tried the temper of his sabre on all the
articles of furniture that came in his way.

Also, from time to time, he exercised his voice to a tone of command,
by drilling Michel, and even the notary, whom he insisted on enrolling
into the number of his recruits, but who, notwithstanding the violence
of his legitimist opinions, thought it judicious not to manifest them
in a manner that was ultra-loyal.

Bertha, like her father, had put on a costume which she intended to
wear on such expeditions. This was composed of a little overcoat of
green velvet, open in front, and showing a shirt-frill of dazzling
whiteness; the coat was trimmed with frogs and loops of black gimp,
and it fitted the figure closely. The dress was completed by
enormously wide trousers of gray cloth, which came down to a pair of
high huzzar boots reaching to the knee. The young girl wore no scarf
about her waist, the scarf being considered among Vendéans as a sign
of command; but she was careful to wear the white emblem on her arm,
held there by a red ribbon.

This costume brought out the grace and suppleness of Bertha's figure;
and her gray felt hat, with its white feathers, lent itself
marvellously well to the manly character of her face. Seen thus, she
was enchanting. Although, by reason of her masculine ways, Bertha was
certainly not coquettish, she could not prevent herself, in her
present condition of mind or rather of heart, from noticing with
satisfaction the advantages her physical gifts derived from this
equipment. Perceiving, too, that it produced a great impression upon
Michel, she became as exuberantly joyful as the marquis himself.

The truth is that Michel, whose mind had by this time reached a
certain enthusiasm for his new cause, did not see without an
admiration he gave himself no trouble to conceal the proud carriage
and chivalric bearing of Bertha de Souday in her present dress. But
this admiration, let us hasten to remark, came chiefly from the
thought of what his beloved Mary's grace would be in such a
costume,--for he did not doubt the sisters would make the campaign
together in the same uniform.

His eyes had, therefore, gently questioned Mary, as if to ask her why
she did not adorn herself like Bertha. But Mary had shown such
coldness, such reserve, since the double scene in the turret chamber,
she avoided so obviously saying a word to him, that the natural
timidity of the young man increased, and he dared not risk more than
the appealing look we have referred to.

It was Bertha, therefore, and not Michel, who urged Mary to make haste
and put on her riding-dress. Mary did not answer; her sad looks made a
painful contrast to the general gayety. She nevertheless obeyed
Bertha's behest and went up to her chamber. The costume she intended
to wear lay all ready on a chair; but instead of putting out her hand
to take it, she merely looked at the garments with a pallid smile and
seated herself on her little bed, while the big tears rolled from her
eyes and down her cheeks.

Mary, who was religious and artless, had been thoroughly sincere and
true in the impulse which led her to her present rôle of sacrifice and
self-abnegation through devotion and tenderness to her sister; but it
is none the less true that she had counted too much on her strength to
sustain it. From the beginning of the struggle against herself which
she saw before her, she felt, not that her resolution would fail,--her
resolution would be ever the same,--but that her confidence in the
result of her efforts was diminishing.

All the morning she kept saying to herself, "You ought not, you must
not love him;" but the echo still came back, "I love him, love him!"
At every step she made under the empire of these feelings, Mary felt
herself more and more estranged from all that had hitherto made her
joy and life. The stir, the movement, the virile excitements, which
had hitherto amused her girlhood, now seemed to her intolerable;
political interests themselves were effaced in presence of this deeper
personal preoccupation which superseded all others. All that could
distract her heart from the thoughts she longed to drive from her mind
escaped her like a covey of birds when she came near it.

She saw, distinctly, at every turn, how in this fatal struggle she
would be worsted, isolated, abandoned, with no support except her own
will, with no consolation other than that which ought to come from her
devotion itself; and she wept bitter tears of grief as well as fear,
of regret as much as of apprehension. By her present suffering she
measured the anguish yet to come.

For about half an hour she sat there, sad, thoughtful, and
self-absorbed, tossing, with no power of escape, in the maelstrom of
her grief, and then she heard on the outside of her door, which was
partly open, the voice of Jean Oullier, saying, in the peculiar tone
he kept for the two young girls, to whom he had made himself, as we
have seen, a second father:--

"What is the matter, my dear Mademoiselle Mary?"

Mary shuddered, as though she were waking from a dream; and she
answered the honest peasant with a smile, but also with
embarrassment:--

"Matter,--with me? Why, nothing, my dear Jean, I assure you."

But Jean Oullier meanwhile had considered her attentively. Coming
nearer by several steps, and shaking his head as he looked at her
fixedly, he said, in a tone of gentle and respectful scolding:--

"Why do you say that, little Mary? Do you doubt my friendship?"

"I?--I?" cried Mary.

"Yes; you must doubt it, since you try to deceive me."

Mary held out her hand. Jean Oullier took that slender and delicate
little hand between his two great ones, and looked at the young girl
sadly.

"Ah! my sweet little Mary," he said, as if she were still ten years
old, "there is no rain without clouds, there are no tears without
grief. Do you remember when you were a little child how you cried
because Bertha threw your shells into the well? Well, that night, you
know, Jean Oullier tramped forty miles, and your pretty sea-baubles
were replaced the next day, and your pretty blue eyes were all dry and
shining."

"Yes, my kind Jean Oullier; yes, indeed, I remember it," said Mary,
who just now felt a special need of expression.

"Well," said Jean Oullier, "since then I've grown old, but my
tenderness for you has only deepened. Tell me your trouble, Mary. If
there is a remedy, I shall find it; if there is none, my withered old
eyes will weep with yours."

Mary knew how difficult it would be to mislead the clear-sighted
solicitude of her old servant. She hesitated, blushed, and then,
without deciding to tell the cause of her tears, she began to explain
them.

"I am crying, my poor Jean," she replied, "because I fear this war
will cost me, perhaps, the lives of all I love."

Mary, alas! had learned to lie since the previous evening. But Jean
Oullier was not to be taken in with any such answer, and shaking his
head gently, he said:--

"No, little Mary; that's not the cause of your tears. When old fellows
like the marquis and I are caught by the glamor and see nothing in the
coming struggle but victory, a young heart like yours doesn't go out
of its way to predict reverses."

Mary would not admit herself beaten. "And yet, Jean," she said, taking
one of the coaxing attitudes which she knew by long practice were
all-powerful over the will of the worthy man, "I assure you it is so."

"No, no; it is not so, I tell you," persisted Jean Oullier, still
grave, and growing more and more anxious.

"What is it, then?" demanded Mary.

"Ah!" said the old keeper; "do you want me to tell you the cause of
your tears? Do you really want me to tell you that?"

"Yes, if you can."

"Well, your tears,--it is hard to say it, but I think it, I do,--they
are caused by that miserable little Monsieur Michel; there!"

Mary turned as white as the curtains of her bed; all her blood flowed
back to her heart.

"What do you mean, Jean?" she stammered.

"I mean to say that you have seen as well as I what is going on, and
that you don't like it any more than I do. Only, I'm a man, and I get
in a rage; you are a girl, and you cry."

Mary could not repress a sob as she felt Jean Oullier's finger in her
wound.

"It is not astonishing," continued the keeper, muttering to himself;
"_wolf_ as they call you,--those curs,--you are still a woman, and a
woman kneaded of the best flour that ever fell from the sifter of the
good God."

"Really, Jean, I don't understand you."

"Oh, yes; you do understand me very well, little Mary. Yes; you have
seen what is happening the same as I have. Who wouldn't see it?--good
God! One must be blind not to, for she takes no pains to hide it."

"But whom are you speaking of, Jean? Tell me; don't you see that you
are killing me with anxiety?"

"Whom should I be speaking of but Mademoiselle Bertha?"

"My sister?"

"Yes, your sister, who parades herself about with that greenhorn; who
means to drag him in her train to our camp; and, meantime, having tied
him to her apron-strings for fear he should get away, is exhibiting
him to everybody all round as a conquest, without considering what the
people in the house and the friends of the marquis will say,--not to
speak of that mischievous notary, who is watching it all with his
little eyes, and mending his pen already to draw the contract."

"But supposing all that is so," said Mary, whose paleness was now
succeeded by a high color, and whose heart was beating as though it
would break,--"supposing all that is so, where is the harm?"

"Harm! Do you ask where's the harm? Why, just now my blood was boiling
to see a Demoiselle de Souday-- Oh, there! there! don't let's talk of
it!"

"Yes, yes; on the contrary, I wish to talk of it," insisted Mary.
"What was Bertha doing just now, my good Jean Oullier?"

And the girl looked persuasively at the keeper.

"Well, Mademoiselle Bertha de Souday tied the white scarf to Monsieur
Michel's arm,--the colors borne by Charette on the arm of the son of
him who-- Ah! stop, stop, little Mary; you'll make me say things I
mustn't say! Little she cares--Mademoiselle Bertha--that your father
is out of temper with me to-day, all about that young fellow, too."

"My father! Have you been speaking to him--"

Mary stopped.

"Of course I have," replied Jean, taking the question in its literal
sense,--"of course I have spoken to him."

"When?"

"This morning: first, when I brought him Petit-Pierre's letter; and
then when I gave him the list of the men who are in his division, and
who will march with us. I know they are not as numerous as they should
be; but he who does what he can does what he ought. What do you think
he answered me when I asked him if that young Monsieur Michel was
really going to be one of us?"

"I don't know," said Mary.

"'God's death!' he cried; 'you recruit so badly that I am obliged to
get some one to help your work. Yes, Monsieur Michel is one of us; and
if you don't like it go and find fault with Mademoiselle Bertha.'"

"He said that to you, my poor Jean?"

"Yes; and I mean to have a talk with Mademoiselle Bertha, that I do."

"Jean, my friend, take care!"

"Take care of what?"

"Take care not to grieve her, not to make her angry. She loves him,
Jean," said Mary, in a voice that was scarcely audible.

"Ah! then you do admit she loves him?" cried Jean Oullier.

"I am forced to do so," said Mary.

"Love a little puppet that a breath can tip over!" sneered Jean
Oullier,--"she, Mademoiselle Bertha, change her name, one of the
oldest in the land, one of the names that make our glory, the
peasants' glory, as they do that of the men who bear them,--change a
name like that for the name of a coward and a traitor!"

Mary's heart was wrung in her bosom.

"Jean, my friend," she said; "you go too far, Jean. Don't say such
things, I entreat you."

"It shall not be," continued Jean Oullier, paying no heed to Mary's
interruption, and walking up and down the room; "no, it shall not be.
If all the rest are indifferent to the family honor I will watch over
it, and rather than see it tarnished I,--well, I will--"

And Jean Oullier made a threatening gesture, the meaning of which was
unmistakable.

"No, Jean; no, you would never do that," cried Mary, in a
heart-rending voice. "I implore you with clasped hands."

And she almost fell forward on her knees. The Vendéan stepped back,
horrified.

"You,--you, too, little Mary?" he cried; "you love--"

But she did not give him time to end his sentence.

"Think, Jean, only think of the grief you would cause to my dear
Bertha."

Jean Oullier was looking at her in stupefaction, only half-relieved of
the suspicion he had just conceived, when Bertha's voice was heard
ordering Michel to wait for her in the garden and on no account to go
away. Almost at the same moment she opened the door of her sister's
room.

"Well!" she exclaimed; "is this how you get ready?" Then, looking
closer at Mary and noticing the trouble in her face, she continued,
"What is the matter? You have been crying! And you, Jean Oullier,--you
look as cross as a bear. What's going on here?"

"I'll tell you what's going on, Mademoiselle Bertha," replied the
Vendéan.

"No, no!" exclaimed Mary; "I entreat you not, Jean. Hold your tongue;
oh, do be silent!"

"You scare me with such preambles," cried Bertha; "and Jean is looking
at me with an inquisitorial air as if I had committed some great
crime. Come, speak out, Jean; I am fully disposed to be kind and
indulgent on this happy day, when all my most ardent dreams are
realized, and I can share with men their noblest privilege of war!"

"Be frank, Demoiselle Bertha," said the Vendéan; "is that the true
reason why you are so joyful?"

"Ha! now I see what the matter is," said Bertha, boldly facing the
question. "Major-General Oullier wants to scold me for trenching on
his functions." Turning to her sister, she added, "I'll bet, Mary,
that it is all about my poor Michel."

"Exactly, mademoiselle," said Jean Oullier, not leaving Mary time to
answer.

"Well, what have you to say about him, Jean? My father is delighted to
get another adherent, and I can't see anything in that to make you
frown."

"Your father may like it," replied the old keeper, "but it doesn't
suit the rest of us; we have other ideas."

"May I be allowed to know them?"

"We think each side should stay in its own camp."

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"Go on; finish what you mean to say."

"I mean to say that Monsieur Michel's place is not with us."

"Why not? Monsieur Michel is royalist, isn't he? I think he has given
proof enough during the last two days of his devotion to the cause."

"That may be; but all the same, Demoiselle Bertha, we peasants have a
way of saying, 'Like father, like son,' and therefore we don't believe
in Monsieur Michel's royalism."

"He will force you to believe in it."

"Possibly; meanwhile--"

The Vendéan frowned.

"Meanwhile, what?" said Bertha.

"Well, I tell you, it will be painful to old soldiers like me to march
cheek by jowl with a man we don't respect."

"What possible blame can you put on him?" asked Bertha, beginning to
show some bitterness.

"Much."

"Much means nothing unless you specify it."

"Well, his father, his birth--"

"His father! his birth!" interrupted Bertha; "always the same
nonsense! Let me tell you, Jean Oullier," she cried, frowning darkly,
"that it is precisely on account of his father and his birth that he
interests me, that young man."

"Why so?"

"Because my heart revolts against the unjust reproaches which he is
made to endure from all our party. I am tired of hearing him blamed
for a birth he did not choose, for a father he never knew, for faults
he never committed, and which, perhaps, his father never committed.
All that makes me indignant, Jean Oullier; it disgusts me. And I think
it a noble and generous action to encourage that young man and help
him to repair the past,--if there is anything to repair,--and to show
himself so brave and so devoted that calumny will not dare to meddle
with him in future."

"I don't care," retorted Jean Oullier; "he will have a good deal to do
before I, for one, respect the name he bears."

"You must respect it, Jean Oullier," said Bertha, in a stern voice,
"when I bear it, as I hope to do."

"Oh, yes! so you say," cried Jean Oullier; "but I don't yet believe
you mean it."

"Ask Mary," said Bertha, turning to her sister, who was listening,
pale and palpitating, to the discussion, as though her life depended
on it; "ask my sister, to whom I have opened my heart, and who knows
my hopes and fears. Yes, Jean, all concealments, all constraints are
hateful to me; and I am glad, especially with you, to have thrown off
mine and to speak openly. Well, I tell you boldly, Jean Oullier,--as
boldly as I say everything,--I love him!"

"No, no; don't say that, I implore you, Demoiselle Bertha. I am but a
poor peasant, but in former days--it is true you were but a little
thing--you gave me the right to call you my child; and I have loved
you, and I do love you both as no father ever loved his own daughters:
well, the old man who watched over you in childhood, who held you on
his knee, and rocked you to sleep, night after night, that old man,
whose only happiness you are in this low world, flings himself on his
knees to say, Don't love that man, I implore you, Bertha!"

"Why not?" she said, impatiently.

"Because,--and I say this from the bottom of my heart, on my soul
and conscience,--because a marriage between you and him is an evil
thing,--a monstrous, impossible thing!"

"Your attachment to us makes you exaggerate everything, my poor Jean.
Monsieur Michel loves me, I believe; I love him, I am sure, and if he
bravely accomplishes the task of distinguishing his name, I shall be
most happy in becoming his wife."

"Then," said Jean Oullier, in a tone of deep depression, "I must look
in my old age for other masters and another home."

"Why?"

"Because Jean Oullier, poor and of no account as he may be, will never
make his home with the son of a renegade and a traitor."

"Hush! Jean Oullier, hush!" cried Bertha. "Hush, I say, or I may break
your heart."

"Jean! my good Jean!" murmured Mary.

"No, no," said the old keeper; "you ought to be told the noble actions
which have glorified the name you are so eager to take in exchange for
your own."

"Don't say another word, Jean Oullier," interrupted Bertha, in a tone
that was almost threatening. "Come, I'll tell you now, I have often
questioned my heart to know which I loved best, my father or you; but
if you say another word, if you utter another insult against my
Michel, you will be no more to me than--"

"Than a servant," interrupted Jean Oullier. "Yes; but a servant who
is honest, and who all his life has done his duty without betraying
it,--a servant who has the right to cry shame on the son of him who
sold Charette, as Judas sold Christ, for a sum of money."

"What do I care for what happened thirty-six years ago,--eighteen
years before I was born? I know the one who lives, and not the one who
is dead,--the son, not the father. I love him; do you hear me, Jean? I
love him as you yourself have taught me to love and hate. If his
father did as you say, which I will not believe, but if he did, we
will put such glory on the name of Michel--on the name of the traitor
and renegade--that every one shall bow before it; and you shall help
in doing so,--yes, you, Jean Oullier,--for I repeat, I love him, and
nothing but death can quench the spring of tenderness that flows to
him from my heart."

Mary moaned almost inaudibly; but slight as the sound was, Jean
Oullier heard it. He turned to her. Then, as if crushed by the plaint
of one and the violence of the other, he dropped on a chair and hid
his face in his hands. The old Vendéan wept, but he wished to hide his
tears. Bertha understood what was passing in that devoted heart; she
went to him and knelt beside him.

"You can measure the strength of my feelings for that young man," she
said, "by the fact that it has almost led me to forget my deep and
true affection for you."

Jean Oullier shook his head sadly.

"I comprehend your antipathies, your feelings of repugnance,"
continued Bertha, "and I was prepared for their expression; but,
patience, my old friend, patience and resignation! God alone can take
out of my heart that which he has put there; and he will not do that,
for it would kill me. Give us time to prove to you that your
prejudices are unjust, and that he whom I have chosen is indeed worthy
of me."

At this instant they heard the marquis calling for Jean Oullier in a
voice that showed some new and serious event had happened. Jean
Oullier rose and went to the door.

"Stop!" said Bertha; "are you going without answering me?"

"Monsieur le marquis calls me, mademoiselle," replied the Vendéan, in
a chilling tone.

"_Mademoiselle!_" cried Bertha; "_mademoiselle_. Ah! you will not
listen to my entreaties? Well, then, remember this: I forbid
you--mark, I forbid you--to offer any insult of any kind to Monsieur
Michel; I command that his life be sacred to you. If any evil happens
to him through you I will avenge it, not on you but on myself; and you
know, Jean Oullier, whether or not I do as I say."

Jean Oullier looked at the girl; then taking her by the arm, he
said:--

"Maybe it would be better so than to let you marry that man."

The marquis now called louder than ever, and Jean Oullier rushed from
the room, leaving Bertha bewildered by his resistance, and Mary bowed
down beneath the terror which the violence of her sister's love
inspired in her.

XLIII.

BARON MICHEL BECOMES BERTHA's AIDE-DE-CAMP.

Jean Oullier went down, as we have said, in haste; perhaps he was more
anxious to get away from the young girl than to obey the call of the
marquis. He found the latter in the courtyard, and beside him stood a
peasant, covered with mud and sweat.

The man had just brought news that Pascal Picaut's house was
surrounded by soldiers; he had seen them go in, and that was all he
knew. He had been stationed among the gorse on the road to
Sablonnière, with orders from Jean Oullier to come to the château at
once if the soldiers should go in the direction of the house where the
fugitives had taken refuge. This mission he had fulfilled to the
letter.

The marquis, to whom of course Jean Oullier had told how he left
Petit-Pierre and the Comte de Bonneville in Pascal Picaut's house, was
terribly alarmed.

"Jean Oullier! Jean Oullier!" he kept repeating, in the tone of
Augustus calling, "Varus! Varus!" "Jean Oullier, why did you trust
others instead of yourself? If any misfortune has happened my poor
house will be dishonored before it is ruined!"

Jean Oullier did not answer; he held his head down gloomily, in
silence. This silence and immovability exasperated the marquis.

"My horse! my horse, Jean Oullier!" he cried; "and if that lad, whom
yesterday, not knowing who he was, I called _my young friend_, is made
prisoner by the Blues, let us show by dying to deliver him that we
were not unworthy of his confidence."

But Jean Oullier shook his head.

"What!" exclaimed the marquis; "don't you mean to fetch my horse?"

"Jean is right," said Bertha, who had come upon the scene and had
heard her father's order and Jean Oullier's refusal; "we must not risk
anything by precipitate action." Turning to the scout, she asked, "Did
you see the soldiers leave Picaut's house with prisoners?"

"No; I saw them knock down the _gars_ Malherbe, whom Jean Oullier
stationed on the rise of the hill, and I watched them till they
entered Picaut's orchard. Then I came here at once, as Jean Oullier
ordered me to do."

"Are you sure, Jean Oullier," said Bertha, "that you can answer for
the faithfulness of the woman in whose charge you left them?"

"Yesterday," he said, giving Bertha a reproachful look, "I should have
said of Marianne Picaut that I could trust her as myself; but--"

"But?" questioned Bertha.

"But to-day," said the old man, with a sigh, "I doubt everything."

"Come, come!" cried the marquis; "all this is time lost. My horse!
bring my horse! and in ten minutes I shall know the truth."

But Bertha stopped him.

"Ha!" he exclaimed; "is this the way I am obeyed in this house? What
can I expect from others if in my own family no one obeys my orders?"

"Your orders are sacred, father," said Bertha,--"to your daughters,
above all; but your ardor is carrying you away. Do not forget that
those for whose safety we are so anxious are merely peasants in the
eyes of others. If the Marquis de Souday goes himself in search of two
missing peasants their importance will be known directly, and the news
will reach our enemies."

"Mademoiselle Bertha is right," said Jean Oullier; "it is better for
me to go."

"Not you, any more than my father," said Bertha.

"Why not?"

"Because you run too great a risk in going over there."

"I went there this morning; and if I ran that risk to find out whose
ball killed my poor Pataud, I can certainly do the same to learn news
of M. de Bonneville and Petit-Pierre."

"I tell you, Jean," persisted Bertha, "that after all that happened
yesterday you must not show yourself where the soldiers are. We must
find some one who is not compromised, and who can get to the heart of
the matter without exciting suspicion."

"How unlucky that that animal of a Loriot would go back to Machecoul!"
said the marquis. "I begged him to stay; I had a presentiment that I
should want him."

"Well, haven't you Monsieur Michel?" said Jean Oullier, in a sarcastic
tone; "you can send him to the Picaut's house, or anywhere else,
without suspicion. If there were ten thousand men guarding it they'd
let him in; and no one, I am sure, would imagine he came on any
business of yours."

"Yes; he is just the person we want," said Bertha, accepting the
support thus given to her secret purpose, and ignoring Jean Oullier's
malicious intention in making it. "Isn't he, father?"

"On my soul, I think so!" cried the marquis. "Though he is rather
effeminate in appearance, the young man may turn out very useful."

At the first rumor of alarm Michel had approached the marquis, as if
awaiting orders. When he heard Bertha's proposition, and saw it
accepted by her father, his face became radiant. Bertha herself was
beaming.

"Are you ready to do all that is necessary for the safety of
Petit-Pierre, Monsieur Michel?" she said.

"I am ready to do anything you wish, mademoiselle, in order to prove
my gratitude to Monsieur le marquis for the friendly welcome I have
received from him."

"Very good. Then take a horse--not mine; it would be recognized--and
gallop over there. Go into the house unarmed, as though curiosity
alone brought you, and if our friends are in danger light a fire of
brush on the heath. During that time Jean Oullier will assemble his
men; and then, in a body and well-armed, we can fly to the support of
those so dear to us."

"Bravo!" cried the Marquis de Souday; "I have always said that Bertha
was the strong-minded one of the family."

Bertha smiled with pride and looked at Michel.

"And you," she said to her sister, who had now come down and joined
them quietly, just as Michel departed to get his horse,--"and you,
don't you mean to dress and go with us?"

"No," replied Mary.

"Why not?"

"I mean to stay as I am."

"Oh! you can't mean it!"

"Yes, I do," said Mary, with a sad smile. "In an army there are always
sisters of mercy to care for the fighting men and comfort them; I
shall be the sister of mercy."

Bertha looked at Mary with amazement. She may have been about to
question her as to this sudden change of mind; but at that instant
Michel, already mounted on the horse provided for him, reappeared,
and approaching Bertha stopped the words upon her lips. Addressing her
as the one to whom he looked for orders, he said:--

"You told me what I was to do in case some misfortune has happened at
the Picaut house, mademoiselle; but you have not told me what to do in
case I find Petit-Pierre safe and well."

"In that case," said the marquis, "come back here, and set our minds
at ease."

"No, no," said Bertha, who was determined to give the man she loved
some important part to play; "such goings to and fro would excite
suspicion in the various troops now stationed about the forest. You
had better stay at the Picauts' or in the neighborhood till nightfall,
and then go and wait for us at the July oak. You know where that is,
don't you?"

"I should think so!" said Michel; "it is on the road to Souday."

Michel knew every oak and every tree on that road.

"Very good!" said Bertha; "we will be in the woods near by. Make the
signal,--three cries of the screech-owl and one hoot,--and we will
join you. Go on, dear Monsieur Michel."

Michel bowed to the marquis and to the two young ladies. Then, bending
forward over the neck of his horse, he started at a gallop. He was, in
truth, an excellent rider, and Bertha called attention to the fact
that in turning short out of the _porte cochère_, he had very cleverly
made his horse change step.

"It is amazing how easy it is to make a well-bred gentleman out of a
rustic like that," said the marquis, re-entering the château. "It is
true that women must have a finger in it. That young man is really
passable."

"Oh, yes; well-bred gentlemen, indeed! They are easy enough to make;
but men of heart and soul are another thing," muttered Jean Oullier.

"Jean Oullier," said Bertha, "you are forgetting my advice. Take
care."

"You are mistaken, mademoiselle," replied Jean Oullier. "It is, on the
contrary, because I have forgotten nothing that you see me so
troubled. I thought my aversion to that young man might be remorse,"
he muttered; "but I begin to fear it is presentiment."

"Remorse!--you, Jean Oullier?"

"Ah! did you hear what I said?"

"Yes."

"Well, I don't unsay it."

"What remorse have you about him?"

"None about him," said Jean Oullier, in a gloomy voice; "I meant his
father."

"His father?" said Bertha, shivering in spite of herself.

"Yes," said Jean Oullier. "My name was changed in a day because of
him; I was no longer Jean Oullier."

"What were you then?"

"Chastisement."

"On his father?"

Then, remembering all that was told in the region, of the death of
Baron Michel the older, she exclaimed:--

"His father! found dead at a hunt! Ah, miserable man! what do you
mean?"

"That the son may avenge his father by bringing mourning for mourning
upon us."

"In what way?"

"Through you, and because you love him madly."

"What of that?"

"I can myself assure you of one thing."

"And that is?"

"That he does not love you."

Bertha shrugged her shoulders disdainfully; but the blow nevertheless
reached her heart. A feeling that was almost hatred to the old Vendéan
came over her.

"Employ yourself in collecting your men, Jean Oullier," she said.

"I obey you, mademoiselle," replied the Chouan.

He went toward the gate. Bertha returned to the house, without giving
him another look. But before leaving the château, Jean Oullier called
up the peasant who had brought the news.

"Before the soldiers got to Picaut's house did you see any one else go
in there?"

"To Joseph's place, or Pascal's?"

"Pascal's."

"Yes, I saw one man go in."

"Who was he?"

"The mayor of La Logerie."

"You say he went into Pascal's part of the house?"

"I am sure of it."

"You saw him?"

"As plain as I see you."

"Which way did he go when he left it?"

"Toward Machecoul."

"The same way by which the soldiers came soon after, wasn't it?"

"Exactly; it wasn't half an hour after he left before they came."

"Good!" ejaculated Jean Oullier. Shaking his clenched fist in the
direction of La Logerie, he muttered to himself, "Ah, Courtin!
Courtin! you are tempting God. My dog killed yesterday, this treachery
to-day,--you try my patience too far!"

XLIV.

MAÎTRE JACQUES AND HIS RABBITS.

To the south, of Machecoul, forming a triangle round the village of
Légé, stretch three forests. They are called respectively the forests
of Touvois, Grandes-Landes, and La Roche-Servière.

The territorial importance of these forests is not great if considered
separately; but standing each within three kilometres of the others,
and connected by hedges and fields full of gorse and brambles, even
more numerous there than elsewhere in La Vendée, they form a very
considerable agglomeration of woodland. The result has been that in
times of civil war they became a very hot-bed of revolt, where
insurrection was fostered and concentrated before it spread through
the adjacent regions.

The village of Légé, besides being the native place of the famous
physician Jolly, was, almost continuously, Charette's headquarters
during the great war. It was there, in the thick belt of woodland
surrounding the village that he took refuge if defeated, reformed his
decimated battalions, and prepared for other fights.

In 1832, although a new road from Nantes to the Sables-d'Olonne, which
runs through Légé, had modified in a measure its strategic strength,
the wooded neighborhood was still the most formidable centre of the
insurrectionary movement then organized. The three forests hid, in
their impenetrable undergrowth of holly and ferns which grew under the
shadow of the great thickets, those bands of refractories (conscripts
escaping service) whose ranks were daily increasing and forming the
kernel of the insurrectionary divisions in the Retz region and on the
plains.

The clearings made by government, even the felling of a considerable
portion of the wood, had no perceptible result. It was rumored that
the deserters had excavated underground dwellings, like those the
first Chouans burrowed in the forests of Gralla, in the depths of
which they had so often defied the closest search. In this particular
case rumor was not mistaken.

Toward the close of the day when, as we have seen, Michel started on
horseback from the château de Souday toward the Picaut cottage, any
one who had stood concealed behind one of the huge centennial beeches
that surround the glade of Folleron in the forest of Touvois, would
have seen a curious sight.

At the hour when the sun, sinking toward the horizon, left a sort of
twilight behind it,--an hour when the wood-paths were already in a
shadow that seemed to rise from the earth, while the tree-tops were
still burnished with the last rays of the dying sunlight,--this
concealed spectator would have seen in the distance, and coming toward
him, a personage whom, with a very slight stretch of fancy, he might
have taken for some uncanny or impish being. This personage advanced
slowly, looking cautiously about him,--a matter which seemed to be the
more easy because, at first sight, he appeared to have two heads, with
which to keep a double watch over his safety.

He was clothed in the sordid rags of an old jacket and the semblance
of a pair of breeches, the original cloth of which had completely
disappeared beneath the multifarious patches of many colors with which
its decay had been remedied; and he appeared, as we have said, to
belong to the class of bicephalous monsters who occupy a distinguished
place among the choice exceptions which Nature delights to create in
her fantastic moments.

The two heads were entirely distinct the one from the other, and
though they apparently came from the same trunk there was no family
resemblance between them. Beside a broad and brick-dust colored face,
seamed with small-pox and covered with unkempt beard, appeared a
second face, less repulsive, very astute, and rather malign in its
ugliness, whereas the other countenance expressed only a sort of
idiocy which might at times amount to ferocity.

These two distinct countenances did, in truth, belong to two men,
whose acquaintance we have already made at Montaigu on the day of the
fair; namely, to Aubin Courte-Joie, the tavern keeper, and--if the
reader will pardon an almost too expressive name, but one we think we
have no right to change--to Trigaud the Vermin, the beggar, whose
herculean strength, it will be remembered, played a noted part in the
riot at Montaigu by lifting the general's leg from the stirrup and
throwing him out of his saddle.

By a judicious arrangement, which we have already mentioned, Aubin
Courte-Joie had supplemented, or re-completed, his own personality by
the help of this species of beast of burden whom he had, by good luck,
encountered on his path through life. In exchange for the two legs he
had left on the road to Ancenis, the truncated cripple had obtained a
pair of steel limbs, which resisted all fatigue, feared no task, and
served him as his own original legs never did and never could have
done,--legs, in short, which did his will with passive obedience,
and had reached, after a certain period of association, such
adaptability that they instinctively guessed the very thoughts of
Aubin Courte-Joie, if conveyed by a mere word, a single sign, or even
a slight touch of a hand on the shoulder or a knee on the flank.

The strangest part of this affair was that the least satisfied partner
in the firm was not Trigaud-Vermin; quite the contrary. His thick
brain knew that Aubin Courte-Joie was directing his physical strength
in the direction of his sympathies. The words "White" and "Blue,"
which dropped into his large ears, always pricked up and listening,
proved to him that he supported, in his quality of locomotive to the
tavern-keeper, a cause whose worship was the one glimmer of light
which had survived the collapse of his brain. He made it his glory.
His confidence in Aubin Courte-Joie was boundless; he was proud of
being linked body and soul to a mind whose superiority he recognized,
and he was now attached to the man who might indeed be called his
master, with the self-abnegation that characterizes all attachments
which instinct governs.

Trigaud carried Aubin sometimes on his back, sometimes on his
shoulders, but always as affectionately as a mother carries her child.
He took the utmost care of him; he showed him little attentions which
seemed to disprove the poor devil's actual idiocy. He never thought of
watching his own feet or guarding them from the cutting and wounding
of stones and briers; but he carefully held aside, as he walked along,
the bushes or branches which he thought might rub the body or scratch
the face of his rider.

When they had advanced about a third of the way into the open, Aubin
Courte-Joie touched Trigaud on the shoulder, and the giant stopped
short. Then, without needing to speak, the inn-keeper pointed with his
finger to a large stone lying at the foot of an enormous beech-tree,
in the right-hand corner of the clearing.

The giant advanced to the beech, picked up the stone, and awaited
orders.

"Now," said Aubin Courte-Joie, "strike three blows."

Trigaud did as he was told, timing the blows so that the second
followed the first rapidly, and the third did not sound until after a
certain interval.

At this signal, which was made on the trunk of the tree, a little
square of turf and moss rose from the ground, and a head beneath it.

"Ho! it's you, is it, Maître Jacques? What's the watch-dog doing at
the mouth of the burrow?" asked Aubin, visibly pleased at meeting with
an intimate acquaintance.

"Hey! my _gars_ Courte-Joie, this is the hour for business, don't you
see; and I never like to let my rabbits out till I make sure myself
the hunters are not about."

"And you are right, Maître Jacques; you are right," replied
Courte-Joie; "to-day, especially, for there are lots of guns on the
plain."

"Hey, how's that, tell me?"

"That's what I want to do."

"But first, won't you come in?"

"Oh, no; no, Jacques. It is hot enough where we are,--isn't it
Trigaud?"

The giant uttered a grunt which might, at a pinch, pass for an
affirmation.

"Goodness! why, he's speaking!" remarked Maître Jacques. "They used to
say he was dumb. You are in luck's way, _gars_ Trigaud, to be taken
into Aubin's good graces; do you know that? Why, you are almost a man,
not to speak of having your board and lodging sure; and that's more
than all dogs can say,--even those at the castle of Souday."

The beggar opened his large mouth and began a chuckle of laughter,
which he did not end, for a motion of Aubin's hand stopped in the
cavities of his larynx that impulse to hilarity which his powerful
lungs rendered dangerous.

"Hush! lower! lower, Trigaud!" he said, roughly. Then turning to
Maître Jacques, "He thinks he is in the market-place of Montaigu, poor
innocent!"

"Well, as you won't come in, I'll call out the _gars_. You're right,
my Courte-Joie; it is devilish hot inside. Some of 'em say they are
roasted; but you know how such fellows grumble."

"That's not like Trigaud," replied Aubin, pounding with his fist, by
way of a caress, on the head of the elephant who served him as steed;
"he never complains,--not he!"

Trigaud gave a nod of gratitude for the signs of friendship with which
Courte-Joie honored him.

Maître Jacques, whom we have just presented to our readers, but with
whom it remains for us to make them fully acquainted, was a man of
fifty to fifty-five years of age, who had all the external appearance
of a worthy farmer of the Retz region. Though his hair was long and
floated on his shoulders, his beard, on the contrary, was cut close
and shaved with the utmost care. He wore a perfectly clean jacket of
gray cloth, cut in a shape that was almost modern compared with those
that were still in use in La Vendée, and a waistcoat, also of cloth,
in broad stripes, alternately white and fawn-colored. Breeches of
coarse brown cloth and gaiters of blue twilled cotton were the only
part of his costume which resembled that of his compatriots.

A pair of pistols, with shining handles, stuck into his jacket, were
the only military signs he bore at this moment. But in spite of his
placid, good-humored face, Maître Jacques was really the leader of the
boldest band in the whole region, and the most determined Chouan to be
found in a circuit of fifty miles, throughout which he enjoyed a very
formidable reputation.

Maître Jacques had never seriously laid down his arms during the
whole fifteen years that Napoleon's power lasted. With two or three
men--oftener alone and isolated--he had managed to make head against
whole brigades detailed to capture him. His courage and his luck were
something supernatural, and gave rise to an idea among the
superstitious population of the Bocage that his life was invulnerable,
and that the balls of the Blues were harmless against him. When,
therefore, after the revolution of July, in fact, during the very
first days of August, 1830, Maître Jacques announced that he should
take the field, all the refractories of the neighborhood flocked to
his standard, and it was not long before he had under his orders a
considerable body of men, with whom he had already begun the second
series of his guerilla exploits.

After asking Aubin Courte-Joie to excuse him for a few moments, Maître
Jacques, who, for the purposes of conversation had put first his head
and then his bust above the trapdoor, now stooped down into the
opening, and gave a curiously modulated whistle. At this signal a hum
arose from the bowels of the earth, much like that of a hive of bees.
Then, close by, between two bushes, a wide sort of lid or skylight,
covered only with turf and moss and dried leaves, exactly like the
ground beside it, rose vertically, supported on four stakes at the
four corners. As it rose it revealed the opening to a sort of
grain-pit, very broad and very deep; and from this pit about twenty
men now issued, one after another, in succession.

The dress of these men had nothing of the elegant picturesqueness
which characterizes brigands as we see them issue from pasteboard
caverns at the Opéra-Comique,--far, very far from that. Some wore
uniforms which closely resembled the rags on Trigaud-Vermin's person;
others--and these were the most elegant--wore cloth jackets. But the
jackets of the greater number were of cotton.

The same diversity existed in their weapons. Two or three regulation
muskets, half a dozen sporting guns, and as many pistols formed the
entire equipment of firearms. The display of side-arms was far from
being as respectable; it consisted solely of Maître Jacques's sabre,
two pikes dating back to the old war, and eight or ten scythes,
carefully sharpened by their owners.

When all the braves had issued from the pit into the clearing. Maître
Jacques walked up to the trunk of a felled tree, on which he sat down.
Trigaud placed Aubin Courte-Joie beside him, after which the giant
retired a few steps, though still within reach of his partner's
signals.

"Yes, my Courte-Joie," said Maître Jacques, "the wolves are after us;
but it gives me pleasure to have you take the trouble to come and warn
me." Then, suddenly, "Ah, _ça!_" he cried; "how happens it that you
can come? I thought you were caught when they took Jean Oullier? Jean
Oullier got away, I know, as they crossed the ford,--there's nothing
surprising in his escape; but you, my poor footless one,--how, in
Heaven's name, did you get off?"

"You forget Trigaud's feet," replied Aubin Courte-Joie, laughing. "I
pricked the gendarme who held me, and it seems it hurt him, for he let
go of me, and my friend Trigaud did the rest. But who told you that,
Maître Jacques?"

"Maître Jacques shrugged his shoulders with an indifferent air. Then,
without replying to the question, which he may have thought an idle
one,--

"Ah, _ça!_" he said; "I hope you haven't come to tell me that the day
is changed?"

"No; it is still for the 24th."

"That's good," replied Maître Jacques; "for the fact is I've lost all
patience with their delays and their shufflings. Good Lord! where's
the need of such a fuss to pick up one's gun, say good-bye to one's
wife, and be off?"

"Patience! patience! you won't have long to wait now, Maître Jacques."

"Four days!" said the other, in a tone of disgust.

"That's not long."

"I think it is too long by three. I didn't have Jean Oullier's chance
to do for some of them at the springs of Baugé."

"Yes; the _gars_ told me about that."

"Unhappily," continued Maître Jacques, "they have taken a cruel
revenge for it."

"How so?"

"Haven't you heard?"

"No; I have just come straight from Montaigu."

"Ah, true; then you can't know."

"What happened?"

"They caught and killed in Pascal Picaut's house a fine young man I
respected,--I, who don't think any too much of his class usually."

"What was his name?"

"Comte de Bonneville."

"Did they really? When was it?"

"Why this very day, damn it! about two in the afternoon."

"How, in the devil's name, did you hear that, down in your pit, Maître
Jacques?"

"Don't I hear everything that is of use to me?"

"Then I don't know that there's any use in my telling you what brings
me here."

"Why not?"

"Because you probably know it."

"That may be."

"I should like to be sure whether you do or not."

"Pooh!"

"Faith! yes, I should. It would spare me a disagreeable errand, which
I only accepted against my will."

"Ah! then you have come from _those gentlemen?_"

Maître Jacques pronounced the words we have underscored in a tone that
varied from contempt to menace.

"Yes, I do, in the first instance," replied Aubin Courte-Joie; "but I
met Jean Oullier on my way, and he, too, gave me a message for you."

"Jean Oullier! Ah! anything that comes from him is welcome. He is a
_gars_ I love,--Jean Oullier! He has done a thing in his life which
made me his friend forever."

"What was that?"

"That's his secret, not mine. But come; tell me, in the first place,
what those lordly gentlemen want of me?"

"It is your division leader who has sent me."

"The Marquis de Souday?"

"Yes."

"Well, what does he want?"

"He complains that you attract, by your constant sorties, the
attention of the government soldiers, and that you irritate the
population of the towns by your exactions, and also that you paralyze
the general movement by making it more difficult."

"Pooh! why haven't they made their movement sooner? We have waited long
enough, God knows! For my part, I've been waiting since July 30."

"And then--"

"What! is there any more of it?"

"Yes; he orders you--"

"Orders me!"

"Wait a moment; you can obey or not obey, but he orders you--"

"Listen to me, Courte-Joie; whatever he orders I here make a vow to
disobey it. Now, go on; I'm listening."

"Well, he orders you to stay quietly in your quarters till the 24th,
and, above all, to stop no diligence nor any traveller on the
high-road, as you have been doing lately."

"Well, I swear, for my part," replied Maître Jacques, "to capture the
first person that goes to-night from Légé to Saint-Étienne or from
Saint-Étienne to Légé. As for you, stay here, _gars_ Courte-Joie, and
then you can tell him what you have seen."

"Oh, no! no!" exclaimed Aubin.

"Why not?"

"Don't do that, Maître Jacques."

"Yes, by God! I will, though."

"Jacques! Jacques!" insisted the tavern-keeper; "can't you see it will
compromise our sacred cause?"

"Possibly; but it will prove to him--that old fox I never chose for my
superior--that I and my men are outside his division, and that here,
at least, his orders shall never be obeyed. So much for the _orders_
of the Marquis de Souday; now go on to Jean Oullier's message."

"I met him as I reached the heights near the bridge at Servières. He
asked where I was going, and when I told him, '_Parbleu!_' said he;
'that's the very thing! Ask Maître Jacques if he can move out and let
us have his earth-hole for some one we want to hide there.'"

"Ah, ha! Did he say who the person was, my Courte-Joie?"

"No."

"Never mind! Whoever it is, if he comes in the name of Jean Oullier,
he'll be welcome; for I know Jean Oullier wouldn't turn me out if it
were not for some good reason. He is not one of the crowd of lazy
lords who make all the noise and leave us to do the work."

"Some are good, and some are bad," said Aubin, philosophically.

"When is the person he wants to hide coming?" asked Maître Jacques.

"To-night."

"How shall I know him?"

"Jean Oullier will bring him."

"Good. Is that all he wants?"

"No; he wishes you to capture all doubtful persons in the forest
to-night, and have the whole neighborhood watched, more especially the
path toward Grand-Lieu."

"There now! just see that! The division commander _orders_ me to
arrest no one, and Jean Oullier wants me to clear the forest of curs
and red-breeches,--reason the more why I should keep the oath I made
just now. How will Jean Oullier know that I shall be expecting him?"

"If he can come--that is, if there are no troops in the way at
Touvois--I am to let him know."

"Yes; but how?"

"By a branch of holly with fifteen leaves upon it in the middle of the
road half-way along to Machecoul, at the crossways of Benaste, the tip
end turned toward Touvois."

"Did he give you the password? Jean Oullier would surely not forget
that."

"Yes; 'Vanquished' and 'Vendée.'"

"Very good," said Maître Jacques, rising and going to the middle of
the open. There he called four of his men, gave them some directions
in a low voice, and all four, without replying, went off in four
different directions. At the end of about four minutes, during which
time Maître Jacques had ordered up a jug of what seemed to be brandy,
and had offered some to his companion, four individuals appeared from
the four directions in which the other men had been sent. These were
the sentinels just relieved by their comrades.

"Any news?" asked Maître Jacques.

"No," replied three of the men.

"Good. You,--what do you say?" he inquired of the fourth. "You had the
best post."

"The diligence to Nantes was escorted by four gendarmes."

"Ah, ha! your nose is good; you smell specie. Bless me! and when I
think there are those who _order_ us not to get it! However, friends,
patience! we are not to be put down."

"Well, what do you think?" interrupted Courte-Joie.

"I think there's not a pair of red breeches anywhere about. Tell Jean
Oullier he can bring his people."

"Good!" said Courte-Joie, who during this examination of the sentries
was preparing a branch of holly in the manner agreed upon with Jean
Oullier. "Very good; I'll send Trigaud." Turning toward the giant,
"Here, Vermin!" he said.

Maître Jacques stopped him.

"Ah, _ça!_" he exclaimed; "are you crazy, to part with your legs in
that way? Suppose you should need him? Nonsense! there are forty men
here who would like no better than to stretch their legs. Wait, you
shall see--Hi! Joseph Picaut!"

At the call, our old acquaintance, who was sleeping on the grass in a
sleep he seemed much to need, sat up and listened.

"Joseph Picaut!" repeated Maître Jacques, impatiently.

That decided the man. He rose, grumbling, and went up to Maître
Jacques.

"Here is a branch of holly," said the leader of the belligerents;
"don't pluck off a single leaf. Carry it immediately to the crossway
of La Benaste on the road to Machecoul, and lay it down in front of
the crucifix, with its tip-end pointing toward Touvois."

Maître Jacques crossed himself as he said the word "crucifix."

"But--" began Picaut, objecting.

"But?--what do you mean?"

"I mean that, after four hours of such a run as I have just made, my
legs are breaking under me."

"Joseph Picaut," replied Maître Jacques, whose voice grew strident and
metallic, like the blare of a trumpet, "you left your parish and
enrolled yourself in my band. You came here; I did not ask you. Now,
recollect one thing: at the first objection I strike; at the second I
kill."

As he spoke Maître Jacques pulled a pistol from his jacket, grasped it
by the barrel, and struck a vigorous blow with the butt-end on
Picaut's head. The shock was so violent that the peasant, quite
bewildered, came down on one knee. Probably, without the protection of
his hat, which was made of thick felt, his skull would have been
fractured.

"And now, go!" said Maître Jacques, calmly looking to see if the blow
had shaken the powder from the pan.

Without a word Joseph Picaut picked himself up, shook his head, and
went off. Courte-Joie watched him till he was out of sight; then he
looked at Maître Jacques.

"Do you allow such fellows as that in your band?" he said.

"Yes; don't speak of it!"

"Have you had him long?"

"No, only a few hours."

"Bad recruit for you."

"I don't say that exactly. He is a brave _gars_, like his father, whom
I knew well; only, he has to be taught to obey like my fellows, and to
get used to the ways of the burrow. He'll improve; he'll improve."

"Oh, I don't doubt it! You have a wonderful way of educating them."

"God bless me! I've been at it a good while! But," continued Maître
Jacques, "it is time for my round of inspection, and I shall have to
leave you, my poor Courte-Joie. It is understood, isn't it, that Jean
Oullier's friends are welcome to the burrow. As for the division
commander, he shall have his answer to-night. You are sure that is all
_gars_ Oullier told you to say?"

"Yes."

"Rummage your memory."

"I am sure that is all."

"Very well. If the burrow suits him, he shall have it,--he and his
friends. I don't bother myself about my _gars_; those scamps, they are
like mice,--they have more than one hole. Good-bye for the present,
_gars_ Aubin; and while you are waiting, take a bite. I see them
making ready for a stew down there."

Maître Jacques descended into what he called his burrow. Then he came
out a moment later, armed with a carbine, the priming of which he
examined with the utmost care; after which he disappeared among the
trees.

The open was now very animated, and presented a most picturesque
effect. A large fire had been lighted in the burrow, and the glare
coming through the trap illumined the trees and bushes with fantastic
gleams. The supper of the men, who were scattered about the open, was
cooking at it, while the men waited. Some, on their knees, were
telling their beads; others, sitting down, sang in low tones those
national songs whose plaintive, long-drawn melodies were so in keeping
with the character of the landscape. Two Bretons, lying on their
stomachs at the mouth of the burrow, were betting, by means of two
bones of different shades of color, for the possession of sundry
copper coins, while another _gars_ (who, from his pallid face and
shrivelled skin,--shrivelled with fever,--was obviously a dweller
among the marshes) employed himself, without much success, in cleaning
a thick coat of rust from the barrel and match-lock of an old carbine.

Aubin Courte-Joie, accustomed to such scenes, paid no attention to the
one before him. Trigaud had made him a sort of couch with leaves, and
he was now seated on this improvised mattress, smoking his pipe as
tranquilly as if in his tavern at Montaigu.

Suddenly he fancied he heard in the far distance the well-known
cry of alarm,--the cry of the screech-owl,--but modulated in a certain
long-drawn-out way which indicated danger. Courte-Joie whistled softly
to warn the men about him to keep silence and listen; but almost at
the same instant a shot echoed from a place about a thousand steps
distant.

In the twinkling of an eye the water-pails, standing ready for this
very use, had put out the fire; the roof was lowered, the trap closed,
and Maître Jacques's belligerents, among them Courte-Joie, whom his
physical partner remounted on his shoulders, were scattering in every
direction among the trees, where they awaited the next signal from
their leader.

XLV.

THE DANGER OF MEETING BAD COMPANY IN THE WOODS.

It was nearly seven o'clock in the evening when Petit-Pierre,
accompanied by Baron Michel, now her guide in place of poor
Bonneville, left the cottage where she had escaped such dangers.

It was not, as we can readily believe, without a deep and painful
emotion that Petit-Pierre crossed that threshold and left the cold,
inanimate body of the chivalrous young man, whom she had known for a
few days only, but already loved as an old and trusted friend. That
valiant heart of hers had a momentary sense of weakness at the thought
of meeting alone the perils that for four or five days poor Bonneville
had shared with her. The royal cause had only lost one soldier, yet
Petit-Pierre felt as though an army was gone.

It was the first grain of the bloody seed about to be sown once more
in the soil of La Vendée; and Petit-Pierre asked herself in anguish
if, indeed, nothing would come of it but regret and mourning.

Petit-Pierre did not insult Marianne Picaut by charging her to take
good care of the body of poor Bonneville. Strange as the ideas of that
woman may have seemed to her, she understood the nobility of her
feelings, and recognized all that was truly good and profoundly
religious beneath her rough exterior. When Michel brought his horse to
the door and reminded Petit-Pierre that every moment was precious, the
latter turned to the widow of Pascal Picaut, and holding out her hand,
said:

"How can I thank you for all you have done for me?"

"I have done nothing for you," replied Marianne; "I have paid a
debt,--fulfilled an oath, that is all."

"Then," said Petit-Pierre, with tears in her eyes, "you will not even
accept my gratitude?"

"If you are determined to owe me something," said the widow, "do this:
when you pray for those who are dead add to your prayers a few words
for those who have died because of you."

"Then you think I have some credit with God?" said Petit-Pierre,
unable to keep from smiling through her tears.

"Yes; because I know that you are destined to suffer."

"At least, you will accept this," said Petit-Pierre, unfastening from
her throat a little medal hanging to a slender black silk cord. "It is
only silver, but the Holy Father blessed it in my presence, and said
when he gave it to me that God would grant the prayers uttered over
it, if they were just and pious."

Marianne took the medal. Then she said:--

"Thank you. On this medal I will pray to God that our land be saved
from civil war, and that He will ever preserve its grandeur and its
liberty."

"Right!" said Petit-Pierre; "the last half of your prayer will be
echoed in mine."

Aided by Michel, she mounted the horse which the young man led by the
bridle, and with a last signal of farewell to the widow, they both
disappeared behind the hedge.

For some minutes Petit-Pierre, whose head was bowed on her breast,
swayed to the motions of the horse and seemed to be buried in deep and
painful reflections. At last, however, she made an effort over
herself, and shaking off the grief that overcame her, she turned to
Michel, who was walking beside her.

"Monsieur," she said, "I already know two things which entitle you to
my confidence: first, that we owed the warning that troops were
surrounding the château de Souday to you; second, that you have come
to me to-day in the name of the marquis and his charming daughters.
But there is still a third thing, about which I should like to know,
and that is, who you are. My friends are rare under present
circumstances, and I like to know their names that I may promise not
to forget them."

"I am called Baron Michel de la Logerie," replied the young man.

"De la Logerie! Surely this is not the first time I have heard that
name?"

"Very likely not, Madame," said the young man; "for our poor
Bonneville told me he was taking your Highness to my mother--"

"Stop, stop! what are you saying? _Your Highness!_ There is no
highness here; I see only a poor little peasant-lad named
Petit-Pierre."

"Ah, true; but Madame will excuse--"

"What! again?"

"Pardon me. Our poor Bonneville was taking you to my mother when I had
the honor of meeting and conducting you to Souday."

"So that I am under a triple obligation to you. That does not disquiet
me; for, great as your services have been, I hope the time will come
when I can discharge my debt."

Michel stammered a few words, which did not reach the ears of his
companion. But the latter's words seemed to have made an impression on
him; for from that moment, while obeying the injunction to refrain
from a certain deference, he redoubled his care and attention to the
personage he was guiding.

"But it seems to me," said Petit-Pierre, after a moment's thought,
"from what Monsieur de Bonneville told me, that royalist opinions are
not altogether those of your family."

"No, they are not, Ma--mon--"

"Call me Petit-Pierre, or do not call me anything; that is the only
way to avoid embarrassment. So it is to a conversion that I owe the
honor of having you for my knight?"

"An easy conversion! At my age opinions are not convictions; they are
only sentiments."

"You are indeed very young," said Petit-Pierre, looking at her guide.

"I am nearly twenty-one."

Petit-Pierre gave a sigh.

"That is the fine age," she said, "for love or war."

The young man heaved a deep sigh, and Petit-Pierre, who heard it,
smiled imperceptibly.

"Ah!" she said; "there's a sigh which tells me many things about the
conversion we were speaking of just now. I will wager that a pretty
pair of eyes knows something about it, and that if the soldiers of
Louis-Philippe were to search you at this moment they would find a
scarf that is dearer to you for the hands that embroidered it than for
the principles of which its color is the emblem."

"I assure you, Madame," stammered Michel, "that is not the cause of my
determination."

"Come, come, don't defend yourself; all that is true chivalry,
Monsieur Michel. We must never forget, whether we descend from them or
whether we seek to emulate them, that the knights of old placed women
next to God and on the level of kings, combining all three in one
device. Do not be ashamed of loving! Why, that is your greatest claim
to my sympathy! _Ventre-saint-gris!_ as Henri IV. would have said;
with an army of twenty thousand lovers I could conquer not only all
France, but the world! Come, tell me the name of your lady, Monsieur
le Baron de la Logerie."

"Oh!" exclaimed Michel, deeply shocked.

"Ah! I see you are discreet, young man. I congratulate you; it is a
quality all the more precious because in these days it is so rare. But
never mind; to a travelling-companion we tell all, charging him to
keep our secret inviolably. Come, shall I help you? I will wager that
we are now going toward the lady of our thoughts."

"You are right there."

"And I will further wager that she is neither more nor less than one
of those charming amazons at Souday."

"Good heavens! who could have told you?"

"Well, I congratulate you again, my young friend. Wolves as I am told
some persons call them, I know they have brave and noble hearts,
capable of bestowing happiness on the husbands they select. Are you
rich, Monsieur de la Logerie?"

"Alas, yes!" replied Michel.

"So much the better, and not alas at all! You can enrich your wife,
and that seems to me a great happiness. In all cases, in all loves,
there are certain little difficulties to overcome, and if Petit-Pierre
can help you at any time you have only to call upon him; he will be
most happy to recognize in that way the services you have been good
enough to render him. But, if I'm not mistaken, here comes some one
toward us. Listen; don't you hear a tread?"

The steps of a man now became distinctly audible. They were still at
some distance, but were coming nearer.

"I think the man is alone," said Petit-Pierre.

"Yes; but we must not be the less on our guard," replied the baron. "I
shall ask your permission to mount that horse in front of you."

"Willingly; but are you already tired?"

"No, not at all. Only, I am well known in the neighborhood, and if I
were seen on foot leading a horse on which a peasant was riding, as
Haman led Mordecai, it might give rise to a good deal of speculation."

"Bravo! what you say is very true. I begin to think we shall make
something of you in the end."

Petit-Pierre jumped to the ground. Michel mounted; and Petit-Pierre
placed herself humbly behind him. They were hardly settled in their
seats before they came within thirty yards of an individual who was
walking in their direction, and whose steps now ceased abruptly.

"Oh! oh!" said Petit-Pierre; "it seems that if we are afraid of him,
he is afraid of us."

"Who's there?" called Michel, making his voice gruff.

"Ah! is it you, Monsieur le baron?" replied the man, advancing. "The
devil take me if I expected to meet you here at this hour!"

"You told the truth when you said that you were well known," whispered
Petit-Pierre, laughing.

"Yes, unfortunately," said Michel, in a tone which warned Petit-Pierre
they were in presence of a real danger.

"Who is this man?" asked Petit-Pierre.

"Courtin, my farmer,--the one we suspect of denouncing your presence
at Marianne Picaut's." Then he added, in a vehement and imperative
tone, which made his companion aware of the urgency of the situation,
"Hide behind me as much as possible."

Petit-Pierre immediately obeyed.

"Oh! it is you Courtin, is it?" said Michel.

"Yes, it is I," replied the farmer.

"Where do you come from?" asked Michel.

"From Machecoul; I went there to buy an ox."

"Where is your ox? I don't see it."

"No, I couldn't make a trade. These damned politics hinder business,
and there's nothing now in the market," said Courtin, who was
carefully examining, as well as he could in the darkness, the horse on
which the young baron was mounted.

Then, as Michel dropped the conversation, he continued:--

"But how is it you are turning your back to La Logerie at this time of
night?"

"That's not surprising; I am going to Souday."

"Might I observe that you are not altogether on the road to Souday?"

"I know that; but I was afraid the road was guarded, so I have made a
circuit."

"In that case,--I mean if you are really going to Souday," said
Courtin,--"I think I ought to give you a bit of advice."

"Well, give it; sincere advice is always useful."

"Don't go; the cage is empty."

"Pooh!"

"Yes, I tell you, it is empty; there's no use in your going there,
Monsieur le baron, to find the bird who has sent you scouring the
country."

"Who told you that, Courtin?" said Michel, man[oe]uvring his horse so
as to keep his body well before Courtin, and thus mask Petit-Pierre
behind him.

"Who told me? Hang it! my eyes told me; I saw them all file out of the
courtyard, the devil take them! They marched right past me on the road
to Grandes-Landes."

"Were the soldiers in that direction?" asked the young baron.

Petit-Pierre thought this question rash, and she pinched Michel's arm.

"Soldiers!" replied Courtin; "why should you be afraid of soldiers?
But if you are, I advise you not to risk yourself at this time of
night on the plain. You can't go three miles without coming plump on
bayonets. Do a wiser thing than that, Monsieur Michel."

"What do you advise me to do? Come, if your way is better than mine,
I'll take it."

"Go back with me to La Logerie; you will give your mother great
satisfaction, for she is fretting herself to death over the way you
are behaving."

"Maître Courtin," said Michel, "I'll give you a bit of advice in
exchange."

"What's that, Monsieur le baron?"

"To hold your tongue."

"No, I cannot hold my tongue," replied the farmer, assuming an
appearance of sorrowful emotion,--"no, it grieves me too much to see
my young master exposed to such dangers, and all for--"

"Hush, Courtin!"

"For those cursed she-wolves whom the son of a peasant like myself
would have none of."

"Wretch! will you be silent?" cried Michel, raising his whip.

The action, which Courtin had no doubt tried to provoke, caused
Michel's horse to give a jump forward, and the mayor of La Logerie was
now abreast of the two riders.

"I am sorry if I've offended you, Monsieur le baron," he said, in a
whining tone. "Forgive me; but I haven't slept for two nights thinking
about it."

Petit-Pierre shuddered. She heard the same false and wheedling voice
that had spoken to her in the cottage of the Widow Picaut, followed,
after the speaker's departure, by such painful events. She made Michel
another sign, by which she meant, "Let us get rid of this man at any
cost."

"Very good," said Michel; "go your way and let _us_ go ours."

Courtin pretended to notice for the first time that Michel had some
one behind him.

"Good heavens!" he exclaimed. "Why, you are not alone! Ah! I see now,
Monsieur le baron, why you were so touchy about what I said. Well,
monsieur," he said, addressing Petit-Pierre, "whoever you are, I am
sure you will be more reasonable than your young friend. Join me in
telling him there is nothing to be gained by braving the laws and the
power of the government, as he is bent on doing to please those
wolves."

"Once more, Courtin," said Michel, in a tone that was actually
menacing, "I tell you to go. I act as I think best, and I consider you
very insolent to presume to judge of my conduct."

But Courtin, whose smooth persistency we all know by this time, seemed
determined not to depart without getting a look at the features of the
mysterious personage whom his young master had behind him.

"Come," he said; "to-morrow you can do as you like; but to-night, at
least, come and sleep at the farmhouse,--you and the person, lady or
gentleman, who is with you. I swear to you, Monsieur le baron, that
there is danger in being out to-night."

"There is no danger for myself and my companion, for we are not
concerned in politics. What are you doing to my saddle, Courtin?"
asked the young man suddenly, noticing a movement on his farmer's part
which he did not understand.

"Why, nothing, Monsieur Michel; nothing," said Courtin, with perfect
good-humor. "So then, you positively won't listen to my advice and
entreaties?"

"No; go your way, and let me go mine."

"Go, then!" exclaimed the farmer, in his sly, sarcastic tone; "and God
be with you. Remember that poor Courtin did what he could to prevent
you from rushing into danger."

So saying, Courtin finally drew aside, and Michel, setting spurs to
his horse, rode past him.

"Gallop! gallop!" cried Petit-Pierre. "That is the man who caused poor
Bonneville's death. Let us get on as fast as we can; that man has the
evil-eye."

The young baron stuck both spurs into his horse; but the animal had
hardly gone a dozen paces before the saddle turned, and both riders
came heavily to the ground. Petit-Pierre was up first.

"Are you hurt?" she asked Michel, who was getting up more slowly.

"No," he replied; "but I am wondering how--"

"How we came to fall? That's not the question. We did fall, and
there's the fact. Girth your horse again, and as fast as possible."

"_Aïe!_" cried Michel, who had already thrown the saddle over his
horse's back; "both girths are broken at precisely the same height."

"Say they are cut," said Petit-Pierre. "It is a trick of your infernal
Courtin; and it is a warning of worse--Wait, look over there."

Michel, whose arm Petit-Pierre had seized, looked in the direction to
which she pointed, and there, about a mile distant in the valley, he
saw three or four camp-fires shining in the darkness.

"It is a bivouac," said Petit-Pierre. "If that scoundrel suspects the
truth--and no doubt he does--he will make for the camp and set those
red-breeches on our traces."

"Ah! do you think that knowing I am with you, I, his master, he would
dare--"

"I must suppose everything, Monsieur Michel, and I must risk nothing."

"You are right; we must leave nothing to chance."

"Hadn't we better leave the beaten path?"

"I was thinking of that."

"How much time will it take to go on foot to the place where the
marquis is awaiting us?"

"An hour, at least; and we have no time to lose. But what shall we do
with the horse? He can't climb the banks as we must."

"Throw the bridle on his neck. He'll go back to his stable; and if our
friends meet the animal on the way, they'll know some accident has
happened and will come in search of us. Hush! hush!"

"What is it?"

"Don't you hear something?" asked Petit-Pierre.

"Yes; horses' feet in the direction of that bivouac."

"You see it was not without a motive that your farmer cut our
saddle-girths. Let us be off, my poor baron."

"But if we leave the horse here those who search for us will know the
riders are not far off."

"Stop!" said Petit-Pierre; "I have an idea, an Italian idea!--the
races of the _barberi_. Yes, that's the very thing. Do as I do,
Monsieur Michel."

"Go on; I obey."

Petit-Pierre set to work. With her delicate hands, and at the risk of
lacerating them, she broke off branches of thorn and holly from the
neighboring hedge. Michel did the same, and they presently had two
thick and prickly bundles of short sticks.

"What's to be done with them?" asked Michel.

"Tear the name off your handkerchief and give me the rest."

Michel obeyed. Petit-Pierre tore the handkerchief into two strips and
tied up the bunches. Then she fastened one to the mane, the other to
the tail of the horse. The poor animal, feeling the thorns like spurs
upon his flesh, began to rear and plunge. The young baron now began to
understand.

"Take off his bridle," said Petit-Pierre, "or he may break his neck;
and let him go."

The horse was hardly relieved of the saddle that held him before he
snorted, shook his mane and tail angrily, and darted away like a
tornado, leaving a trail of sparks behind him.

"Bravo!" cried Petit-Pierre. "Now, pick up the saddle and bridle, and
let us find shelter ourselves."

They jumped the hedge, Michel having thrown the saddle and bridle
before him. There they crouched down and listened. The gallop of the
horse still resounded on the stony road.

"Do you hear it?" said the baron, satisfied.

"Yes; but we are not the only ones who are listening to it, Monsieur
le baron," said Petit-Pierre. "Hear the echo."

XLVI.

MAÎTRE JACQUES PROCEEDS TO KEEP THE OATH HE MADE
TO AUBIN COURTE-JOIE.

The sound which Baron Michel and Petit-Pierre now heard in the
direction by which Courtin had left them changed presently into a loud
noise approaching rapidly; and two minutes later a dozen chasseurs,
riding at a gallop in pursuit of the trail, or rather the noise made
by the running horse, which was snorting and neighing as it ran,
passed like a flash, not ten steps from Petit-Pierre and her
companion, who, rising slightly after the horsemen had passed, watched
their wild rush into the distance.

"They ride well," said Petit-Pierre; "but I doubt if they catch up
with that horse."

"They are making straight for the place where our friends are awaiting
us, and I think the marquis is in just the humor to put a stop to
their course."

"Then it is battle!" cried Petit-Pierre. "Well, water yesterday, fire
to-day; for my part, I prefer the latter."

And she tried to hurry Michel in the direction where the fight would
take place.

"No, no, no!" said Michel, resisting; "I entreat you not to go there."

"Don't you wish to win your spurs under the eyes of your lady, baron?
She is there, you know."

"I think she is," said the young man, sadly. "But troops are scattered
over the country in every direction; at the first shots they will all
converge toward the firing. We may fall in with one of their
detachments, and if, unfortunately, the mission with which I am
charged should end disastrously I shall never dare to appear again
before the marquis--"

"Say before his daughter."

"Well, yes,--before his daughter."

"Then, in order not to bring trouble into your love affairs I consent
to obey you."

"Oh, thank you! thank you!" cried Michel, seizing Petit-Pierre's hand
vehemently. Then perceiving the impropriety of his action, he
exclaimed, stepping backward, "Oh, pardon me; pray, pardon me!"

"Never mind," said Petit-Pierre; "don't think of it. Where did the
Marquis de Souday intend to shelter me?"

"In a farmhouse of mine."

"Not that of your man Courtin, I hope?"

"No, in another, perfectly isolated, hidden in the woods beyond Légé.
You know the village where Tinguy lived?"

"Yes; but do you know the way there?"

"Perfectly."

"I distrust that adverb in France. My poor Bonneville said he knew the
way perfectly, but he lost it." Petit-Pierre sighed as she added, in a
lower tone, "Poor Bonneville! alas! it may have been that very mistake
that led to his death."

The topic brought back the melancholy thoughts that filled her mind as
she left the cottage where the catastrophe that cost her the life of
her first companion had taken place. She was silent, and after making
a gesture of consent, she followed her new guide, replying only by
monosyllables to the few remarks which Michel addressed to her.

As for the latter, he performed his new functions with more ability
and success than might have been expected of him. He turned to the
left, and crossing some fields, reached a brook where he had often
fished for shrimps in his childhood. This brook runs through the
valley of the Benaste from end to end, rises toward the south and
falls again toward the north, where it joins the Boulogne near
Saint-Colombin. Either bank, bordered with fields, gave a safe and
easy path to pedestrians. Michel took to the brook itself, and
followed it for some distance, carrying Petit-Pierre on his shoulders
as poor Bonneville had done.

Presently, leaving the brook after following it for about a kilometre,
he bore again to the left, crossed the brow of a hill, and showed
Petit-Pierre the dark masses of the forest of Touvois, which were
visible in the dim light, looming up from the foot of the hill on
which they now stood.

"Is that where your farmhouse is?" asked Petit-Pierre.

"We have still to cross the forest," he said; "but we shall get there
in about three quarters of an hour."

"You are not afraid of losing your way?"

"No; for we do not have to plunge into the thicket. In fact, we shall
not enter the wood at all till we reach the road from Machecoul to
Légé. By skirting the edge of the forest to the eastward we must
strike that road soon."

"And then?"

"Then all we have to do is to follow it."

"Well, well," said Petit-Pierre, cheerfully, "I'll give a good account
of you, my young guide; and faith, it shall not be Petit-Pierre's
fault if you don't obtain the reward you covet! But here is rather a
well-beaten path. Isn't this the one you are looking for?"

"I can easily tell," replied Michel, "for there ought to be a post on
the right--There! here it is! we are all right. And now, Petit-Pierre,
I can promise you a good night's rest."

"Ah! that is a comfort," said Petit-Pierre, smiling; "for I don't deny
that the terrible emotions of the day have not relieved the fatigues
of last night."

The words were hardly out of her lips before a black outline rose from
the other side of the ditch, bounded into the road, and a man seized
Petit-Pierre violently by the collar of the peasant's jacket which she
wore, crying out in a voice of thunder:--

"Stop, or you're a dead man!"

Michel sprang to the assistance of his young companion by bringing
down a vigorous blow with the butt-end of his whip on her assailant.
He was near paying dear for his intervention. The man, without letting
go of Petit-Pierre, whom he held with his left arm, drew a pistol from
his jacket and fired at the young baron. Happily for the latter, in
spite of Petit-Pierre's feebleness she was not of a stuff to keep as
passive as her captor expected. With a rapid gesture she struck the
arm that fired the weapon, and the ball, which would otherwise have
gone straight to Michel's breast, only wounded him in the shoulder. He
returned to the charge, and their assailant was just pulling a second
pistol from his belt when two other men sprang from the bushes and
seized Michel from behind.

Then the first assailant, seeing that the young man could interfere no
longer, contented himself by saying to his companions:--

"Secure that fellow first; and then come and rid me of this one."

"But," said Petit-Pierre, "by what right do you stop us in this way?"

"This right," said the man, striking the carbine, which he carried on
his shoulder. "If you want to know why, you will find out presently.
Bind that man securely," he said to his men. "As for this one," he
added contemptuously, "it isn't worth while; I think there'll be no
trouble in mastering him."

"But I wish to know where you are taking us," insisted Petit-Pierre.

"You are very inquisitive, my young friend," replied the man.

"But--"

"Damn it! come on, and you'll find out. You shall see with your own
eyes where you are going in a very few minutes."

And the man, taking Petit-Pierre by the arm, dragged her into the
bushes, while Michel, struggling violently, was pushed by the two
assistants in the same direction.

They walked thus for about ten minutes, at the end of which time they
reached the open where, as we know, was the burrow of Maître Jacques
and his bandits. For it was he, bent on sacredly keeping his oath to
Aubin Courte-Joie, who had stopped the two travellers whom luck had
sent in his way; and it was his pistol-shot which, as we have already
seen at the close of a preceding chapter, put the whole camp of the
refractories on the _qui vive_.

END OF VOL I.

THE LAST VENDÉE;
OR,
THE SHE-WOLVES OF MACHECOUL.

VOLUME II.

THE LAST VENDÉE;
OR,
THE SHE-WOLVES OF MACHECOUL.

IN WHICH IT APPEARS THAT ALL JEWS ARE NOT FROM
JERUSALEM, NOR ALL TURKS FROM TUNIS.

"Hola! hey! my rabbits!" called Maître Jacques, as he entered the
open.

At the voice of their leader the obedient "rabbits" issued from the
underbrush and from the tufts of gorse and brambles beneath which they
had ensconced themselves at the first alarm, and came running into the
open, where they eyed the two prisoners, as well as the darkness would
allow, with much curiosity. Then, as if this examination did not
suffice, one of them went down into the burrow, lighted two bits of
pine, and jumping back put the improvised torches under the nose of
Petit-Pierre and that of her companion.

Maître Jacques had resumed his usual seat on the trunk of a tree, and
was peaceably conversing with Aubin Courte-Joie, to whom he related
the incidents of the capture he had made, with the same circumstantial
particularity with which a villager tells his wife of a purchase he
has just concluded at a market.

Michel, who was naturally somewhat overcome by the affair and by his
wound, was sitting, or rather lying, on the grass. Petit-Pierre,
standing beside him, was gazing, with an attention not exempt from
disgust, at the faces of the bandits; which was easy to do, because,
having satisfied their curiosity, they had gone back to their usual
pursuits,--that is to say, to their psalm-singing, their games, their
sleep, and the polishing of their weapons. And yet, while playing,
drinking, singing, and cleansing their guns, carbines, and pistols,
they never lost sight for an instant of the two prisoners who, by way
of precaution, were placed in the very centre of the open.

It was then that Petit-Pierre, withdrawing her eyes from the bandits,
noticed for the first time that her companion was wounded.

"Oh, good God!" she exclaimed, seeing the blood which had run down
Michel's arm to his hand; "you are shot?"

"Yes; I think so, Ma--mon--"

"Oh! for heaven's sake, say Petit-Pierre, and more than ever. Do you
suffer much pain?"

"No; I thought I received a blow from a stick on the shoulder, but now
the whole arm is getting numb."

"Try to move it."

"Well, in any case, there is nothing broken. See!"

And he moved his arm with comparative ease.

"Good! This will certainly win you the heart you love, and if your
noble conduct is not enough, I promise to intervene in your behalf;
and I have good reason to think my intervention will be effectual."

"How kind you are, Ma--Petit-Pierre! And whatever you order me to do,
I'll do it after such a promise; even if I have to attack a battery of
a hundred guns single-handed, I'll go, head down, to the redoubt. Ah,
if you would only speak to the Marquis de Souday for me, I should be
the happiest of men!"

"Don't gesticulate in that way; you will prevent the blood from
stanching. So it seems it is the marquis you are particularly afraid
of. Well, I'll speak to him, your terrible marquis, on the word of--of
Petit-Pierre. But now, as they have left us alone to ourselves, let us
talk about our present affairs. Where are we?--and who are these
persons?"

"To me," said Michel, "they look like Chouans."

"Do Chouans stop inoffensive travellers? Impossible!"

"They do, though."

"I am shocked."

"Well, if they have not done it before, they have done it now,
apparently."

"What will they do with us?"

"That we shall soon know; for see, they are beginning to bestir
themselves,--about us, no doubt!"

"Goodness!" exclaimed Petit-Pierre; "how odd it will be if we are in
danger from my own partisans! But hush!"

Maître Jacques, after conferring for some time with Aubin Courte-Joie,
gave the order to bring the prisoners before him.

Petit-Pierre advanced confidently toward the tree, on which the master
of the burrow held his assizes; but Michel who, on account of his
wound and his bound hands, found some difficulty in getting on his
legs, took more time in obeying the order. Seeing this, Aubin
Courte-Joie made a sign to Trigaud-Vermin, who, seizing the young man
by the waist, lifted him with the ease another man would have had in
lifting a child three years old, and placed him before Maître Jacques,
taking care to put him in precisely the same attitude from which he
had taken him,--a man[oe]uvre Trigaud-Vermin accomplished by swinging
forward Michel's lower limbs and poking him in the back before he let
him fall at full length on the ground.

"Stupid brute!" muttered Michel, who had lost under the effect of pain
some of his natural timidity.

"You are not civil," said Maître Jacques; "no, I repeat to you,
Monsieur le Baron Michel de la Logerie, you are not civil, and the
kindness of that poor fellow deserved a better return. But come, let's
attend to our little business!" Casting a more observing look at the
young man, he added, "I am not mistaken; you are M. le Baron Michel de
la Logerie, are you not?"

"Yes," replied Michel, laconically.

"Very good. What were you doing on the road to Légé, in the middle of
the forest of Touvois at this time of night?"

"I might answer that I am not obliged to give an account of my actions
to you, and that the highways are open to everybody."

"But you won't answer me in that way, Monsieur le baron."

"Why not?"

"Because, with due respect to you, it would be folly, and I believe
you have too much sense to commit it."

"Very good; I won't discuss the point. I was going to my farm of
Banl[oe]uvre, which, as you know, is at the farther end of the forest
of Touvois, in which we now are."

"Well done; that's right, Monsieur le baron. Do me the honor to answer
always in that way and we shall agree. Now, how is it that the Baron
de la Logerie, who has so many good horses in his stables, so many
fine carriages in his coach-house, should be travelling on foot with
his friend, like a simple peasant,--like us, in short?"

"We had a horse, but he got away in an accident we met with, and we
could not catch him."

"Well done again. Now, Monsieur le baron, I hope you will be kind
enough to give us some news."

"I?"

"Yes. What is going on over there, Monsieur le baron?"

"How can things over our way interest you?" asked Michel, who not
being quite sure to which party the man he was addressing belonged,
hesitated as to the color he ought to give to his replies.

"Go on, Monsieur le baron," resumed Maître Jacques; "never mind
whether what you have to say is useful to me or not. Come, bethink
yourself. Whom did you meet on the way?"

Michel looked at Petit-Pierre with embarrassment. Maître Jacques
intercepted the look, and calling up Trigaud-Vermin, he ordered him to
stand between the two prisoners, like the Wall in "Midsummer-Night's
Dream."

"Well," continued Michel, "we met what everybody meets at all hours
and on every road for the last three days in and about Machecoul,--we
met soldiers."

"Did they speak to you?"

"No."

"No? Do you mean to say they let you pass without a word?"

"We avoided them."

"Bah!" said Maître Jacques, in a doubtful tone.

"Travelling on our own business it did not suit us to be mixed up in
affairs that were none of ours."

"Who is this young man who is with you?"

Petit-Pierre hastened to answer before Michel had time to do so.

"I am Monsieur le baron's servant," she said.

"Then, my young friend," said Maître Jacques, replying to Petit-Pierre,
"allow me to tell you that you are a very bad servant. In fact, peasant
as I am, I am grieved to hear a servant answering for his master,
especially when no one spoke to him." Turning to Michel, he continued,
"So this lad is your servant, is he? Well, he is a pretty boy."

And the lord of the burrow looked at Petit-Pierre with scrutinizing
attention, while one of his men threw the light of a torch full on her
face to facilitate the examination.

"Let us come to the point," said Michel; "what do you want? If it is
my purse I sha'n't prevent you from having it. Take it; but let us go
about our business."

"Oh, fie!" returned Maître Jacques; "if I were a gentleman, like you,
Monsieur Michel, I would ask satisfaction for such an insult. Do you
take us for highwaymen? That's not flattering. I would willingly tell
you my business, only, I fear I should make myself disagreeable.
Besides, you say you have nothing to do with politics. Your father,
nevertheless, whom I knew something of in the olden time, did meddle
with politics, and didn't lose his fortune that way either. I must
admit, therefore, that I expected to find you a zealous adherent of
his Majesty Louis-Philippe."

"Then you'd have been very much mistaken, my good sir," broke in
Petit-Pierre, disrespectfully; "Monsieur le baron is, on the contrary,
a zealous partisan of his Majesty Henri V."

"Indeed, my little friend!" cried Maître Jacques. Then, turning to
Michel, "Come, Monsieur le baron," he continued, "be frank; is what
your companion--I mean your servant--says the truth?"

"The exact truth," answered Michel.

"Ah, but this is good news! I, who thought I had to do with those
horrid curs!--good God! how ashamed I am of the way I have treated
you, and what excuses I ought to offer! Pray, receive them, Monsieur
le baron; and take your share, my excellent young friend,--master and
servant, please to accept them together. I'm not too proud to beg your
pardon."

"Well, then," said Michel, whose displeasure was not lessened by
Maître Jacques's sarcastic politeness, "you have a very easy way of
testifying your regret, and that is by letting us go our way."

"Oh, no!" cried Maître Jacques.

"Why not?"

"No, no, no! I cannot consent to let you leave us in that way.
Besides, two such partisans of legitimacy as you and I, Monsieur le
Baron Michel, have a great deal to say to each other about the grand
uprising that is now taking place. Don't you think so, Monsieur le
baron?"

"It may be so; but the interests of that cause require that I and my
servant should immediately reach the safety of my farm at
Banl[oe]uvre."

"Monsieur le baron, there is no spot in all this region as safe as the
one where you now are in the midst of us. I cannot allow you to leave
us without giving you some proof of the really touching interest I
feel for you."

"Hum!" muttered Petit-Pierre, under her breath; "things are going very
wrong."

"Go on," said Michel.

"You are devoted to Henri V.?"

"Yes."

"Very devoted?"

"Yes."

"Supremely devoted?"

"I have told you so."

"Yes, you have told me so, and I don't doubt your word. Well, I'll
provide you with a way to manifest that devotion in a dazzling
manner."

"Do so."

"You see my men," continued Maître Jacques, pointing to his
troop,--"some forty scamps who look more like Callot's bandits than
the honest peasants that they are. They don't ask anything better than
to be killed for our young king and his heroic mother; only, they lack
everything needful to attain that end,--shoes to march in, arms to
fight with, garments to wear, money to lessen the hardships of the
bivouac. You do not, I presume. Monsieur le baron, desire that these
faithful servants, accomplishing what you yourself regard as a sacred
duty, should be exposed to cold, hunger, and other privations in all
weathers?"

"But," said Michel, "how the devil am I to clothe and arm your men?
Have I a base of supplies at command?"

"Ah, Monsieur le baron," resumed Maître Jacques, "don't think I know
so little of good manners as to dream of burdening you with the
annoyance of such details. No, indeed! But I've a faithful follower
here" (and he pointed to Aubin Courte-Joie) "who will spare you all
trouble. Give him the money, and he will lay it out to the best
advantage, all the while saving your purse."

"If that's all," said Michel, with the readiness of youth and the
enthusiasm of his dawning opinions, "I'm very willing. How much do you
want?"

"Come, that's good!" exclaimed Maître Jacques, not a little amazed at
this readiness. "Well, do you think it would be pushing things too far
to ask you for five hundred francs for each man? I should like them to
have, besides the uniform,--green, you know, like the chasseurs of
Monsieur de Charette,--a knapsack comfortably supplied. Five hundred
francs, that's about half the price Philippe charges France for every
man she gives him; and each of my men is worth any two of his. You
see, therefore, that I am reasonable."

"Say at once the sum you want, and let us make an end of this business
at once."

"Well, I have forty men, including those now absent on leave, but who
are bound to join the standard at the first call. That makes just
twenty thousand francs,--a mere nothing for a rich man like you,
Monsieur le baron."

"So be it. You shall have your twenty thousand francs in two days,"
said Michel, endeavoring to rise; "I give you my word."

"Oh, no, no; I wish to spare you all trouble, Monsieur le baron. You
have a friend in this region, a notary, who will advance to you that
sum if you write him a pressing little note, a polite little note,
which one of my men shall take at once."

"Very well; give me something to write with, and unbind my hands."

"My friend Courte-Joie here has pens, ink, and paper."

Maître Courte-Joie had already begun to pull an inkstand from his
pocket. But Petit-Pierre stepped forward.

"One moment, Monsieur Michel," she said, in a resolute tone. "And you,
Maître Courte-Joie, as I hear you called, put up your implements. This
shall not be done."

"Upon my word!" ejaculated Maître Jacques; "and pray, why not,
servant,--as you call yourself?"

"Because such proceedings, monsieur, are those of bandits in Calabria
and Estramadura, and cannot be tolerated among men who claim to be
soldiers of King Henri V. Your demand is an actual extortion, which I
will not permit."

"You, my young friend?"

"Yes, I."

"If I considered you as being really what you pretend to be, I should
treat you as an impertinent lackey; but it strikes me that you have a
right to the respect we owe to a woman, and I shall not compromise my
reputation for gallantry by handling you roughly. I therefore confine
myself, for the present, to telling you to mind your own business and
not meddle with what doesn't concern you."

"On the contrary, monsieur, this concerns me very closely," returned
Petit-Pierre, with dignity. "It is of the utmost consequence to me
that no one shall make use of the name of Henri V. to cover acts of
brigandage."

"You take an extraordinary interest in the affairs of his Majesty, my
young friend. Will you be good enough to tell me why?"

"Send away your men, and I will tell you, monsieur."

"Off with you to a little distance, my lads!" he said. "It isn't
necessary," he continued, as the men obeyed him, "as I have no secrets
from those worthy fellows; but I'm willing to humor you, as you see.
Come, now we are alone, speak out."

"Monsieur," said Petit-Pierre, going a step nearer to Maître Jacques,
"I order you to set that young man at liberty. I require you to give
us an escort instantly to the place where we are going, and I also
wish you to send in search of the friends we are expecting."

"You require?--you order? Ah, _ça!_ my little turtle-dove, you talk
like the king upon his throne. If I refuse, what then?"

"If you refuse I will have you shot within twenty-four hours."

"Upon my word! one would think you were the regent herself."

"I am the regent herself, monsieur."

Maître Jacques burst into a roar of convulsive laughter. His men,
hearing his shouts, came up to have their share in the hilarity.

"Ouf!" he cried, seeing them about him; "here's fun! You were amazed
enough just now, my lads, weren't you?--to hear a Baron de la Logerie,
son of that Michel you wot of, declare that Henri V. had no better
friend than he. That was queer enough; but this--oh! this is queerer
still, and even more incredible. Here's something that goes beyond the
most galloping imagination. Look at this little peasant. You may have
taken him for anything you like; but I've supposed him to be nothing
else than the mistress of Monsieur le baron. Well, well, my rabbits,
we are all mistaken,--you're mistaken; I'm mistaken! This young man
whom you see before you is neither more nor less than the mother of
our king!"

A growl of ironical incredulity ran through the crowd.

"I swear to you," cried Michel, "it is true."

"Fine testimony, faith!" retorted Maître Jacques.

"I assure you--began Petit-Pierre.

"No, no," interrupted Maître Jacques; "I assure you that if within ten
minutes--which I grant to your squire for reflection, my wandering
dame--he doesn't do as agreed upon, I'll send him to keep company with
the acorns over his head. He may choose, but choose quick,--the money
or the rope. If I don't have the one, he'll have the other, that's
all!"

"But this is infamous!" cried Petit-Pierre, beside herself.

"Seize her!" said Maître Jacques.

Four men advanced to execute the order.

"Let no one dare to lay a hand on me!" said Petit-Pierre. Then, as
Trigaud-Vermin, callous to the majesty of her voice and gesture, still
advanced, "What!" she cried, recoiling from the touch of that brutal
hand, and snatching from her head both hat and wig, "Is there no man
among those bandits who is soldier enough to recognize me? What! Will
God abandon me now to the mercy of such brigands?"

"No!" said a voice behind Maître Jacques; "and I tell this man his
conduct is unworthy of one who wears a cockade that is white because
it is spotless."

Maître Jacques turned like lightning and aimed a pistol at the
new-comer. All the brigands seized their weapons, and it was literally
under an arch of iron that Bertha--for it was she--advanced into the
circle that surrounded the prisoners.

"The she-wolf!" muttered some of Maître Jacques's men, who knew
Mademoiselle de Souday.

"What are you here for?" cried the master of the band. "Don't you know
that I refuse to recognize the authority your father arrogates to
himself over my troop, and that I positively decline to be a part of
his division?"

"Silence, fool!" said Bertha. Then, going straight to Petit-Pierre,
and kneeling on one knee before her, "I ask pardon," she said, "for
these men who have insulted and threatened you,--you who have so many
claims to their respect."

"Ah, faith," cried Petit-Pierre, gayly, "you have come just in time!
The situation was getting critical; and here's a poor lad who will owe
you his life, for these worthy people were actually talking of hanging
him and of sending me to keep him company."

"Good heavens, yes!" said Michel, whom Aubin Courte-Joie, seeing how
matters stood, had hastened to unbind.

"And the worst of it was," said Petit-Pierre, laughing and nodding at
Michel, "that the young man deserved to live for the favor of a good
royalist like yourself."

Bertha smiled and dropped her eyes.

"So," continued Petit-Pierre, "it is you who will have to pay my debts
toward him; and I hope you will not object to my keeping a promise I
have made him to speak to your father in his behalf."

Bertha bent low to take the hand of Petit-Pierre and kiss it,--a
movement which concealed the rush of color to her cheeks.

Maître Jacques, mortified and ashamed of his mistake, now approached
and stammered a few excuses. In spite of her repulsion for the man's
brutality, Petit-Pierre knew it would be impolitic to do more than
show a certain amount of resentment.

"Your intentions may have been excellent, monsieur," she said, "but
your methods are deplorable, and tend to nothing less than making
highwaymen of our supporters, like the Company of Jehu in the old war;
and I hope you will abstain from such proceedings in future."

Then, turning away, as if such persons no longer existed for her, she
said to Bertha, "Now tell me how you happened to come here just at the
right moment."

"Your horse smelt his stable-mates," replied the young girl; "we
caught him, and then turned aside, for we heard the chasseurs coming
up. Seeing the two bundles of thorns tied to the poor beast, we
thought that you wanted to be rid of the animal in order to mask your
escape, and we all dispersed in different directions to find you,
giving ourselves rendezvous at Banl[oe]uvre. I came through the
forest; the lights attracted my attention, then the voices. I left my
horse at some distance, for fear he might betray me; you know the
rest, Madame."

"Very good," said Petit-Pierre; "and now if monsieur will be good
enough to give us a guide to Banl[oe]uvre, Bertha, let us start; for,
to tell you the truth, I am half-dead with fatigue."

"I will guide you myself, Madame," said Maître Jacques, respectfully.

Petit-Pierre bowed her head in assent; and Maître Jacques busied
himself eagerly in his arrangements. Ten men marched in advance to see
that the road was clear, while he himself with ten others escorted
Petit-Pierre, who was mounted on Bertha's horse.

Two hours later, as Petit-Pierre, Bertha, and Michel were finishing
their supper, the Marquis de Souday and Mary arrived, the former
testifying the utmost joy at finding the person whom he called his
"young friend" in safety. We must admit that the old gentleman's joy,
sincere and genuine as it was, was expressed in the stiff, ceremonious
sentences of the old school.

In the course of the evening Petit-Pierre had a long conference with
the marquis in a corner of the large hall, which Bertha and Michel
watched with deep interest; which was still further deepened when, on
the sudden entrance of Jean Oullier, the marquis rose, came up to the
young people, and taking Bertha's hand in his, said to Michel:

"Monsieur Petit-Pierre informs me that you aspire to the hand of my
daughter Bertha. I may have had other ideas for her establishment, but
in consequence of these gracious commands I can only assure you,
monsieur, that after the campaign is over my daughter shall be your
wife."

A thunderbolt falling at Michel's feet would not have stunned him
more. While the marquis ceremoniously prepared to place Bertha's hand
in his he turned to Mary, as if to implore her intervention; but her
low voice murmured in his ears the terrible words, "I do not love
you."

Overwhelmed with grief, bewildered and surprised, Michel mechanically
took the hand the marquis presented to him.

II.

MAÎTRE MARC.

The day on which all these events--namely, those in the house of the
Widow Picaut, in the château de Souday, the forest of Touvois, and the
farmhouse of Banl[oe]uvre--took place, the door of a house, No. 19 rue
du Château, at Nantes, opened about five in the afternoon to give exit
to two individuals, in one of whom we may recognize the civil
commissioner Pascal, whose acquaintance we have already made at the
château de Souday, and who, after leaving it, as we related, with the
Duchesse de Berry, poor Bonneville, and the other Vendéan leaders, had
returned without difficulty to his official and private residence at
Nantes.

The other, and this is the one with whom we are for the present
concerned, was a man about forty years of age, with a keen,
intelligent, and penetrating eye, a curved nose, white teeth, thick
and sensual lips, like those which commonly belong to imaginative
persons; his black coat and white cravat and ribbon of the Legion of
honor indicated, so far as one might judge by appearances, a man
belonging to the magistracy. He was, in truth, one of the most
distinguished members of the Paris bar, who had arrived at Nantes the
evening before and gone straight to the house of his associate, the
civil commissioner. In the royalist vocabulary he bore the name of
Marc,--one of the several names of Cicero.

When he reached the street door, conducted, as we have said, by the
civil commissioner, he found a cabriolet awaiting him. The two men
shook hands affectionately, and the Parisian lawyer got into the
vehicle, while the driver, leaning over to the civil commissioner,
asked him, as if aware that the traveller was ignorant on the
subject:--

"Where am I to take the gentleman?"

"Do you see that peasant at the farther end of the street on a
dapple-gray horse?" asked the civil commissioner.

"Yes."

"Then all you have to do is to follow him."

This information was hardly given before the man on the gray horse, as
though he had overheard the words of the legitimist agent, started,
went down the rue du Château, and turned to the right, so as to keep
along by the bank of the river, which flowed to his left. The coachman
whipped up his horse, and the squeaking vehicle on which we have
bestowed the unambitious name of "cabriolet," began to rattle over the
uneven pavement of the capital of the Loire-Inférieure, following, as
best it could, the mysterious guide before it.

Just as it reached the corner of the rue du Château and turned
in the direction indicated, the traveller caught sight of the
rider, who, without even glancing behind him, began to cross
the Loire, by the pont Rousseau, which leads to the high-road of
Saint-Philbert-de-Grand-Lieu. Once on the road the peasant put his
horse to a trot, but a slow trot, such as the cabriolet could easily
follow. The rider, however, never turned his head, and seemed not only
quite indifferent as to what might be happening behind him, but also
so ignorant of the mission he himself was performing that the
traveller began to fancy himself the victim of a hoax.

As for the coachman, not being trusted with the secrets of the affair,
he could give no information capable of quieting the uneasiness of
Maître Marc. Having asked of the civil commissioner, "Where am I to
go?" and being told, "Follow the man on the dapple-gray horse," he
followed the man on the dapple-gray horse, seeming no more concerned
about his guide than his guide was concerned about him.

They reached Saint-Philbert-de-Grand-Lieu in about two hours and just
at dusk. The man on the gray horse stopped at the inn of the Cygne de
la Croix, got off his horse, gave the animal to the hostler, and
entered the inn. The traveller in the cabriolet arrived five minutes
later and entered the same inn. As he crossed the kitchen the rider
met him, and without appearing to take notice of him, slipped a little
paper into his hand.

The traveller entered the common room, which happened at the moment to
be empty; there he called for a light and a bottle of wine. They
brought him what he asked for. He did not touch the bottle, but he
opened the note, which contained these words:--

"I will wait for you on the high-road to Légé; follow me, but do not
attempt to join me or speak to me. The coachman will stay at the inn
with the cabriolet."

The traveller burned the note, poured himself out a glass of wine,
with which he merely wet his lips, told the coachman to stay where he
was and expect him on the following evening, and left the inn on foot,
without attracting the inn-keeper's attention, or at any rate, without
the inn-keeper's attention seeming to be attracted to him.

At the end of the village he saw his man, who was cutting a cane from
a hawthorn hedge. The cane being cut, the peasant continued his way,
stripping the twigs off the stick as he walked along. Maître Marc
followed him for a mile and a half, or thereabout.

By this time it was quite dark, and the peasant entered an isolated
house standing on the right of the road. The traveller hastened on and
went in almost at the same moment as his guide. No one was there when
he reached the threshold except a woman in the room that looked out on
the high-road. The peasant was standing before her, apparently
awaiting the traveller. As soon as the latter appeared the peasant
said to the woman:--

"This is the gentleman to be guided."

Then, having said these words, he went out, not giving time to the
traveller he had conducted to reward him with either thanks or money.
When the traveller, who followed the man with his eyes, turned his
astonished gaze on the mistress of the house, she merely signed to him
to sit down, and then without taking further notice of his presence,
and without addressing him a single word, she went on with her
household avocations.

A silence of half an hour ensued, and the traveller was beginning to
get impatient, when the master of the house returned home. Without
showing any sign of surprise or curiosity, he bowed to his guest; but
he looked at his wife, who repeated, _verbatim_, the words of the
peasant: "This is the gentleman to be guided."

The master of the house then gave the stranger one of those uneasy,
shrewd, and rapid glances, which belong exclusively to the Vendéan
peasantry. Then, almost immediately, his face resumed its habitual
expression, which was one of mingled good-humor and simplicity, as he
approached his guest, cap in hand.

"Monsieur wishes to travel through this region?" he said.

"Yes, my friend," replied Maître Marc; "I am desirous of going
farther."

"Monsieur has his papers, no doubt?"

"Of course."

"In order?"

"They cannot be more so."

"Under his war name, or his real name?"

"Under my real name."

"I am obliged, in order that I make no mistake, to ask monsieur to
show me those papers."

"Is it absolutely necessary?"

"Yes; because until I have seen them I cannot tell monsieur whether he
will be absolutely safe in travelling in these parts."

The traveller drew out his passport, which bore date the 28th of
February.

"Here they are," he said.

The peasant took the papers, cast his eyes over them to see if the
description tallied with the individual before him, refolded the
papers, and returned them, saying:--

"It is all right. Monsieur can go everywhere with those papers."

"And will you find some one to guide me?"

"Yes, monsieur."

"I wish to start as soon as possible."

"I will saddle the horses at once."

The master of the house went out. In ten minutes he returned.

"The horses are ready," he said.

"And the guide?"

"He is waiting."

The traveller went out and found a farm-hand already in his saddle,
holding another horse by the bridle. Maître Marc perceived that the
led horse was intended for his riding, the farm-hand for his guide. In
fact, he had scarcely put his foot in the stirrup before his new
conductor started, not less silently than his predecessor. It was nine
o'clock, and the night was dark.

III.

HOW PERSONS TRAVELLED IN THE DEPARTMENT OF THE
LOWER LOIRE IN MAY, 1832.

After riding for an hour and a half, during which time not a word was
exchanged between the traveller and his guide, they reached the gate
of one of those buildings peculiar to that region, which are something
between a farmhouse and a château. The guide stopped, and made a sign
to the traveller to do likewise. Then he dismounted and rapped at the
door. A servant opened it.

"Here is a gentleman who wishes to speak to monsieur," said the
farm-hand.

"It is impossible," replied the servant. "Monsieur has gone to bed."

"Already!" exclaimed the traveller.

The servant came closer.

"Monsieur spent last night at a rendezvous, and has been nearly all
day on horseback," he said.

"No matter," said the guide. "This gentleman must see him; he comes
from Monsieur Pascal, and is going to join Petit-Pierre."

"In that case it is different," said the servant. "I will wake
monsieur."

"Ask him," said the traveller, "if he can give me a safe guide; a
guide is all I want."

"I do not think monsieur would do that," said the servant.

"Why not?"

"Because he will wish to guide monsieur himself," said the man.

He re-entered the house. In five minutes he returned.

"Monsieur wishes to know if monsieur will take anything, or whether he
prefers to continue his journey without delay."

"I dined at Nantes and need nothing. I prefer to go on immediately."

The servant again disappeared. A few moments later a young man came
out. This time it was not the servant, but the master.

"Under any other circumstances, monsieur," he said, "I should insist
on your doing me the honor to rest a while under my roof; but you are
no doubt the person whom Petit-Pierre expects from Paris?"

"I am, monsieur."

"Monsieur Marc, then?"

"Yes, Monsieur Marc."

"In that case, let us not lose a moment; you are expected with the
utmost impatience." Turning to the farm-hand, he said, "Is your horse
fresh?"

"He has only done five miles to-day."

"In that case I'll take him; my horses are all knocked up. Stay here
and drink a bottle of wine with Louis. I'll be back in two hours.
Louis, take care of your comrade." Then turning to the traveller, he
added, "Are you ready, monsieur?"

At an affirmative sign from the latter they started. After a dead
silence of a quarter of an hour a cry sounded about a hundred steps
before them. Monsieur Marc started and asked what it was.

"It came from our scout," said the Vendéan leader. "He asks in his
fashion if the road is clear. Listen, and you will hear the answer."

He stopped his horse and signed to Monsieur Marc to do the same.
Almost immediately a second cry was heard coming from a much greater
distance. It seemed the echo of the first, so exactly alike were the
two sounds.

"We can safely go on; the road is clear," said the Vendéan leader.

"Then we are preceded by a scout?"

"Preceded and followed. We have a man two hundred steps before us and
two hundred steps behind us."

"But who are they who answer the scouts?"

"Peasants, whose cottages are along the road. Look attentively at
these cottages as you pass them, and you will see a small skylight
open and the head of a man come up and remain there motionless, as if
made of stone, until we are out of sight. If we were soldiers of some
neighboring cantonment the man who looked at us would instantly leave
his house by the back-door, and if there were any meeting or
assemblage of any kind in the neighborhood warning would be given in
time of the approach of the troops." Here the leader interrupted
himself. "Listen!" he said.

The two riders stopped.

"This time," said the traveller, "I only heard one cry, I think,--that
of our scout."

"You are right; no cry has answered his."

"Which means?"

"That troops are somewhere about."

So saying, he put his horse to a trot; the traveller did the same.
Almost at the same moment they heard a hurried step behind them; it
was that of their rear scout, who now reached them, running as fast as
his legs could carry him. At a fork of the road they found the man who
preceded them standing still and undecided. His cry had not been
answered from either road, and he was not sure which way was best to
take. Both led to the same destination, but the one to left was the
longest. After a moment's deliberation between the chief and the guide
the latter took the path to the right. The Vendéan and the traveller
followed him in about five minutes and were in turn followed by their
rear-guard after the same lapse of time. These distances were
carefully kept up between the advanced guard, the army corps, and the
rear-guard.

Three hundred steps farther on the two royalists found their forward
scout once more stationary. He made them a sign with his hand,
requesting silence. Then, in a low voice, he said:--

"A patrol!"

Listening attentively they could hear, though at some distance, the
regular tramp of marching men; it was, in fact, that of a small
detachment of General Dermoncourt's column making a night inspection.

The traveller and the Vendéan leader were now in one of those sunken
roads between banks and hedges so frequent in La Vendée at this
period, and more especially during that of the great war, but which
are now disappearing and giving place to well-constructed parish
roads. The banks on either side were so steep that it would have been
impossible to make the horses mount either of them, and there was no
way of avoiding the patrol if they met it except by turning short
round and gaining some open place where they might scatter to right or
left. But in case of flight the patrol of foot-soldiers would, of
course, hear the horsemen as plainly as the horsemen heard the
foot-soldiers.

Suddenly the forward scout drew the attention of the Vendéan leader by
a sign. He had seen, thanks to a momentary gleam of moonlight which
instantly disappeared, the flash of bayonets; and his finger, pointing
diagonally, showed the Vendéan leader and the traveller the course
they ought to follow. The soldiers (to avoid the water which usually
flowed through these sunken roads or lanes after rainy weather),
instead of marching along the lane, had climbed the bank and were now
behind the natural hedge which grew at the top of it. This was on the
left of the horsemen. By continuing in this way they would pass within
ten feet of the riders and the scouts, who were hidden below them in
the sunken lane. If either of the two horses had neighed the little
troop would have been taken prisoners; but, as if the animals
understood the danger, they were as still as their masters, and the
soldiers passed on, without suspecting that any one was near. When the
sound of their footfalls died away the travellers breathed again, and
once more resumed their march.

A quarter of an hour later they turned from the road and entered the
forest of Machecoul. There they were more at their ease; it was not
likely that the soldiers would enter the woods at night, or at any
rate take any but the main-roads which, like great arteries, passed
through it. By taking one of the wood-paths known to the
country-people, they had little to fear.

The two gentlemen now dismounted, and left their horses in charge of
one of the scouts, while the other disappeared rapidly in the
darkness, rendered deeper still by the leafing out of the May foliage.
The Vendéan leader and the traveller followed the same path. It was
evident that they were nearing the end of their journey. The
abandonment of the horses amply proved it.

In fact, Maître Marc and the Vendéan had hardly gone two hundred yards
from the place where they left the horses before they heard the hoot
of an owl. The Vendéan leader put his hands to his mouth, and in reply
to the long, lugubrious howl, he gave the sharp and piercing cry of
the screech-owl. The hoot of the horned owl answered back.

"There's our man," said the Vendéan leader.

A few moments later the sound of steps was heard on the path before
them, and their advanced scout came in sight, accompanied by a
stranger. This stranger was no other than our friend Jean Oullier,
sole and consequently first huntsman to the Marquis de Souday, who had
temporarily renounced hunting, occupied as he was by the political
events now developing around him.

In his previous introductions the traveller had noticed the use of one
formula: "Here is a gentleman who wishes to speak to monsieur." This
formula was now changed; and the Vendéan leader said to Jean Oullier,
"Here is a gentleman who wishes to speak to Petit-Pierre."

To this Jean Oullier merely replied:--

"Let him follow me."

The traveller stretched out his hand to the Vendéan leader, who shook
it cordially. Then he felt in his pocket, intending to divide the
contents of his purse between the guides; but the Vendéan gentleman
guessed his intention, and laying a hand on his arm, made him a sign
not to do a thing which would seem to the worthy peasants an insult.

Maître Marc understood the matter, and a friendly grasp of their hands
paid his debt to the peasants, as it had to their leader. After which,
Jean Oullier took the path by which he had come, saying two words,
with the brevity of an order and the tone of an invitation:--

"Follow me."

The traveller was beginning to get accustomed to these curt,
mysterious ways, hitherto unknown to him, which revealed if not actual
conspiracy, at least approaching insurrection. Shaded as the Vendéan
leader and the guides were by their broad hats, he had scarcely seen
their faces; and now in the darkness it was with difficulty that he
made out even the form of Jean Oullier, although the latter slackened
his pace, little by little, until he fell back almost to the
traveller's side. Maître Marc felt that his guide had something to say
to him, and he listened attentively. Presently he heard these words,
uttered like a murmur:--

"We are watched; a man is following us through the wood. Do not be
disturbed if you see me disappear. Wait for me at the place where you
lose sight of me."

The traveller answered by a simple motion of the head, which meant,
"Very good; as you say."

They walked on fifty steps farther. Suddenly Jean Oullier darted into
the wood. Thirty or forty feet in the depths of it a sound was heard
like that of a deer rising in affright. The noise went off in the
distance, as though it were indeed a deer that had made it. Jean
Oullier's steps were heard in the same direction. Then all sounds died
away.

The traveller leaned against an oak and waited. At the end of twenty
minutes a voice said beside him:--

"Now, we'll go on."

He quivered. The voice was really that of Jean Oullier, but the old
huntsman had come back so gently that not a single sound betrayed his
return.

"Well?" said the traveller.

"Lost time!" exclaimed Jean Oullier.

"No one there?"

"Some one; but the villain knows the wood as well as I do."

"So that you didn't overtake him?"

Oullier shook his head as though it cost him too much to put into
words that a man had escaped him.

"And you don't know who he was?"

"I suspect one man," said Jean Oullier, stretching his arm toward the
south; "but in any case he is an evil one." Then, as they reached the
edge of the woods, he added, "Here we are."

The traveller now saw the farmhouse of Banl[oe]uvre looming up before
him. Jean Oullier looked attentively to both sides of the road. The
road was clear; he crossed it alone. Then with a pass-key he opened
the gate.

"Come!" he said.

Maître Marc crossed the highway rapidly and disappeared through the
gate, which closed behind him. A white figure came out on the portico.

"Who's there?" asked a woman's voice, but a strong, imperative voice.

"I, Mademoiselle Bertha," responded Jean Oullier.

"You are not alone, my friend?"

"I have brought the gentleman from Paris who wishes to speak to
Petit-Pierre."

Bertha came down the steps and met the traveller.

"Come in, monsieur," she said.

And she led the way into a salon rather poorly furnished, though the
floor was admirably waxed and the curtains irreproachably clean. A
great fire was burning, and near the fire was a table on which a
supper was already served.

"Sit down, monsieur," said the young girl with perfect grace, which,
however, was not without a certain masculine tone which gave it much
originality. "You must be hungry and thirsty; pray eat and drink.
Petit-Pierre is asleep; but he gave orders to be waked if any one
arrived from Paris. You have just come from Paris, have you not?"

"Yes, mademoiselle."

"In ten minutes I will return."

And Bertha disappeared like a vision. The traveller remained a few
seconds motionless with amazement. He was an observer, and never had
he seen more grace and more charm mingled with strength of will than
in Bertha's demeanor. She might be, thought he, the young Achilles,
disguised as a woman, before he saw the blade of Ulysses. Absorbed in
this thought or in others allied to it, the traveller forgot to eat or
drink.

Bertha returned as she had promised.

"Petit-Pierre is ready to receive you, monsieur," she said.

The traveller rose; Bertha walked before him. She held in her hand a
short taper, which she raised to light the staircase, and which
lighted her own face at the same time. The traveller looked admiringly
at her beautiful black hair and her fine black eyes, her ivory skin,
with all its signs of youth and health, and the firm and easy poise of
the figure, which seemed to typify a goddess.

He murmured with a smile, remembering his Virgil,--that man who
himself is a smile of antiquity,--"Incessu patuit dea!"

The young girl rapped at the door of a bedroom.

"Come in," replied a woman's voice.

The door opened. The young girl bowed slightly and allowed the
traveller to pass her. It was easy to see that humility was not her
leading virtue.

The traveller then passed in. The door closed behind him, and Bertha
remained outside.

IV.

A LITTLE HISTORY DOES NO HARM.

The room into which Maître Marc was now shown had been recently built;
the plastered walls were damp, and the wainscot showed the fibre of
its wood under the slight coating of paint that covered it. In this
room, lying on a bedstead of common pine roughly put together, he saw
a woman, and in that woman he recognized her Royal Highness the
Duchesse de Berry.

Maître Marc's attention fixed itself wholly upon her. The sheets of
the miserable bed were of the finest lawn, and this luxury of white
and exquisite linen was the only thing about her which testified in
any degree to her station in the world. A shawl with red and green
checkers formed her counterpane. A paltry fireplace of plaster, with a
small wooden mantel, warmed the apartment, the only furniture of which
was a table covered with papers, on which were a pair of pistols, and
two chairs, where lay the garments of a peasant-lad and a brown wig.
The chair with the wig stood near the table, that with the clothes was
near the bed.

The princess wore on her head one of those woollen _coifs_ distinctive
of the Vendéan peasant-women, the ends of which fell on her shoulders.
By the light of two wax candles, placed on the shabby rosewood
night-table (a relic, evidently, of some castle furniture), the
duchess was looking through her correspondence. A large number of
letters, placed on this table and held in place by a second pair of
pistols, which served as a paper-weight, were still unopened.

Madame appeared to be awaiting the new-comer impatiently, for as soon
as she saw him she leaned half out of her bed and stretched her two
hands toward him. He took them, kissed them respectfully, and the
duchess felt a tear from the eyes of her faithful partisan on the hand
he kept longest in his own.

"Tears!" she said. "You do not bring me bad news, monsieur, surely?"

"They come from my heart, Madame," replied Maître Marc. "They express
my devotion and the deep regret I feel in seeing you so isolated, so
lost in this lonely Vendéan farmhouse,--you, whom I have seen--"

He stopped, for the tears choked his voice. The duchess took up his
unfinished phrase.

"At the Tuileries, you mean, on the steps of a throne. Well, my good
friend, I was far worse guarded and less well served there than I am
here. Here I am guarded and served by a fidelity which shows itself in
devotion, there I was served by the self-interest that calculates. But
come, to business; it makes me uneasy to observe that you are
delaying. Give me the news from Paris at once! Is it good news?"

"Pray believe, Madame," said Maître Marc, "I entreat you to believe in
my deep regret at being forced to advise prudence,--I, a man of
enthusiasm!"

"Ah! ah!" exclaimed the duchess. "While my friends in La Vendée are
being killed for my sake, the friends in Paris are prudent, are they?
You see I have good reason for telling you I am better served and
guarded here than I ever was at the Tuileries."

"Better guarded, yes, Madame; better served, no! There are moments
when prudence is the very genius of success."

"But, monsieur," said the duchess, impatiently, "I am as well informed
on the state of Paris as you can be, and I know that a revolution is
imminent."

"Madame," replied the lawyer, in a firm, sonorous voice, "we have
lived for a year and a half in the midst of riots and tumults, and
none of them have yet been able to rise to the level of revolution."

"Louis-Philippe is unpopular."

"Granted; but that does not mean that Henri V. is popular."

"Henri V! Henri V! My son is not Henri V., monsieur; he is Henri IV.
the Second."

"As for that, Madame, may I be allowed to say that he is still too
young to enable us to be sure of his true name and nature. The more we
are devoted to our leader the more we owe him the truth."

"The truth! yes, yes. I ask for it; I want it. But what is the truth?"

"Madame it is this. Unfortunately, the memories of a people are lost
when their horizon is narrow. The French people--I mean that material,
brute force which makes convulsions and sometimes (when inspired from
above) revolutions--has two great recollections that take the place of
all others. One goes back forty-three years, the other seventeen
years. The first is the taking of the Bastille; in other words the
victory of the people over royalty,--a victory that bestowed the
tricolor banner upon the nation. The second memory is the double
restoration of 1814 and 1815; the victory of royalty over the
masses,--a victory which imposed the white banner on the nation.
Madame, in great national movements all is symbolic. The tricolor flag
is liberty to the people; it bears inscribed upon its pennant the
thought, 'By token of this flag we conquer.' The white flag is the
banner of despotism; it bears upon its double face the sign, 'By token
of this flag we are conquered.'"

"Monsieur!"

"You asked for the truth, Madame; let me, therefore, tell it to you."

"Yes, but after you have told it you will allow me to reply."

[Illustration: Portrait of Louis Philippe.]

"Ah, Madame, I should be glad indeed if your reply could convince me."

"Go on."

"You left Paris on the 28th of July, Madame; you did not witness the
fury with which the populace tore down the white flag and trampled on
the fleurs-de-lis."

"The flag of Denain and of Taillebourg! the fleurs-de-lis of
Saint-Louis and of Louis XIV.!"

"Unhappily, Madame, the populace remember only Waterloo; they know
only Louis XVI.,--a defeat and an execution. Well, the great
difficulty I foresee for your son, the descendant of Saint-Louis and
of Louis XIV., is that very flag of Taillebourg and of Denain. If his
Majesty Henri V., or Henry IV. the Second, as you so intelligently
call him, returns to Paris bearing the white banner, he will not pass
the faubourg Saint-Antoine; before he reaches the Bastille he is
dead."

"And if he enters with the tricolor,--what then?"

"Worse still, Madame; he is dishonored."

The duchess bounded in her bed. But at first she was silent; then,
after a pause, she said:--

"Perhaps it is the truth; but it is hard."

"I promised you the whole truth, and I keep my word."

"But, if that is your conviction, monsieur, why do you remain attached
to a party which has no possible chance of success?"

"Because I have sworn allegiance with heart and lips to that white
banner without which, and with which, your son can never return, and I
would rather die than be dishonored."

The duchess was once more silent.

"But," she said presently, "all this that you tell me does not tally
with the information which induced me to come to France."

"No, doubtless it does not, Madame; but you must remember one
thing,--if truth does sometimes reach a reigning prince it is never
told to a dethroned one."

"Permit me to say that in your capacity as a lawyer, monsieur, you may
be suspected of cultivating paradox."

"Paradox, Madame, is one of the many facets of eloquence; only here,
in presence of your Royal Highness, my purpose is not to be eloquent,
but to be true."

"Pardon me, but you said just now that truth was never told to
dethroned princes; either you were mistaken then or you are misleading
me now."

The lawyer bit his lips; he was hoist with his own petard.

"Did I say _never_, Madame?"

"You said _never_."

"Then let us suppose there is an exception, and that I am permitted by
God to be that exception."

"Agreed. And I now ask, why is truth not told to dethroned princes?"

"Because while princes on their thrones may have, at times, men of
satisfied ambition about them, dethroned princes have only inordinate
ambitions to satisfy. No doubt, Madame, you have certain generous
hearts about you who devote themselves to your cause with complete
self-abnegation; but there are, none the less, many others who regard
your return to France solely as a path opened to their private ends,
to their personal reputation, fortune, honor. There are, besides,
dissatisfied men who have lost their position and are craving to
re-conquer it and avenge themselves on those who turned them out of
it. Well, all such persons take a false view of facts; they cannot
perceive the truth of the situation. Their desires become hopes, their
hopes beliefs; they dream incessantly of a revolution which may come
possibly, but most assuredly not when they expect it. They deceive
themselves and they deceive you; they began by lying to themselves,
and now they are lying to you. They are dragging you into the danger
they are rushing into themselves. Hence the error, the fatal error,
into which you are now being hurried, Madame,--an error I implore you
to recognize in presence of the truth which I have, so cruelly
perhaps, unveiled before your eyes."

"In short," said the duchess, all the more impatiently because these
words confirmed those she had heard during the conference at the
château de Souday, "what is it that you have brought in your toga,
Maître Cicero? Is it peace or war? Out with it!"

"As it is proper that we maintain the traditions of constitutional
royalty, I answer your Highness that it is for her, in her capacity as
regent, to decide."

"Yes, indeed; and have my Chambers refuse me subsidies if I do not
decide as they wish. Oh, Maître Marc, I know the fictions of your
constitutional _régime_, the principal feature of which is to do the
work, not of those who speak wisely, but of those who talk the most.
But you must have heard the opinions of my faithful and trusty
adherents as to the present opportunity for a great uprising. What is
that opinion? What is your own opinion? We have talked of truth; truth
is sometimes an awful spectre. No matter; woman as I am, I dare to
evoke it."

"It is because I am convinced there is the stuff of twenty kings in
Madame's head and heart that I have not hesitated to take upon myself
a mission which I feel to be distressing."

"Ah, here we come to the point! Less diplomacy, if you please, Maître
Marc; speak out firmly, as you should to one who is, what I am here, a
soldier."

Then, observing that the traveller, taking off his cravat, was tearing
it apart in search of a paper.

"Give it me! give it me!" she cried; "I can do that quicker than you."

The letter was written in cipher.

"I should lose time in making it out," said the duchess; "read it to
me. It must be easy to you, who probably know what is in it."

Maître Marc took the paper from her hand and read, without hesitating,
the following letter:--

"Those persons in whom an honorable confidence has been reposed cannot
refrain from testifying their regret at unwise councils which have
brought about the present crisis. Those councils were given, no doubt,
by zealous men; but those men little understand the actual state of
things, or the condition of the public mind.

"They deceive themselves if they think there is any possibility of an
uprising in Paris. It would be impossible to find twelve hundred men,
not connected with the police, who would consent to make a riot in the
streets and Guard and the faithful garrison.

"They deceive themselves likewise about La Vendée, just as they
deceived themselves about Marseille and the South. La Vendée, that
land of devotion and sacrifice, is controlled by a numerous army
supported by the population of the cities, which are almost wholly
anti-legitimist; a rising of the peasantry could only end in
devastating the country and in consolidating the present government by
an easy victory.

"It is thought that if the mother of Henri V. be really in France she
should hasten her departure as much as possible, after exhorting all
the Vendéan leaders to keep absolutely quiet. If, instead of
organizing civil war, she appeals for peace, she would have the double
glory of doing a grand and courageous deed and of preventing the
effusion of French blood.

"The true friends of Legitimacy, who have not been informed of present
intentions, and not consulted on the perilous risks which are being
taken, and who have known nothing of acts until they were
accomplished, desire to place the responsibility of those acts on the
persons who have advised and promoted them. They disclaim either honor
or blame for whatever result of fortune may be the upshot."

During the reading of this communication Madame was a prey to the
keenest agitation. Her face, habitually pale, was flushed; her
trembling hand pushed back the woollen cap she wore, and was thrust
through and through her hair. She did not utter a word or interrupt
the reader in any way, but it was evident that her calm preceded a
tempest. In order to divert it, Maître Marc said, as he folded the
letter and gave it to her:--

"I did not write that letter, Madame."

"No," replied the duchess, unable to restrain herself any longer; "but
he who brought it was capable of writing it."

Maître Marc felt sure that he should gain nothing in dealing with that
eager, impressionable nature if he lowered his head. He therefore drew
himself up to his full height.

"Yes," he said; "and he blushes for a moment's weakness. And he now
declares to your Royal Highness that while he does not approve of
certain expressions in the letter he shares the sentiment that
dictated it."

"Sentiment!" cried the duchess. "Call it selfishness; call it caution,
that comes very near to--"

"Cowardice, you mean, Madame. Yes, that heart is cowardly, indeed,
that leaves all and comes to share a situation it never counselled.
Yes, the man is selfish who stands here and says, 'You asked for the
truth, Madame, and here it is; but if it pleases your Royal Highness
to advance to a death as useless as it is certain I shall march beside
you.'"

The duchess was silent for a few moments; then she resumed, more
gently:--

"I appreciate your devotion, monsieur, but you do not understand the
temper of La Vendée; you derive your information from those who oppose
the movement."

"So be it. Let us suppose that which is not; let us suppose that La
Vendée will surround you with battalions and spare neither blood nor
sacrifices for the cause; nevertheless La Vendée is not France."

"Having told me that the people of Paris hate the fleur-de-lis and
despise the white flag, do you now want me to believe that all France
shares those feelings of the Parisian populace?"

"Alas! Madame, France is logical; it is we who are pursuing chimeras
in dreaming of an alliance between the divine right of kings and
popular sovereignty,--two things which howl and rend each other when
coupled. The divine right leads fatally and inevitably to absolutism,
and France will no longer submit to absolutism."

"Absolutism! absolutism! a fine word to frighten children!"

"No, it is not a fine word; it is a terrible one. Perhaps we are
nearer to the thing itself than we think; but I grieve to say to you,
Madame, that I do not believe that God reserves to your royal son the
dangerous honor of muzzling the popular lion."

"Why not, monsieur?"

"Because it is he whom that lion most distrusts. The moment it sees
him approaching in the distance, the lion shakes his mane, sharpens
his teeth and claws, and will suffer him to come nearer only for the
purpose of springing upon him. No one could be the grandson of Louis
XVI. with impunity, Madame."

"Then, according to you, the Bourbon dynasty has seen its last days."

"God grant that such an idea may never come to me, Madame. What I mean
is that revolutions never go backward; I believe that if they once
come to birth it is best not to stop their development. It is
attempting the impossible; it is like trying to drive a mountain
torrent backward to its source. Either our present revolution will be
fruitful of national good,--in which case, Madame, I know the
patriotism of your feelings too well not to be sure you would accept
it,--or it will be a barren failure, and then the faults of those who
have seized the sovereign power will serve your son far better than
all our efforts could."

"But, in that case, monsieur, things may go on thus to the end of
time."

"Madame, his Majesty Henri V. is a principle, and principles share
with God the privilege of having their kingdom in eternity."

"Therefore, it is your opinion that I ought to renounce my present
hopes, abandon my compromised friends, and three days hence, when they
take up arms, leave them in the lurch and justify the man who tells
them, 'Marie-Caroline, for whom you are ready to fight, for whom you
are ready to die, despairs of her prospects and recoils at fate;
Marie-Caroline is afraid.' Oh, no; never, never, never, monsieur!"

"Your friends will not be able to make you that reproach, Madame, for
they will not take arms, as you suppose, a few days hence."

"Are you ignorant that the day is fixed for the 24th?"

"The order is countermanded."

"Countermanded!" cried the duchess; "when?"

"To-day."

"To-day!" she exclaimed, lifting herself up by her wrists. "By whom?"

"By the man you yourself commanded them to obey."

"The maréchal?"

"The maréchal, following the instructions of the committee in Paris."

"But," cried the duchess, "am I to be of no account?"

"You, Madame!" exclaimed the messenger, falling on one knee and
clasping his hands,--"you are all. That is why we seek your safety; it
is why we will not let you be sacrificed in a useless effort; that is
why we fear to let you risk your popularity by a defeat."

"Monsieur, monsieur," said the duchess, "if Maria Theresa's
counsellors had been as timid as mine she would never have
re-conquered the throne of her son."

"It is, on the contrary, to secure, at a later period, your son's
throne that we now say to you, Madame, 'Leave France; let the people
know you as an angel of peace, not as a demon of war.'"

"Oh! oh!" exclaimed the duchess, pressing her clenched fists to her
eyes; "what humiliation! what cowardice!"

Maître Marc continued as though he did not hear her, or rather as if
his resolution to make known a truth to her mind was so fixed that
nothing could change it.

"All precautions are taken to enable Madame to leave France without
molestation. A vessel is cruising in the bay of Bourgneuf; your
Highness can be on board of her in three hours."

"Oh, noble land of Vendée!" cried the duchess; "could I have believed
you would repulse me, drive me from you,--me who came to you in the
name of your God and your king? Ah! I thought that Paris alone was
unfaithful, ungrateful; but you,--you to whom I come seeking the
recovery of a throne, you deny me so much as a place of burial! Oh,
no, no; I never could have believed it!"

"But you will go, will you not, Madame?" said the messenger, still on
his knees, with clasped hands.

"Yes, I will go," said the duchess. "I will leave France. But remember
this, I shall never return, for I will never come with foreigners.
They are only waiting, as you well know, for the right moment to form
a coalition against Philippe. When that moment comes they will ask me
for my son,--not that they care for him more than they cared for Louis
XVI. in 1792, or Louis XVIII. in 1813, but he can be made the means of
their having a party in Paris. Well, I say to you, no! they shall not
have my son; no! they shall not have him, not for a kingdom! Rather
than that I will fly with him to the mountains of Calabria. I tell
you, monsieur, if he must buy the throne by the cession of a province,
a town, a fortress, a house, a cottage like that I am now in, I swear
as regent and as his mother, that he shall never be king of France.
And now, that is all I have to say to you. Go back to those who sent
you and repeat my words."

Maître Marc rose and bowed to the duchess, expecting that as he left
she would offer one of the two hands she had stretched out to him when
he came; but she was motionless, stern, her fists were closed, her
brows knitted.

"God guard your Highness!" said the messenger, believing it was
useless to stay longer, and thinking, not without reason, that as long
as he was there not a muscle of that generous organization would give
way.

He was not mistaken; but the door was scarcely closed behind him
before Madame, exhausted by the strain, fell back upon her bed and
sobbed aloud:--

"Oh, Bonneville! my poor Bonneville!"

PETIT-PIERRE RESOLVES ON KEEPING A BRAVE HEART
AGAINST MISFORTUNE.

Immediately after the conversation we have just reported, the
traveller left the farmhouse; he was anxious to be back at Nantes
before the middle of the day. A few moments after his departure,
though it was scarcely daylight, Petit-Pierre, dressed in her
peasant's clothes, left her room and went to the hall on the
ground-floor of the farmhouse.

This was a vast room, the dingy walls of which were denuded in many
places of the plaster that originally covered them, while the beams
across the ceiling were blackened by smoke. It was furnished with a
large wardrobe of polished oak, the brass locks and handles of which
sparkled in the shadow of the dull, brown masses about it. The rest of
the furniture consisted of two beds, standing parallel, surrounded by
curtains of green serge, two common pitchers, and a clock in a tall
carved wooden case, the ticking of which was the only sign of life in
the silence of the night.

The fireplace was broad and high, and its shelf was draped with a band
of serge like that of the curtains; only, instead of fading to a rusty
green, this piece of stuff, owing to the smoke, had changed to a dingy
brown. On this mantel-shelf were the usual adornments,--a wax figure,
representing the Child Jesus, covered by a glass shade; two china
pots, containing artificial flowers, covered by gauze to protect them
from flies; a double-barrelled gun; and a branch of consecrated holly.

This hall was separated from the stable by a thin board partition, and
through this partition, in which were sliding panels, the cows poked
their heads to eat the provender that was laid for them on the floor
of the room.

When Petit-Pierre opened the door a man who was warming himself under
the high mantel of the fireplace rose and walked away respectfully to
leave his seat free to the new-comer. But Petit-Pierre made him a sign
with one hand to resume his chair, gently pushing him with the other.
Petit-Pierre then fetched a stool and sat down in the farther corner
of the fireplace opposite to the man, who was no other than Jean
Oullier. Then she leaned her head on her hand, put her elbow on her
knee, and sat absorbed in reflection, while her foot, beaten with a
feverish motion which communicated a tremulous movement to the whole
body, showed that she was under the shock of some deep vexation.

Jean Oullier, who, on his side, had subjects for thought and anxiety,
remained silent and gloomy, twisting his pipe, which he had taken from
his mouth when Petit-Pierre entered the room, mechanically in his
fingers, and issuing from his meditations only to give vent to sighs
that seemed like threats, or to push the burning logs together on the
hearth.

Petit-Pierre spoke first.

"Were not you smoking when I came in, my brave fellow?" she said.

"Yes," he replied, with a very unusual tone of respect in his voice.

"Why don't you continue?"

"I am afraid it may annoy you."

"Nonsense! We are bivouacking, or something very like it, my friend;
and I am all the more anxious it should be comfortable for all, for it
is our last night together."

Enigmatical as these words were to him, Jean Oullier did not allow
himself to ask their meaning. With the wonderful tact which
characterizes the Vendéan peasantry, he refrained from profiting by
the permission given, but without showing by look or sign that he knew
the real rank and quality of Petit-Pierre.

In spite of Petit-Pierre's own pre-occupations, she noticed the clouds
which darkened the peasant's face. She again broke silence.

"What is the matter, my dear Jean Oullier?" she asked. "Why do you
look so gloomy when I should expect, on the contrary, to see you
joyful?"

"Why should I be joyful?" asked the old keeper.

"Because a good and faithful servant like you shares in the happiness
of his masters; and I think your young mistress looks happy enough to
have a little of her joy reflected in your face."

"God grant her joy may last!" replied Jean Oullier, with a doubtful
smile.

"Why, Jean, surely you do not object to marriages of inclination! For
my part, I love them; they are the only ones I have ever, in all my
life, been willing to help on."

"I have no objection to such marriages," replied Jean Oullier; "but I
have a great objection to this husband."

"Why?"

Jean Oullier did not reply.

"Speak," said Petit-Pierre.

The Vendéan shook his head.

"Tell me, I beg of you, my dear Jean. I know your young ladies, and I
know now that they are like your own children to you; you need not
have any secrets from me. Though I am not the Holy Father himself, you
know very well that I have power to bind and unbind."

"I know that you can do much," said Jean Oullier.

"Then tell me why you disapprove of this marriage?"

"Because disgrace attaches to the name every woman must bear if she
marries Monsieur Michel de la Logerie; and this woman ought not to
give up one of the noblest names in the land to take it."

"Ah, my dear Jean," said Petit-Pierre, with a sad smile, "you are
doubtless ignorant that in these days children do not inherit as a
tradition either the virtues or the faults of their ancestors."

"Yes, I was ignorant of that," said Jean Oullier.

"It is task enough," continued Petit-Pierre, "or so it appears, for
each man to answer for himself in our day. See how many fail!--how
many are missing from our ranks, where the name they bear ought to
have kept them! Let us, therefore, be grateful to those who, in spite
of their father's example, in spite of their family ties, or the
temptations to their personal ambition, come to our banner with the
old chivalric sentiment of devotion and fidelity in misfortune."

Jean Oullier raised his head and said, with a look of hatred he did
not attempt to conceal:--

"You may be ignorant--"

Petit-Pierre interrupted him.

"I am not ignorant," she said. "I know the crime you lay to the
Logerie father; but I know also what I owe to the son, wounded for me
and still bleeding from that wound. As to his father's crime,--if his
father really committed it, which God alone can decide,--he expiated
that crime by a violent death."

"Yes," replied Jean Oullier, lowering his head; "that is true."

"Who dares to penetrate the judgments of Providence? Can you venture
to say that when he, in his turn, appeared before that Judgment-seat,
pale and bloody from a violent death, the Divine mercy was not laid
upon his head? Why, then, if God himself may have been satisfied,
should you be more stern, more implacable than God?"

Jean Oullier listened without replying. Every word of Petit-Pierre
made the religious chords of his heart vibrate, and shook his
resolutions of hatred toward Baron Michel, but did not uproot them
altogether.

"Monsieur Michel," continued Petit-Pierre, "is a good and brave young
man, gentle and modest, simple and devoted; he is rich, which
certainly does no harm. I think that your young mistress, with her
rather self-willed character and her habits of independence, could not
do better. I am convinced she will be perfectly happy with a man of
his nature. Why ask more of God, my poor Jean Oullier? Forget the
past," added Petit-Pierre, with a sigh. "Alas! if we remembered all,
we could love nothing."

Jean Oullier shook his head.

"Monsieur Petit-Pierre," he said, "you speak well and like a good
Christian; but there are things that cannot be driven from the memory,
and, unfortunately for Monsieur Michel, my connection with his father
is one of them."

"I do not ask your secrets, Jean," replied Petit-Pierre, gravely; "but
the young baron, as you know, has shed his blood for me. He has been
my guide; he has given me a refuge in this house, which is his. I feel
something more than regard for him,--I feel gratitude; and it would be
a real grief to me to think that dissensions existed among my friends.
So, my dear Jean Oullier, in the name of the devotion you have shown
to my person, I ask you, if not to abjure your memories,--for, as you
say, we cannot always do that,--at any rate, to stifle your hatred
until time, until the sight of the happiness the son of your enemy
bestows upon the child you have brought up and loved, has effaced that
hatred from your soul."

"Let that happiness come in the way God wills, and I will thank Him
for it; but I do not believe it will enter the château de Souday with
Monsieur Michel."

"Why not, if you please, my good Jean?"

"Because the closer I look, Monsieur Petit-Pierre, the more I doubt
whether Monsieur Michel loves Mademoiselle Bertha."

Petit-Pierre shrugged her shoulders impatiently.

"Permit me, my dear Jean Oullier," she said, "to doubt your
perspicacity in love."

"You may be right," said the old Vendéan; "but if this marriage with
Mademoiselle Bertha--the greatest honor to which that young man can
aspire--really fulfils his wishes, why did he make such haste to leave
the farmhouse; and why has he been roaming all night in the woods,
like a madman?"

"If he has been wandering all night, as you say," said Petit-Pierre,
smiling, "it is because happiness will not let him rest; if he has
really left the farm, it is probably on some business for the cause."

"I hope so. I am not of those who think only of themselves; and though
I am quite determined to leave the family when the son of Michel
enters it, I will none the less pray God, night and morning, to
promote the child's happiness. At the same time, I shall watch that
man. If he loves her, as you say he does, I will try to prevent my
presentiments from being realized,--presentiments, I mean, that
instead of happiness he will only bring despair upon his wife."

"Thank you, Jean Oullier. Then, I may hope--you promise me, don't
you?--that you will not show your teeth to my young friend?"

"I shall keep my hatred and my distrust in the depths of my heart, and
only bring them forth in case he justifies them; that is all I can
promise you. Do not ask me to like him, or respect him."

"Unconquerable race!" muttered Petit-Pierre, in a low voice; "it is
that which has made thee so strong, so grand."

"Yes," replied Jean Oullier to this aside, said loud enough for the
old Vendéan to overhear it,--"yes; we of this region, we have but one
love and one hatred. Can you complain of that?"

And he looked fixedly at Petit-Pierre, with a sort of respectful
challenge.

"No," said the latter; "and I complain of it the less because it is
nearly all that remains to Henri V. of his heritage of fourteen
centuries,--and it is powerless, they say."

"Who says so?" cried the Vendéan, rising, in a tone that was almost
threatening.

"You will soon know. We have talked of your interests, Jean Oullier,
and I am not sorry, for our talk has been a truce to thoughts that
were sad indeed. Now I must return to my own affairs. What time is
it?"

"Half-past four."

"Then wake up our friends. Their political anxieties allow
them to sleep; not so with me, for my politics are of one sole
thing,--maternal love. Go, friend!"

Jean Oullier went out. Petit-Pierre, with bowed head, walked up and
down the room; sometimes she stamped with impatience, and wrung her
hands in despair. Presently she returned to the hearth. Two big tears
were rolling down her cheeks, and her emotion seemed to choke her.
Then she fell on her knees, and clasping her hands, prayed to God, the
Giver of all good, the Dispenser of crowns, to enlighten and guide her
resolutions and to grant her either an indomitable power to fulfil her
task or the resignation to endure defeat.

VI.

HOW JEAN OULLIER PROVED THAT WHEN THE WINE IS DRAWN
IT IS BEST TO DRINK IT.

Some minutes later Gaspard, Louis Renaud, and the Marquis de Souday
entered the room. Seeing Petit-Pierre on her knees, absorbed in prayer
and meditation, they paused on the threshold; and the Marquis de
Souday, who had thought proper to salute the reveille, as in the good
old times, with a song, stopped short in his tune respectfully.

But Petit-Pierre had heard the opening of the door. She rose and
addressed those who stood there.

"Come in, gentlemen, and forgive me for disturbing you so early," she
said; "but I have important determinations to announce to you."

"On the contrary, it is we who ought to ask your Royal Highness's
pardon for not foreseeing her wishes and for having slept while we
might have been useful to her," said Louis Renaud.

"A truce to compliments, my friend," interrupted Petit-Pierre. "That
appanage of royalty is ill-timed now that royalty is deserted and
engulfed for the second time."

"What can you mean?"

"I mean, my good and dear friends," resumed Petit-Pierre turning her
back to the fireplace, while the Vendéans stood in a circle round
her,--"I mean that I have called you to me that I may now give back
your promises and bid you farewell."

"Give back our promises! bid us farewell!" cried her astonished
partisans. "Your Royal Highness is surely not thinking of leaving us?"

Then, all together, looking at each other, they cried out:--

"It is impossible!"

"Nevertheless, I must."

"Why so?"

"Because I am advised,--more than that, I am adjured to do so."

"By whom?"

"By those whose judgment and intelligence I cannot doubt, any more
than I distrust their devotion and fidelity."

"But for what reasons?--under what pretexts?"

"It seems that the royalist cause is despaired of even in La Vendée;
the white banner is a rag which France repudiates. I am told there are
not in Paris twelve hundred men who, for a few francs, would begin a
riot in the streets; that it is false to say that we have sympathizers
in the army, false that certain of the government are true to us,
false that the Bocage is ready to rise as one man to defend the rights
of Henri V.--"

"But," interrupted the noble Vendéan who had for the time changed a
name illustrious in the great war for that of Gaspard, and who seemed
incapable of longer controlling himself, "who gives such advice? Who
speaks of La Vendée with such assurance? Who measures our devotion,
and says, 'Thus far and no farther shall it go'?"

"Various royalist committees that I need not name to you, but whose
opinion we must regard."

"Royalist committees!" cried the Marquis de Souday. "Ha! _parbleu!_ I
know them; and if Madame will believe me, we had better treat their
advice as the late Marquis de Charette treated the advice of the
royalist committees of his day."

"How was that, my brave Souday?" said Petit-Pierre.

"The respect I have for your Royal Highness," replied the marquis,
with magnificent self-possession, "will not, unfortunately, allow of
my specifying further."

Petit-Pierre could not help smiling.

"Ah!" she said; "we no longer live in the good old times, my poor
marquis. Monsieur de Charette was an autocratic sovereign in his own
camp, and the Regent Marie-Caroline will never be anything but a very
constitutional regent. The proposed uprising can succeed only on
condition of complete agreement among all those who desire its
success. Now, I ask you, does that complete agreement exist when, on
the eve of the uprising, notice is given to the general that three
fourths of those on whom he counted would not take part in it?"

"What matter for that?" cried the Marquis de Souday; "the fewer we are
at the rendezvous, the greater the glory to those who appear."

"Madame," said Gaspard, gravely, "they went to you, and they said to
you,--when perhaps you had no thought of re-entering France,--'The men
who deposed King Charles X. are held at arm's length by the present
government and reduced to impotence; the ministry is so composed that
you will find few if any changes necessary to make there; the clergy,
a stationary and immovable power, will lend its whole influence to the
re-establishment of the legitimate royalty by divine right; the courts
are still administered by men who owe their all to the Restoration;
the army, fundamentally obedient, is under the orders of a leader who
has said that in public policy there should be more than one flag; the
people, made sovereign in 1830, has fallen under the yoke of the most
idiotic and most inept of aristocracies. Come, then,' they said, 'your
entry into France will be another return from Elba. The population
will everywhere crowd around you to hail the last scion of our kings
whom the nation desires to proclaim!' On the faith of these words you
have come to us, Madame; and at your coming we have risen to arms. I
hold it, therefore, an error for our cause and a shame for ourselves
that this retreat, which would impeach your own political sagacity and
prove our personal powerlessness, has been demanded of you."

"Yes," said Petit-Pierre, who by a singular turn of fate found herself
called upon to defend a course which was breaking her heart,--"yes;
all you say is true. I was promised all that; but it is neither your
fault nor mine, my brave, true friends, if fools have taken baseless
hopes for realities. Impartial history will say that when I was
accused of being a faithless mother (and I have been so accused) I
answered, as I was bound to answer, 'Here I am, ready to make all
sacrifices!' History will also say of you, my loyal friends, that the
more my cause seemed hopeless and abandoned the less you hesitated in
your devotion to it. But it is a matter of honor with me not to put
that devotion to the proof uselessly. Let us talk plainly, friends.
Let us come down to figures; they are practical. How many men do you
think we can muster at this moment?"

"Ten thousand at the first signal."

"Alas!" said Petit-Pierre; "that is many, but not enough.
Louis-Philippe has at least four hundred and eighty thousand
unemployed troops, not to speak of the National Guard."

"But think of the defections of the officers who will resign," said
the marquis.

"Well," said Petit-Pierre, addressing Gaspard, "I place my destiny and
that of my son in your hands. Tell me, assure me, on your honor as a
gentleman, that we have two chances in ten of success, and instead of
ordering you to lay down your arms, I will stay among you to share
your perils and your fate."

At this direct appeal, not to his feelings but to his convictions,
Gaspard bent his head and made no answer.

"You see," resumed Petit-Pierre, "that your judgment and your heart
are not in unison. It would be a crime in me to use a chivalry which
common-sense condemns. Let us, therefore, not discuss that which has
been decided,--wisely decided, perhaps. Let us rather pray God to send
me back to you in better times and under more favorable auspices.
Meantime, let us now think only of my departure."

No doubt the gentlemen present felt the necessity of this resolution;
little as it agreed with their feelings. Believing that the duchess
was fully determined on it, they answered nothing and only turned away
to hide their tears. The Marquis de Souday walked about the room with
an impatience he did not attempt to disguise.

"Yes," said Petit-Pierre, bitterly, after a long silence,--"yes, some
have said, like Pilate, 'I wash my hands of it,' and my heart, so
strong in danger, so strong to meet death, has yielded; for it cannot
face in cold blood the responsibility of failure and the useless
shedding of blood. Others--"

"Blood that flows for the faith is never uselessly shed," said a voice
from the chimney-corner. "God himself has said it, and, humble as I
am, I dare to repeat the words of God. Every man who believes and dies
for his belief is a martyr; his blood enriches the earth and hastens
the harvest."

"Who said that?" asked Petit-Pierre, eagerly, rising on the tips of
her toes.

"I," said Jean Oullier, simply, getting up from the stool on which he
was sitting, and entering the circle of nobles and leaders.

"You, my brave fellow!" cried Petit-Pierre, delighted to find a
reinforcement at the very moment she seemed to be abandoned by all.
"Then you don't agree with the Parisian gentlemen. Come here, and
speak your mind. In these days Jacques Bonhomme is never out of place,
even at a royal council."

"I am so little of the opinion that you ought to leave France," said
Jean Oullier, "that if I had the honor to be a gentleman, like those
present, I should lock the door and bar your way and say, 'You shall
not leave us!'"

"But your reasons? I am eager to hear them. Speak, speak, my Jean!"

"My reasons?--my reasons are that you are our flag; and so long
as one of your soldiers is left standing, be he the humblest of your
army, he should bear it aloft and steady until death makes it his
winding-sheet."

"Go on, go on, Jean Oullier! You speak well."

"My reasons?--one is that you are the first of your race who have come
to fight with those who fight for its cause, and it would be a
shameful thing to let you go without a sword being drawn from its
scabbard."

"Go on, go on, Jacques Bonhomme!" cried Petit-Pierre, striking her
hands together.

"But," interrupted Louis Renaud, alarmed at the attention the duchess
gave to Jean Oullier, "the withdrawals we have just heard of deprive
the movement of all chance of success; it will be nothing more than a
mere skirmish."

"No, no; that man is right!" cried Gaspard, who had yielded with great
reluctance to Petit-Pierre's arguments. "An attempt, if only a
skirmish, is better than the nonexistence into which we should drop. A
skirmish is a date, a fact; it will stand in history, and the day will
come when the people will forget all except the courage of those who
led it. If it does not lead to the recovery of the throne it will at
least leave traces on the memory of nations. Who would remember the
name of Charles Edward were it not for the skirmishes of Preston-Pans
and Culloden? Ah, Madame, I long to do as this brave peasant advises!"

"And you would be all the more right, Monsieur le comte," said Jean
Oullier, with an assurance which showed that these questions,
apparently above his level, were familiar to him,--"you would be all
the more right because the principal object of her Royal Highness,
that to which she is even willing to sacrifice the monarchy confided
to her regency,--I mean the welfare of the people,--will otherwise
fail."

"How do you mean?" asked Petit-Pierre.

"The moment Madame withdraws and the government knows she is safely
out of the country, persecutions will begin; and they will be the more
keen, the more violent, because we shall have shown ourselves daunted.
You are rich, you gentlemen,--you can escape by flight, you can have
vessels to wait for you at the mouths of the Loire and the Charente.
Your country is everywhere, in many lands. But as for us poor
peasants, we are tethered like the goats to the soil that feeds us; we
would rather face death than exile."

"And your conclusion is, my brave Jean Oullier--"

"My conclusion is, Monsieur Petit-Pierre," said the Vendéan, "that
when the wine is drawn it is best to drink it; we have taken arms, and
having taken them, we ought to fight without delay."

"Let us fight!" cried Petit-Pierre, enthusiastically. "The voice of
the people is the voice of God. I have faith in that of Jean Oullier."

"Let us fight!" echoed the marquis.

"Let us fight!" said Louis Renaud.

"Well then, what day shall we decide on for the first outbreak?" asked
Petit-Pierre.

"Why," said Gaspard, "I thought it was decided for the 24th!"

"Yes; but these gentlemen in Paris have countermanded the order."

"Without informing you?" cried the marquis. "Don't they know that men
are shot for less than that?"

"I forgave them," said Petit-Pierre, stretching out her hand.
"Besides, those who did it are civilians, not soldiers."

"This counter-order and delay are most unfortunate," said Gaspard, in
a low tone; "had I known of it--"

"What?" asked Petit-Pierre.

"I might not have agreed in the opinion of that peasant."

"Oh, nonsense!" cried Petit-Pierre; "you heard what he said, dear
Gaspard,--when the wine is drawn it is best to drink it. Let us drink
it gayly, gentlemen, even though it be that with which the lord of
Beaumanoir refreshed himself at the fight of the gallant Thirty. Come,
Marquis de Souday, find me pen, ink, and paper in this farmhouse where
your future son-in-law has given me hospitality."

The marquis hastened to search for what Petit-Pierre wanted; and while
opening drawers and closets and rummaging the clothes and linen of the
farmer, he contrived to wring Jean Oullier's hand and whisper:--

"You talked gold, my brave _gars_; never one of your tally-hos
rejoiced my heart like that 'boot-and-saddle' you've just rung out."

Then, having found what he wanted he carried it to Petit-Pierre. The
latter dipped the pen into the ink-bottle, and in her firm, bold,
large handwriting, she wrote as follows:--

MY DEAR MARÉCHAL,--I remain among you. Be so good as to come to me.

I remain, inasmuch as my presence has already compromised many of my
faithful followers, and it would be cowardice on my part to abandon
them. Besides, I hope, in spite of this unfortunate counter-order,
that God will grant us victory.

Farewell, Monsieur le maréchal; do not give in your resignation, for
Petit-Pierre will not give in hers.
PETIT-PIERRE.

"And now," said Petit-Pierre, folding the letter, "what day shall we
fix for the uprising?"

"Thursday, May 31," said the marquis, thinking that the nearest time
was the best, "if that is satisfactory to you."

"No," said Gaspard; "excuse me, Monsieur le marquis, but it seems to
me best to choose the night of Sunday, the 3d to the 4th of June. On
Sunday, after high mass, the peasants of all the parishes assemble in
the porches of their different churches, and the captains will have an
opportunity to communicate the order without exciting suspicion."

"Your knowledge of the manners and customs of this region is a great
help, my friend," said Petit-Pierre, "and I agree to your advice. Let
the date be therefore the night of the 3d to the 4th of June."

Whereupon, she began at once to write the following order:--

Having resolved not to leave the provinces of the West, but to confide
myself to their fidelity,--a fidelity so often proved,--I rely upon
you, monsieur, to take all necessary measures in your division for the
call to arms which is appointed to take place during the night of the
3d and 4th of June.

I summon to my side all faithful hearts. God will help us to save the
country; no danger, no fatigue, shall discourage me. I shall be
present at the first engagement.

To this document Petit-Pierre signed her name as follows:--

MARIE-CAROLINE,
Regent of France.

"There, the die is cast!" cried Petit-Pierre. "Now it remains to
conquer or die."

"And now," added the marquis, "if twenty counter-orders are sent to
me, I'll ring that tocsin on the 4th of June, and then--yes, damn it,
after us the deluge!"

"One thing is absolutely necessary," said Petit-Pierre, showing her
order. "This order must immediately and infallibly reach the various
division commanders so as to neutralize the bad effects of the
manifesto sent from Nantes."

"Alas!" said Gaspard; "God grant that luckless counter-order may reach
the country districts in time to paralyze the first movement and yet
leave vigor for the second. I fear the reverse; I am terribly afraid
that many of our brave fellows will be the victims of their courage
and their isolation."

"That is why I think we ought not to lose a moment, messieurs," said
Petit-Pierre, "but use our legs while waiting to use our arms. You,
Gaspard, inform the divisions of Upper and Lower Poitou. Monsieur le
Marquis de Souday will do the same in the Retz and Mauges regions.
You, my dear Louis Renaud, must explain it all to your Bretons. But
who will undertake to carry my despatch to the maréchal? He is at
Nantes; and your faces are far too well known there to allow me to
send any of you on this errand."

"I will go," said Bertha, who had heard, in the alcove where she was
resting with her sister, the sound of voices, and had risen to share
in the discussion. "That is one of my functions as aide-de-camp."

"Certainly it is; but your dress, my dear child," replied
Petit-Pierre, "will not meet the approval of the Nantes people,
charming as I myself think it."

"Therefore my sister will not go to Nantes, Madame," said Mary, coming
forward; "but I will, if you permit me. I can wear the dress of a
peasant-woman, and leave your Royal Highness her first aide-de-camp."

Bertha wished to insist; but Petit-Pierre, whispering in her ear,
said:--

"Stay, my dear Bertha; I have something to say to you about Baron
Michel. We will plan a project he will not oppose, I am very sure."

Bertha blushed, lowered her head, and left her sister to take
possession of the letter and convey it to Nantes.

VII.

HEREIN IS EXPLAINED HOW AND WHY BARON MICHEL
DECIDED TO GO TO NANTES.

We have mentioned already, incidentally, that Michel had left the
farmhouse; but we did not dwell sufficiently on this caper, nor on the
circumstances that accompanied it.

For the first time in his life Michel acted slyly and even showed
duplicity. Under the shock of emotion produced by Petit-Pierre's
speech to the marquis, and by the vanishing (through Mary's unexpected
declaration) of all the hopes he had been cherishing so complacently,
he was utterly crushed down and annihilated. Fully aware that the
fancy Bertha had so liberally shown for him separated him from her
sister far more than any aversion on the sister's part, he reproached
himself for having encouraged that fancy by his silence and his
foolish timidity. But there was no use scolding himself now; he knew
that in the depths of his soul he had not the necessary strength to
cut short a misunderstanding which fatally interfered with an
affection that was dearer to him than life itself. There was not in
his nature resolution enough to bring the matter to a frank,
categorical explanation; he felt it to be impossible to say to that
handsome girl, to whom he had perhaps owed his life a few hours
earlier, "Mademoiselle, it is not you whom I love."

During all that evening, although occasions to open his heart honestly
to Bertha were not lacking,--for she, very uneasy about a wound which
if given to herself she would hardly have noticed, persisted in
dressing it,--Michel remained passive in a situation the difficulties
of which increased every moment. He tried to speak to Mary; but Mary
took as much pains to prevent this as he did to accomplish it, and he
renounced the idea, which he indulged for a moment, of making her his
intermediary. Besides, those fatal words, 'I do not love you,' sounded
in his ears like a funeral knell.

He profited by a moment when no one, not even Bertha, had an eye upon
him to retire, or rather to flee to his own room. There he flung
himself on the straw bed which Bertha with her own white hands had
prepared for him; but he soon got up, his head on fire, his heart more
and more convulsed, to bathe his burning face in water and bind a wet
towel round his head. This done, he profited by his sleeplessness to
search for some method of release.

After an actual travail of imagination which lasted nearly an hour an
idea came to him. It was this,--that he might have courage to write
what he could not say. This, Michel felt, was the highest point his
strength of character could reach. But in order to get any good out of
such a letter he felt he could not be present in the house when Bertha
received it and read the revelation of his secret thoughts; for not
only do timid persons dread being made to suffer, but they also dread
making others suffer.

The result of Michel's reflections was that he would leave the
farmhouse; but not for long, be it understood; for he intended, as
soon as the position was plainly defined and the ground cleared, to
return and take his place beside the sister he really loved. The
Marquis de Souday would surely not refuse him the hand of Mary, since
he had given him that of Bertha, as soon as he was made aware that it
was Mary and not Bertha whom he loved. The father could have no
possible reason for refusal.

Much encouraged by this prospect, Michel rose and with profound
ingratitude cast off the towel to which he owed (thanks to the quiet
its cool refreshment had restored to his brain), the good idea he was
now intent on putting into execution. He went down to the yard of the
farmhouse and began to lift the bars at the stable entrance. But just
as he had lifted and pushed back the first of these bars and was
beginning on the second, he saw, under a shed, a bale of straw, and
out of that bale of straw came a head which he recognized as that of
Jean Oullier.

"The devil!" said the latter in his gruffest tone; "you are pretty
early this morning, Monsieur Michel."

At that instant two o'clock rang from the steeple of a neighboring
village.

"Have you any errand to do?" asked Jean Oullier.

"No," replied the baron, for he fancied that the Vendéan's eye could
penetrate into the deepest recesses of his soul,--"no; but I have a
dreadful headache, and I thought the night air might still it."

"I warn you that we have sentinels all around us, and if you have not
the password you may be roughly used."

"I!"

"Damn it! you as well as others. Ten steps from here you'll find out
you are not the master of this house."

"But that password,--do you know it, Monsieur Jean?"

"Of course."

"Then tell me."

Jean Oullier shook his head.

"That's the Marquis de Souday's affair. Go up to his room; tell him
you want to go away, and in order to do so you must have the password.
He'll give it to you,--that is, if he thinks proper to do so."

Michel took good care to do nothing of the kind, and he remained
standing where he was, with his hand on the bar. As for Jean Oullier,
he again buried himself in the straw.

After a while Michel, wholly discomfited, went and sat down on an
overturned trough, which formed a kind of seat at the inner gate of
the farmyard. There he had leisure to continue his meditations; but
although the pile of straw did not move again, Michel fancied that an
aperture was made in its thickest part, and that in the depths of that
cavity he could see something glitter, which was, doubtless, the eye
of Jean Oullier. And alas! he knew there was no chance of eluding the
eye of that watch-dog.

Luckily, as we have said, meditation was on this occasion singularly
useful to the young baron. The question now was how to find a pretext
to get away from Banl[oe]uvre in a proper manner. Michel was still
seeking that pretext when the first rays of the rising sun began to
light up the horizon and gild the thatch of the cottage-roof and color
with its opal tints the panes of the narrow windows.

Little by little life was renewed around Michel. The cattle lowed for
their food; the sheep, impatient for the fields, bleated and poked
their gray-white muzzles through the bars of their pen; the hens
fluttered down from their perches and stretched their wings and
clucked on the manure heap; the pigeons came out of the cote and flew
to the roof, to coo their hymn of love eternal; while the ducks, more
prosaic, stood in a long line by the farmyard gate and filled the air
with discordant noises,--noises which, in all probability, expressed
their surprise at finding that gate closed when they were in such a
hurry to go and dabble in the pond.

At the sound of these various noises, forming the matutinal concert of
a well-managed farm, a window just above the bench on which Michel was
sitting opened softly, and Petit-Pierre's head appeared within it. She
did not, however, see Michel; her eyes were turned to heaven, and she
seemed entirely absorbed either by inward thought or by the glorious
spectacle the dawn presented to her. Any eye--above all, that of a
princess unaccustomed to watch the rising of the sun--would have been
dazzled by the jets of flame which the king of day was sending along
the plain, where they sparkled like thousands of precious stones upon
the wet and quivering leaves of the forest-trees and the dewy herbage
of the fields; presently an invisible hand softly raised the veil of
vapor from the valley, disclosing, one by one, like a modest virgin,
its beauty, grace, and splendor.

Petit-Pierre gave herself up to the contemplation of this scene for
several minutes. Then, resting her head on her hand, she murmured
sadly:--

"Alas! bare as this poor cottage is, those who live in it are more
fortunate than I."

These words struck the young baron's brain like a magic wand and
elicited the idea, or rather the pretext, he had been vainly searching
for the last two hours. He kept quite still against the wall, to which
he had clung when the window opened, and he did not move until a sound
told him the window was shut and he could leave his station without
being seen.

He went straight to the shed.

"Monsieur," he said to Jean Oullier, "Petit-Pierre opened his
window--"

"So I saw," said the Vendéan.

"He spoke; did you hear what he said?"

"It did not concern me, and therefore I did not listen."

"Being nearer to him, I heard what he said, without intending to
listen."

"Well?"

"Well, our guest thinks this house unpleasant and inconvenient; it
lacks many things which are a necessity to a person of his
aristocratic habits. Couldn't you--I giving you the money, of
course--couldn't you procure some of these necessary things?"

"Where, I should like to know?"

"Why, in the nearest town or village,--Légé or Machecoul."

Jean Oullier shook his head.

"Impossible," he said.

"Why so?" asked Michel.

"Because if I were to buy articles of luxury just now in either of
those places, where not a gesture of certain persons is unobserved, I
should awaken dangerous suspicion."

"Couldn't you go as far as Nantes?"

"No," said Jean Oullier, curtly; "the lesson I got at Montaigu has
taught me prudence, and I shall not leave my post. But," he continued,
in a slightly ironical tone, "you who want the fresh air to cure your
headache,--why don't you go to Nantes?"

Seeing his scheme thus crowned with success, Michel blushed to the
whites of his eyes; and yet he trembled, now that it came to putting
it into execution.

"Perhaps you are right," he stammered; "but I am afraid, too."

"Pooh! a brave man like you ought to have no fear," said Jean Oullier,
emerging from the straw, and shaking it off as he walked toward the
gate, leaving the young man time to reflect.

"But--" said Michel.

"What?" asked Jean Oullier, impatiently.

"Will you undertake to explain the reasons of my departure to Monsieur
le marquis, and present my excuses to--"

"Mademoiselle Bertha?" said Jean Oullier, sarcastically. "Yes; don't
trouble yourself."

"I shall be back to-morrow," said Michel, as he passed through the
gate.

"Don't hurry; take your time, Monsieur le baron. If not to-morrow, the
next day will do." So saying, he closed the heavy gate behind the
young man.

The sound of the gate barricaded against him gave a painful shock to
Michel's heart. At that moment he thought less of the difficulties he
was seeking to escape than of his total separation from the one he
loved. It seemed to him that the worm-eaten gate was an iron barrier
which he should ever find in future between the gentle form of Mary
and himself.

So, instead of starting on his way, he again sat down, this time by
the roadside, and wept. There was a moment when, if he had not feared
Jean Oullier's sarcasms (inexperienced as he was, he could not be
ignorant of the man's malevolence), he would have rapped on the gate
and asked for re-admittance to see once more his tender Mary; but an
inward impulse of--we were about to say false shame; let us rather
say--true shame withheld him, and he at last departed, without very
well knowing whither he went.

He was, however, on the road to Légé, and before long the sound of
wheels made him turn his head. He then saw the diligence which ran
from Sables-d'Olonne to Nantes coming toward him. Michel felt that his
strength, lessened by the loss of blood, though his wound was slight,
would not enable him to walk much farther. The sight of the vehicle
brought him to a resolution. He stopped it, got into one of the
compartments, and reached Nantes a few hours later.

But when he got there all the melancholy of his situation came over
him. Habituated from childhood to live the life of others, to obey a
will that was not his own, and still maintained in that mental
servitude by the very substitution that had just taken place within
him,--having, as we may say, changed masters by abandoning his mother
to follow the woman whom he loved,--liberty was to him so novel that
he did not feel its charm, whereas his solitude and isolation were
unbearable to him.

For hearts that are deeply wounded there is no such cruel solitude as
that of a city; and the larger and more populous it is, the greater
the solitude. Isolation in the midst of a crowd, the nearness of the
joy and the heedlessness of those they meet, contrasting with the
sadness and anxiety in their own minds, become unendurable to them. So
it was now with Michel. Finding himself, almost without the action of
his own will, on the road to Nantes, he hoped to find there some
distraction to his anxious grief; on the contrary, he found it far
more keen and agonizing, Mary's image followed him; he seemed to see
her in every woman he met, and his heart dissolved into bitter regrets
and impotent desires.

In this condition of mind he presently turned back to the inn at which
the coach had stopped, where he shut himself up in a room and again
began to weep. He thought of returning instantly to Banl[oe]uvre,
flinging himself at Petit-Pierre's feet, and asking her to be his
mediator between the two sisters. He blamed himself for not having
done so that morning, and for weakly yielding to the fear of wounding
Bertha's pride.

This current of ideas brought him naturally back to the object, or
rather the pretext, of his journey,--that is, the articles of luxury
he had proposed to purchase. Those purchases once made,--to serve as a
legitimate reason for his absence,--he would write the terrible letter
which was, in truth, the one only and true cause of his flight to
Nantes.

Presently he decided that he had better begin by writing that letter.
This resolution taken, he did not lose a moment in carrying it out. He
seated himself at the table and composed the following letter, on
which fell as many tears from his eyes as words from his pen:--

MADEMOISELLE,--I ought to be the happiest of men, and yet my heart is
broken, and I ask myself whether death were not more tolerable than
the suffering I endure.

What will you think of me, what will you say when this letter tells
you that which I can no longer conceal without being utterly unworthy
of your goodness to me? I need the memory of that goodness, the
certainty of the grandeur and generosity of your soul, but, above all,
I need the thought that it is the being you love best in the world who
separates us, before I can summon courage to take this step.

Mademoiselle, I love your sister Mary; I love her with all the power
of my heart; I love her so that I do not wish to live--I cannot live
without her! I love her so much that at this moment, when I am guilty
toward you of what a less noble character than yours might perhaps
consider a cruel wrong, I stretch to you my supplicating hands and
say: Let me hope that I may obtain the right to love you as a brother
loves a sister!

It was not until this letter was folded and sealed that Michel thought
of how it might be made to reach Bertha. No one in Nantes could be
sent with it; the danger was too great either for a faithful
messenger, or for themselves if the messenger were treacherous. The
only means he could think of was to return to the country and find
some peasant in the neighborhood of Machecoul on whose fidelity he
could rely, and wait himself in the forest for the reply on which his
future hung. This was the plan on which he decided.

He spent the remainder of the evening in making the different
purchases for the comfort of Petit-Pierre, which he packed in a
valise, putting off till the next morning the buying of a horse,--an
acquisition which was necessary to him in future if he was, as he
hoped, to continue the campaign he had already begun.

The next day, about nine o'clock in the morning, Michel, mounted on an
excellent Norman beast, with his valise behind him, was preparing to
start on his way back to the Retz region.

VIII.

THE SHEEP, RETURNING TO THE FOLD, TUMBLES INTO
A PIT-FALL.

It was market-day, and the influx of countrymen was considerable in
the streets and along the quays of Nantes. At the moment when Michel
reached the pont Rousseau the road was blocked by a compact line of
heavy vehicles loaded with grain, carts heaped with vegetables,
horses, mules, peasants, and peasant-women, all carrying in baskets,
hods, or tin-pails the produce they were bringing to the town.

Michel's impatience was so great that he did not hesitate to plunge
into the midst of the crowd; but just as he was pushing his horse into
it he caught sight of a young girl leaving it in a direction opposite
to his own course, and something in her aspect made him quiver.

She was dressed, like other peasant-women, in a blue-and-red striped
petticoat and a cotton mantle with a hood to it; her head was covered
by a _coif_, with falling lappets of the commonest kind. Nevertheless,
in spite of this humble costume, she closely resembled Mary,--so
closely that the young baron could not restrain a cry of astonishment.

He tried to turn back; but, unfortunately, the commotion he made in
the crowd by the stopping and turning of his horse raised such a storm
of oaths and cries that he had no courage to brave it. He let his
beast continue its way, swearing to himself at the obstacles which
hindered his advance. Once over the bridge, however, he jumped from
his horse and looked about for some one to hold it, while he went back
to see if his eyes had deceived him, or whether it were possible that
Mary had come to Nantes.

At that instant a voice, nasal like that of all the beggars of that
region, asked alms of him. He turned quickly, for he thought he knew
the voice. Leaning against the last post of the bridge were two
individuals, whose countenances were far too marked and characteristic
to have escaped his memory. They were Aubin Courte-Joie and
Trigaud-Vermin, who, apparently, were there for no other purpose than
to work upon the pity of the crowd, though, in all probability, they
had some object not foreign to the political and commercial interests
of Maître Jacques.

Michel went eagerly up to them.

"You know me?" he asked.

Aubin Courte-Joie winked.

"My good monsieur," he said, "have pity on a poor cartman who has had
both legs crushed under the wheels of his cart, coming down the hill
by the springs of Baugé."

"Yes, yes, my good man," said Michel, understanding instantly.

He went close up to the pair as he gave them alms, and the alms
were a piece of gold, which he slipped into the capacious paw of
Trigaud-Vermin.

"I am here by order of Petit-Pierre," he said, in a low voice, to the
false and the real mendicant; "hold my horse for a few moments while I
do an important errand."

The cripple made a sign of assent. Baron Michel tossed the bridle of
the horse to Trigaud and turned to re-cross the bridge. Unfortunately
for him, if the passage was difficult for a horseman, it was still
more difficult for a foot-passenger. Michel in vain attempted some
assumption, and tried to make his timid nature more aggressive. He
punched with his elbows, and glided where he could through
interstices; he risked his life a dozen times under the wheels of
hay-carts and cabbage-carts, but finally he was forced to resign
himself to follow the stream and go with the torrent, though it was
evident the young peasant-woman would be far out of sight by the time
he reached the place where he had seen her.

He thought, sagaciously enough, that she must, like other
peasant-women, have gone toward the market, and he took that
direction, looking at all the countrywomen he passed with an anxious
curiosity that earned him some jests and came near causing a quarrel
or two. None of them was she whom he sought. He rushed through the
market and the adjacent streets, but saw nothing that recalled to him
the graceful apparition he had seen on the bridge.

Completely discouraged, he was thinking of returning on his steps and
remounting his horse, when, as he turned the corner of the rue du
Château he saw, not twenty steps distant from him, the identical
petticoat of blue-and-red stripes and the very cotton mantle of which
he was in search. The carriage and step of the woman who wore that
dress had all the elegance of Mary's own bearing. It was surely her
slender and delicate form the outline of which he saw through the
folds of the coarse material she wore. Those were the curves of her
graceful neck, which made the lappets of her common _coif_ an
adornment; and the knot of hair which came below the _coif_, surely it
was braided of the same fair golden hair which Michel had so often
admired.

No, he could not be deceived; that young peasant-woman and Mary were
one and the same person, and Michel was so sure of it that he dared
not pass her and look into her face as he had into that of others. He
contented himself by simply crossing the street. The result of that
strategic movement assured him he was not mistaken.

But why was Mary in Nantes; and being there, why was she thus
disguised? These questions Michel put to himself without being able to
solve them, and he was, after a violent struggle with himself, just
about to approach the young girl and speak to her, when he saw her
stop at No. 17 of this very rue du Château, push the gate of the
house, and as the gate was not locked, pass through it, enter an
alley, close the gate behind her, and disappear.

Michel went eagerly to the gate; but it was now locked. He stood
before it in deep and painful stupefaction, not knowing what to do
next, and half-inclined to believe he was dreaming.

Suddenly he felt a tap upon his arm; he shuddered, so far was his mind
at that moment from his body. Then he turned round. The notary,
Loriot, was beside him.

"You here!" exclaimed the latter, in a tone that denoted surprise.

"Is there anything so very astonishing in my being at Nantes, Maître
Loriot?" asked Michel.

"Come, speak lower, and don't stand before that door as if you had
taken root there; I advise you not."

"Goodness! what's the matter with you? I knew you were cautious, but
not to that extent."

"One can't be too cautious. Come, let's talk as we walk; then we
sha'n't be remarked upon." Passing his handkerchief over his face,
which was bathed in perspiration, he added, "Though it will compromise
me horribly."

"I swear, Maître Loriot, I don't know what you are talking about,"
exclaimed Michel.

"You don't understand what I mean, unfortunate young man? Don't you
know that you are down on the list of suspected persons, and that a
warrant has been issued for your arrest?"

"Well, let them arrest me!" cried Michel, impatiently, trying to turn
the notary back toward the house into which Mary had disappeared.

"Arrest you! Hey! you take it gayly enough, Monsieur Michel. All
right; call it philosophy. I ought to tell you that this same news,
which seems to you so unimportant, has produced such a dreadful effect
upon your mother that if chance had not thrown you in my way here I
should have gone immediately to Légé to find you."

"My mother!" cried the young man, whom the notary was touching on his
weak spot,--"what has happened to my mother?"

"Nothing has happened, Monsieur Michel. Thank Heaven, she is as well
as persons can be when their minds are full of uneasiness and their
hearts of grief. I must not conceal from you that that is your
mother's condition at this moment."

"Good God! what do you mean?" said Michel, sighing dolefully.

"You know what you are to her, Monsieur Michel; you can't have
forgotten the care she took of your youth, and the solicitude she
continues to bestow upon you, though you are now of an age when lads
begin to slip through their mother's fingers. You can, therefore,
imagine what her tortures are in knowing that you are exposed every
day to the terrible dangers that surround you. I do not conceal from
you that I considered it my duty to inform her of what I suppose to be
your intentions, and I have fulfilled that duty."

"Oh, what have you said to her, Maître Loriot?"

"I told her, in plain language, that I believed you to be desperately
in love with Mademoiselle Bertha de Souday--"

"Goodness!" exclaimed Michel; "he, too!"

"And," continued the notary, without noticing the interruption, "that,
to all appearance, you intend to marry her."

"What did my mother say?" asked Michel, with visible anxiety.

"Just what all mothers say when they hear of a marriage they
disapprove. But come, let me question you myself, my young friend; my
position as notary of both families ought to give me some influence
with you. Have you seriously reflected on what you are about to do?"

"Do you share my mother's prejudices?" demanded Michel. "Do you know
anything against the reputation of the Demoiselles de Souday?"

"Nothing whatever, my young friend," replied Maître Loriot, while
Michel gazed anxiously at the windows of the house into which Mary had
entered,--"nothing whatever! On the contrary, I consider those young
ladies, whom I have known from childhood, as among the purest and most
virtuous in the land, in spite of the malicious nickname a few evil
tongues have applied to them."

"Then," said Michel, "why is it you disapprove of what I do?"

"My young friend," said the notary, "please observe that I have given
no opinion; I simply advise prudence. You will have to make three
times as much effort to succeed in what must be called from a certain
point of view--pray excuse the word--a folly, as it would cost you to
renounce the attachment now; though I don't say but what the fine
qualities of the young lady justify it."

"My dear Monsieur Loriot," said Michel, who at a safe distance from
his mother was not sorry to burn his vessels, "the Marquis de Souday
has been so good as to grant me his daughter's hand; there's no
getting over that."

"Oh, that indeed is another thing," said Maître Loriot. "If you have
reached that point in the affair, I have only one word to say and one
advice to give. Remember that it is always a serious matter legally to
marry in defiance of the will of parents. Persist in your intention;
that's very right. But go and see your mother; don't give her the
chance to complain of your neglect. Try to overcome her prejudices."

"Hum!" muttered Michel, who felt the wisdom of these remarks.

"Come," persisted Loriot, "will you promise me to do as I ask you?"

"Yes, yes!" replied the young man, who wanted to get rid of the
notary, for he thought he heard steps in the alley, and feared that
Mary might come out while Maître Loriot was there.

"Good!" said the latter. "Remember, also, that you are safer at La
Logerie than elsewhere. Your mother's name and influence with the
administration can alone save you from the consequences of your late
conduct. You have been, committing various pranks for some time past
which no one would have suspected you to be capable of; you must admit
that, young man."

"Yes, yes; I admit it," cried Michel, impatiently.

"That's all I want. The sinner who confesses is half-repentant. There!
now I must say good-bye; I leave Nantes at eleven o'clock."

"Are you going back to Légé?"

"Yes; with a young lady who is to meet me presently at my hotel, and
to whom I am to give a seat in my cabriolet, which I would otherwise
offer to you."

"You would go out of your way a mile or two to do me a service,
wouldn't you?"

"Of course; with the greatest pleasure, my dear Monsieur Michel," said
the notary.

"Then, go by way of Banl[oe]uvre, and give this letter to Mademoiselle
Bertha."

"So be it; but for God's sake," cried the notary, with a frightened
look, "be more cautious in your way of handing it to me."

"I notice you are not yourself, my dear Monsieur Loriot; when those
people passed us just now you jumped off the pavement as if they had
the plague. What's the matter with you? Come, Mr. Notary, speak up!"

"I'd change my practice at this very moment for the poorest practice
in the Sarthe or the Eure departments. I feel such terrible emotions
that if they go on much longer my days will be numbered; that's what's
the matter with me. Monsieur Michel," continued the notary, lowering
his voice, "think of it; they have put four pounds of gunpowder in my
pockets, against my will. I tremble as I walk along the pavement;
every cigar that comes along puts me into a fever. Well, good-bye;
take my advice and go back to La Logerie."

Michel, whose agonies, like those of Maître Loriot, grew worse
and worse, let the notary depart, having got from him all he
wanted,--namely, the certainty that his letter would reach
Baul[oe]uvre. No sooner was Loriot out of sight than his eyes,
returning naturally to the house he was watching, fixed themselves on
a window where he fancied he saw the curtain move, and the vague
silhouette of a face looking at him through the glass. He thought it
might be on account of his persistency in standing before the house
that the young girl watched him; he therefore moved in the direction
of the river, and hid behind the angle of a house, not, however,
losing sight of all that happened in the rue du Château.

Presently the gate of No. 17 opened, and the same young peasant-girl
appeared; but she was not alone. A young man, dressed in a long
blouse, and affecting rustic manners, accompanied her. Rapidly as they
passed him, Michel noticed that the man was young, and the distinction
of his face was in marked contrast to his peasant's clothes; he saw,
too, that he was jesting with Mary on a footing of equality, offering,
apparently, to carry her basket,--an attention the young girl was
refusing, with a laugh.

The serpents of jealousy gnawed his heart. Convinced, as he remembered
what Mary had whispered to him, that these disguises hid some amorous
as well as some political intrigue, he rushed away toward the Rousseau
bridge, which lay in exactly the opposite direction to that taken by
Mary and her friend. The crowd on the bridge was no longer so great.
He crossed it easily; but when he reached the further end, and began
to look round for Courte-Joie, Trigaud, and his horse, all three had
disappeared.

Michel was so upset in mind that it did not occur to him to search the
neighborhood. Remembering, too, what the notary had said, he thought
it would be dangerous to lodge a complaint, which might bring about
his own arrest, and reveal, besides, his acquaintance with the two
mendicants. He therefore made up his mind to do nothing to recover his
horse, but to go home on foot; and he accordingly took his way toward
Saint-Philbert-de-Grand-Lieu.

Cursing Mary, and shedding tears over the betrayal of which he
believed himself the victim, he had no other thought than to do as
Maître Loriot advised,--that is to say, return to La Logerie and fling
himself into the arms of his mother, toward whom the sight he had just
seen impelled him far more than the remonstrances of the notary.

Thus preoccupied, he reached the height of Saint-Corentin without
hearing the footsteps of two _gendarmes_ who were walking behind him.

"Your papers, monsieur," said one of them, a corporal, after examining
him from head to foot.

"My papers?" exclaimed Michel, in astonishment, the inquiry being
addressed to him for the first time in his life,--"I have none."

"And why have you none?"

"Because I never supposed that any passport was required to come from
my house into Nantes."

"Where is your house?"

"It is the château de la Logerie."

"What is your name?"

"Baron Michel."

"Baron Michel de la Logerie?"

"Yes."

"If you are Baron Michel de la Logerie, I arrest you," said the
corporal.

Then, without more ado, and before the young man could think of
flight, which from the nature of the ground was quite possible, the
corporal collared him, while the other gendarme, minion of equality
before the law, slipped the hand-cuffs on his wrists.

This operation over,--and it lasted only a few seconds, thanks to the
stupefaction of the prisoner and the dexterity of the gendarme,--the
two agents of the armed forces conducted Baron Michel to
Saint-Colombin, where they locked him into a sort of cellar, belonging
to the barracks of the troops stationed there, which was used as a
temporary prison.

IX.

TRIGAUD PROVES THAT IF HE HAD BEEN HERCULES, HE WOULD
PROBABLY HAVE ACCOMPLISHED TWENTY-FOUR LABORS INSTEAD
OF TWELVE.

It was about four in the afternoon when Michel, thrust into the
lock-up of the guard-house at Saint-Colombin, became aware of the
delights of that abode. On entering what seemed to be a dungeon, the
young man's eyes, accustomed to the brilliant light without, could
distinguish nothing around him. Little by little they grew accustomed
to the darkness, and then their owner was able to make out the sort of
lodging he was in.

It was partly under and partly above the surface of the ground; its
walls were of thicker and more solidly constructed masonry than was
usual in such buildings, for the reason that it supported the walls of
the house above it. The floor was bare earth; and as the place was
very damp, that earth was nearly mud. The ceiling was of beams, placed
very near together. The light usually entered through a grating placed
just above the level of the ground; but owing to the necessities of
its present use this aperture was closed inside by heavy planks, and
outside by an enormous millstone placed vertically in front of it. A
hole in the centre of the stone gave entrance to a feeble ray of
light, of which two thirds was intercepted by the plank shutters, so
that it only cast a single weird gleam into the middle of the cellar.

In the track of that gleam lay the fragments of a cider-press,--that
is to say, the branch of a tree squared at one end, and now
half-rotten, and a circular trough of free-stone decorated with
silvery arabesques by the slimy and capricious promenades of slugs and
snails.

To any other prisoner than Michel the inspection of his surroundings
might have seemed desperately discouraging, for it plainly showed
there were few, if any, chances of escape; but the young baron was
moved to make it by nothing more than a feeling of vague curiosity.
The first anguish his heart had ever felt plunged him into a state of
prostration where the soul is indifferent to all outside things; and
in the first shock of discovering that he must renounce the sweet hope
of being loved by Mary, palace or prison were alike to him.

He sat down on the edge of the trough, wondering who could be the
young man he had seen with Mary; then, after the violence of his
jealous transports subsided, he turned to recollections of his first
intercourse with the sisters. But his anguish was as great from the
one emotion as from the other; for, says the Florentine poet, that
great painter of infernal torture, "There is no greater pain than to
recall a happy time in wretchedness."

But let us now leave the young baron to his grief, and see what was
happening in other parts of the guard-house of Saint-Colombin.

This guard-house, materially speaking, which had been occupied for the
last few days by a detachment of troops of the line, was a vast
building, with a front toward the courtyard, while its rear looked
out upon the country road that leads from Saint-Colombin to
Saint-Philbert-de-Grand-Lieu, about a kilometre from the first of
these two villages and a stone's throw from the high-road between
Nantes and the Sables-d'Olonne.

This building, constructed on the ruins and with the fragments of an
old feudal fortress, occupied an eminence that commanded the whole
neighborhood. The advantages of the position had struck Dermoncourt as
he returned from his expedition to the forest of Machecoul.
Accordingly, he left a score of men to hold it. It answered the
purpose of a block-house, where expeditionary columns could find, on
occasion, a resting-place or a refuge, and at the same time it might
be made a sort of station for prisoners, where they could be collected
until a sufficiently imposing force was mustered to escort them to
Nantes, without danger of rescue.

The accommodations of the guard-house consisted solely of a somewhat
vast hall and a barn. The hall, over the cellar in which Michel was
confined, and consequently five or six feet above the ground, served
as the guard-room. It was reached by a flight of steps, made with the
old stones of the fortress, placed parallel with the wall.

The barn was used as barracks for the men; they slept there on straw.
The post was guarded with all military precautions. A sentry stood
before the gate of the courtyard which opened to the road, and a
lookout was stationed in an ivy-covered tower, the sole remains left
standing of the old feudal castle.

Now, about six o'clock in the evening, the soldiers who formed the
little garrison were seated on some heavy rollers which had been left
at the foot of the outside wall of the house. It was a favorite spot
for their siesta; there they enjoyed the gentle warmth of the setting
sun and a splendid view of the lake of Grand-Lieu in the distance, the
surface of which, tinted by the beams of the star of day, resembled at
that hour an immense sheet of scarlet tin. At their feet ran the road
to Nantes, like a broad ribbon through the midst of the verdure which
at that season covered the plain; and we must admit that our heroes in
red trousers were more interested in what happened on that road than
in all the beauties which Nature spread before them.

On the evening of which we write, the laborers leaving the fields, the
flocks returning to their stables made the road a somewhat lively and
varied panorama. Each heavy hay-cart, each group returning from the
Nantes market, and, above all, every peasant-woman in her short skirt
was a text for remark and jocularity, which, it must be owned, were
not restrained.

"Goodness!" cried one of the men, suddenly, "what's that I see down
there?"

"A fellow with bagpipes," said another.

"Bagpipes, indeed! Do you think you are still in Brittany? Down here
they don't groan bagpipes; they only whine complaints."

"What has he got on his back, then, if it isn't his instrument?"

"That's an instrument, sure enough," said a fourth soldier; "it must
be an organ."

"Queer organ!" said a fifth. "I tell you that's a sack; the man's a
beggar. You can tell him by his clothes."

"Then his sack has eyes and a nose, like the rest of us. Why, look at
him, Limousin!"

"Limousin's arm is long, but his sight is short," said another; "you
can't have everything."

"Pooh!" said the corporal; "I see what it is. It is one man carrying
another on his shoulders."

"The corporal is right!" chorused the soldiers.

"I am always right," said he of the woollen stripes, "first as your
corporal, next as your superior; and if there are any of you who doubt
after I have once said a thing, he is going to be convinced now, for
here come the men straight toward us."

As he spoke, the tramp who had roused the discussion (in whom our
readers have no doubt recognized Trigaud-Vermin, as in his bagpipe,
organ, or sack, they have also recognized his rider, Aubin
Courte-Joie) turned off the main-road to the left, and came up the
flight of steps which led to the guard-house.

"What a pair of brigands!" said one of the soldiers. "If they caught
us alone, behind a hedge, either of those rascals would clip us a
shot, wouldn't he, corporal?"

"Like enough," responded the latter.

"But as we are all here together they come and beg,--ha, the cowards!"

"I'll be shot if I give 'em a penny," said the soldier who had spoken
first.

"See here!" said another, picking up a stone; "I'll put something into
his hat."

"I forbid you," said the corporal.

"Why so?"

"Because he hasn't any hat."

The soldiers burst out laughing at the joke, which was recognized at
once as very choice.

"Let's have a look," said a soldier, "at what the fellow is really
carrying; don't discourage him. For my part, I don't find such delight
in this beggarly guard-house that I despise any sort of fun that comes
along."

"Fun?"

"Yes, any kind,--music perhaps. Every tramp in this region is a sort
of troubadour. We'll make him sing what he knows, and a good deal he
doesn't know; it will help pass the evening."

By this time the mendicant, now no longer an enigma to the soldiers,
was close beside them, holding out his hand.

"You were right, corporal; he has got another man perched on his
shoulders."

"I was wrong," responded the corporal.

"How so?"

"That isn't a man,---only a section of humanity."

The soldiers laughed at the second joke as heartily as they laughed at
the first.

"He can't spend much on trousers," said one.

"And less for boots," added the facetious corporal.

"Aren't they hideous?" said the Limousin. "Upon my word, you might
think 'em a monkey mounted on a bear."

While these poor waggeries were flying about and reaching Trigaud's
ear, he stood immovable, holding out his hand and giving a most
pitiable expression to his face, while Aubin Courte-Joie, in his
capacity as orator of the association, repeated, in his nasal voice,
the unvarying formula:--

"Charity, if you please, my good gentlemen!--charity for a poor
cartman with both legs taken off by his cart, coming down the hill at
Ancenis."

"What ignorant savages they must be to expect alms of soldiers in
garrison. Scamps! I'll bet if we searched their pockets we'd find
double what we have got in our own."

Hearing which suggestion, Aubin Courte-Joie modified the formula, and
came down to a precise request:--

"A bit of bread, just a bit of bread, if you please, my good
gentlemen," he said. "If you haven't any money you have surely a bit
of bread."

"Bread!" said the corporal. "Yes, you shall have bread, my good man;
and with the bread, soup, and with the soup a bit of meat. We'll do
that for you; but I should like to know what you'll do for us."

"My good gentlemen, I'll pray God for you," replied Courte-Joie, in
his nasal whine, which formed the treble to his partner's bass.

"That will do no harm," said the corporal,--"no, certainly, there's no
harm in that; but it isn't enough. Come, haven't you anything funny in
your sack?"

"How do you mean?" asked Courte-Joie, assuming ignorance.

"I mean, villanous old black-birds that you are, you must be able to
whistle an air or two; in which case, let's have the music first. That
will pay for the soup and the bread and the meat."

"Ah, yes, yes; I understand. Well, we don't refuse. On the contrary,
officer," said Aubin, flattering the corporal, "it is fair enough that
if you give us the charity of the good God we should try to amuse you
and your company as best we can."

"Good; the more the better. You can't go too far, for we are dying of
dulness in your devilish land."

"All right," said Courte-Joie; "we'll begin by showing you something
you never saw before."

Although the promise was nothing more than the usual exordium of
clowns at a circus, it roused the curiosity of the soldiers, who
clustered round the mendicants in silence, with an eagerness that was
almost respectful. Courte-Joie, who until then had kept his seat on
Trigaud's shoulders, made a movement of his body, indicating that he
wished to be deposited on the ground, and Trigaud, with that passive
obedience which he practised to the will of his master, seated him on
a fragment of the old battlement half-buried in nettles, which lay
near the rollers on which the men were seated.

"Hey! how neatly that was done!" cried the corporal. "I'd like to
recruit that fellow and turn him over to the fat major, who can't find
a cob fit to carry him."

During this time Courte-Joie had picked up a stone, which he gave to
Trigaud. The latter, without further directions, closed and then
opened his hand, showing the stone reduced to fragments.

"Good Lord! he's a Hercules! You must tackle him, Pinguet," said the
corporal, addressing the soldier we have hitherto called the Limousin.

"All right," said the latter, jumping up; "we'll see about it."

Trigaud, taking no notice of the words or actions of Pinguet,
continued his exercises. He seized two soldiers by the straps of their
knapsacks, gently raised and held them aloft at arm's-length for a few
seconds, and then as gently put them down, with perfect ease.

The soldiers cheered him loudly.

"Pinguet! Pinguet!" they cried, "where are you? Here's some one who
can knock you into a cocked-hat."

Trigaud continued his performances as if these experiments on his
strength were a pre-arranged matter. He invited two other soldiers to
seat themselves astride of the shoulders of the first two, and he
carried all four with almost as much ease as if there were but two. As
he put them down, Pinguet arrived with a gun on each shoulder.

"Bravo, Limousin! bravo!" cried the soldiers.

Encouraged by the acclamations of his comrades, Pinguet cried out:--

"All that is mountebank business. Here, you braggart, let me see you
do what I am going to do."

Putting a finger of each hand into the muzzle of a gun, he held the
weapons out before him, at arm's-length.

"Pooh!" said Courte-Joie, while Trigaud looked on with a movement of
the lips that might pass for a smile at Pinguet's feat,--"pooh! bring
two more guns."

When the guns were brought Trigaud put all four muzzles on the fingers
of one hand and raised them to the level of his eye, without any
contraction of the muscles that betrayed an effort. Pinguet was
distanced forever in the struggle.

Then rummaging in his pocket, Trigaud brought out a horse-shoe, which
he folded in two as easily as an ordinary man would fold a leather
strap. After each of his experiments he turned his eyes to
Courte-Joie, asking for a smile; then Courte-Joie would signify by a
nod that he was satisfied.

"Come," said Aubin, "you've only earned our suppers so far; now you
must get us a night's lodging. Isn't that so, my good gentlemen? If my
comrade does something more wonderful still, won't you give us a
little hay and a corner in the stable to lie on?"

"As for that, it is impossible," said the sergeant of the company,
who, being attracted by the shouts and plaudits of the soldiers, had
come to share the sight; "the orders are strict."

This answer seemed to discourage Courte-Joie greatly; his weasel-face
grew serious.

"Never mind," said one of the men; "we'll club together, and get you
ten sous, which will pay for a bed at the nearest tavern, and that
will be softer than buckwheat hay."

"If the ox you ride has legs as solid as his arms," said another, "a
mile or two farther won't trouble you."

"First, let's see the performance!" cried the soldiers. "Show us his
best thing."

There was no repelling this enthusiasm, and Courte-Joie yielded with
an alacrity which showed his confidence in his comrade's biceps.

"Have you a grindstone here, or anything that weighs about twelve or
fifteen hundred pounds?" he asked.

"There's the block of stone you are sitting on," said a soldier.

Courte-Joie shrugged his shoulders.

"If that stone had a handle Trigaud would pick it up for you with one
hand."

"There's that millstone we tipped up before the grating of the
dungeon," said a soldier.

"Why not tell him to lift the whole building at once?" said the
corporal. "It took six of you men to put it where it is, and with
levers, too. I was furious that my rank forbade me from lending a hand
to what I called a pack of idlers."

"Besides, you must not touch that millstone," interposed the sergeant;
"that's also against orders. There's a prisoner in the cellar."

Courte-Joie gave Trigaud a glance, and the latter, paying no attention
to the sergeant's remark, went straight to the millstone.

"Don't you hear me?" said the sergeant, raising his voice, and
catching Trigaud by the arm; "you are not to touch it."

"Why not?" said Courte-Joie. "If he moves it he'll replace it; don't
be afraid."

"Besides," said a soldier, "if you look at the mouse they have got in
the trap you'll see it would never run away if it could,--a poor
little monsieur who might be taken for a woman in disguise. I thought
at first he was the Duchesse de Berry herself."

"Yes, and he's too busy crying to think of escape," said the corporal,
who was evidently burning with the desire to see the feat. "When we
took him his food, Pinguet and I,--that is, I and Pinguet,--he burst
into tears; I declare if his eyes weren't two faucets!"

"Well, well," said the sergeant, who was no less curious than the rest
to see how the tramp would accomplish his Titanic task, "I will take
the responsibility of allowing it."

Trigaud profited by the permission. He seized the millstone between
his arms at its base, leaned his shoulder on its centre, and with a
powerful effort tried to raise it. But the weight of this enormous
mass of stone had sunk it into the ground on which it rested to the
depth of some four or five inches, and the adherence of this earth
socket, thus hollowed, neutralized Trigaud's efforts.

Courte-Joie, who had entered the circle of soldiers by creeping on his
hands and knees, like a huge scarab[oe]us, called attention to the
nature of the difficulty; then with a large flat stone which he picked
up, and partly also with his hands, he grubbed out the earth which
hindered the success of Trigaud's feat. The giant then applied himself
once more to the work. Soon he raised the huge block and held it up
for a few seconds, resting against his shoulder and also against the
wall, about a foot from the ground.

The enthusiasm of the soldiers knew no bounds. They pressed around
Trigaud and overwhelmed him with congratulations to which he seemed
perfectly insensible; they shouted in frantic admiration, which was
shared by the corporal, and then, through the natural hierarchy of
rank, by the sergeant himself. They talked of carrying Trigaud in
triumph to the sutler's, where the reward of his vigor awaited him,
swearing by every oath known to the sons of Mars that Trigaud deserved
not only the bread and soup and meat promised by the corporal, but the
rations of a general, or indeed of the king of France, which would be
none too much to maintain the strength required for such prowess.

As we have said, Trigaud seemed in no way puffed-up by his triumph;
his countenance remained as impassible as that of an ox allowed to
breathe after some powerful exertion. His eyes, however, sought those
of Aubin Courte-Joie, as if to ask "Master, are you satisfied?"

Courte-Joie, on the other hand, looked radiant, possibly because of
the impression made upon the spectators by a strength he considered
his own, though it far exceeded that which Nature had originally
bestowed upon him. Perhaps, however, his satisfaction was really
caused by the success of a little man[oe]uvre he had cleverly
performed while the attention of all was concentrated on his
companion,--a man[oe]uvre which consisted in slipping under the
millstone the large flat stone he held in his hand, placing it in such
a way that the enormous mass which closed the grating of the cellar
was so poised upon its smooth surface that the strength of a child
would suffice to displace it.

The two beggars were taken to the sutler's, and there Trigaud
furnished still another text of admiration to the soldiers. After he
had swallowed an enormous canful of soup, four rations of beef and two
loaves of bread were placed before him. Trigaud ate the first loaf
with the first two rations; then, as if by changing his method of
deglutition he changed and improved the taste of the objects
swallowed, he took his second loaf, split it in two, scooped out and
ate, by way of pastime, the crumb within it, placed the meat in the
cavity, put the two halves of the crust together, and proceeded to
bite through the whole with a coolness and force of jaw which brought
down thunders of applause from the delighted audience.

After about five minutes of this exercise nothing remained of either
bread or meat but a few crumbs of the loaf, which Trigaud, apparently
ready to begin all over again, carefully collected. His admirers
hastened to bring him a third loaf, which, though stale and dry,
Trigaud treated like the first two.

The soldiers were not yet satisfied; they would have liked to push
their investigations still further, but the sergeant thought it more
prudent to bring their scientific curiosity to an end. Courte-Joie had
now become thoughtful, and his expression was noticed by the soldiers.

"Ah, _ça!_" said the corporal; "here you are, eating and drinking on
the earnings of your comrade. That's not fair; it seems to me you
might give us a song, if only to pay your scot."

"Unquestionably," said the sergeant.

"Yes, yes, a song!" cried the soldiers, "and then the affair will be
complete."

"Hum!" muttered Courte-Joie. "I know some songs, of course I do."

"All right then, sing away!"

"But my songs mayn't be to your liking."

"Never mind,--so long as it isn't a fugue for the devil's funeral,
anything will be fun to us; we are not hard to please at
Saint-Colombin."

"Yes," said Courte-Joie, "I can see that; you are horribly bored."

"Monstrously," said the sergeant.

"We don't expect you to sing like Monsieur Nourrit," observed a
Parisian.

"Make it a bit quizzical," said another man, "and the more the
better."

"As I have eaten your bread and drunk your wine," said Courte-Joie, "I
have no right to refuse you anything; but, I repeat it, my songs will
probably not be to your taste."

And thereupon, he trolled out the following stanza:--

"Look! look! my _gars_, down there! down there!
Don't you see the infernal band?
Spread out, spread out, surprise them there,
Behind the gorse, across the land.
Spread out! I say, my _gars!_ my _gars!_
Await the Blues with steady hand."

Courte-Joie got no farther. After a moment of surprised silence at his
first words a roar of indignation arose; ten soldiers sprang upon him
and the sergeant, seizing him by the collar, threw him on the ground.

"Villain!" he cried, "I'll teach you to come here in our midst and
sing praises to your brigands."

But before the words were well out of his mouth (words to which he
added a variety of adverbs that were customary with him) Trigaud, his
eyes flashing with anger, made his way through to Courte-Joie, pushed
back the sergeant and stood before his comrade in so threatening an
attitude that the soldiers remained for some moments silent and
uncertain.

But soon, mortified at being held at bay by an unarmed man, they drew
their sabres, and rushed upon the beggars.

"Kill them! kill them!" they cried; "they are Chouans!"

"You asked me for a song; I warned you that the songs I knew were not
to your taste," cried Courte-Joie, in a voice that rose high above the
tumult. "You ought not to have insisted. Why do you complain?"

"If you only knew such songs as you have just sung you are a rebel,
and I arrest you peremptorily."

"I know such songs as please the people of the towns and villages
whose alms are my living. A poor cripple like me and an idiot like my
comrade can't be dangerous. Arrest us if you choose; but such captures
won't do you any honor."

"That may be," replied the sergeant, "but meantime you'll sleep in the
lock-up. You were puzzled where to go for a night's lodging, my fine
fellow; well, I'll give you one. Come, men, seize and search them, and
let us lock them up incontinently."

But, as Trigaud still maintained a threatening attitude, no one
hastened to execute the sergeant's order.

"If you don't go with a good grace," said the latter, "I'll send for
some loaded muskets, and we will see if your skin is bullet-proof."

"Come, Trigaud, my lad," said Courte-Joie, "if we must resign
ourselves, we must; besides, it can't matter, they won't detain us
long. Their fine prisons are not built for poor devils like us."

"That's right," said the sergeant, much pleased at the pacific turn
the affair was taking. "You will be searched, and if nothing
suspicious is found upon you, and you behave properly during the
night, we'll see about letting you out to-morrow morning."

The two beggars were searched, but nothing was found upon them except
a few copper coins; which confirmed the sergeant in his ideas of
clemency.

"After all," he said, pointing to Trigaud, "that great ox is not
guilty; I see no reason why I should lock him up."

"If you do," said the Limousin, "he might take it into his head, like
his forefather Samson, to shake the walls and bring them down about
our ears."

"You are right, Pinguet," said the sergeant, "because that's my
opinion, too. We should only embarrass ourselves by holding the pair.
Come, off with you, friend, and quick too!"

"Oh! my good monsieur, don't separate us," cried Courte-Joie, in a
tearful voice. "We can't do without each other; he walks for me, and I
think for him."

"Upon my word," said a soldier, "they are worse than lovers."

"No," said the sergeant to Courte-Joie. "I shall make you pass the
night in the dungeon to punish you, and tomorrow the officer of the
day will decide what is to be done with your carcass. Come, to the
cellar!"

Two soldiers approached Courte-Joie; but he with an agility not to be
expected in so helpless a body, sprang upon Trigaud's shoulders, and
the giant walked peacefully along toward the door of the dungeon,
under escort of the soldiers.

On the way Aubin put his lips close to the ear of his comrade and said
some words in a low voice. Trigaud deposited his master at the
cellar-door, through which the sergeant thrust the cripple, who made
his entrance by rolling forward like an enormous ball.

The soldiers then took Trigaud outside the courtyard gate, which they
closed behind him. The giant stood for a few moments motionless and
bewildered, as if he did not know what course to decide upon. He tried
at first to sit down on the rollers, where, as we have seen, the
soldiers took their siesta. But the sentry made him understand that
that was impossible, and the beggar departed in the direction of the
village of Saint-Colombin.

GIVING THE SLIP.

About two hours after Aubin Courte-Joie's incarceration the sentry of
the post heard a cart coming up the road which led past the
guard-house. "Qui vive?" he cried; and when the cart was only a short
distance from him he ordered it to halt. The cart, or rather the
cartman, obeyed.

The corporal and four soldiers came out of the guard-room to inspect
both man and vehicle. The cart was a harmless one, loaded with hay,
and was like all the others that were plodding along the road to and
from Nantes during the evening. Only one man was with it; he explained
that he was going to Saint-Philbert with hay for his landlord,--adding
that he went by night to economize time, which was precious at this
season of the year. The corporal gave orders to let him pass.

But this permission was wasted on the poor fellow. His cart, drawn by
a single horse, had stopped at the steepest part of the rising ground
about the guard-house, and in spite of the efforts made by horse and
cartman it was impossible to start the heavy vehicle again.

"There isn't any sense," said the corporal, "in overburdening a beast
like that! Don't you see that your horse has double the load he can
draw?"

"What a pity," remarked one of the soldiers, "that the sergeant let
that big ox of a fellow we had here go. We might have harnessed him to
the horse and I'll warrant he'd have pulled to the collar."

"That's supposing he would have let himself be harnessed."

If the man who spoke last had looked behind the cart, he would have
seen good reason why Trigaud should not allow himself to be harnessed
to the front of the cart to pull it forward; he would also have
understood the difficulty the horse found in starting the cart. For
this difficulty was chiefly owing to Trigaud himself. The giant,
completely hidden in the darkness and behind the hay, was dragging at
the rear bar of the cart and opposing his strength to that of the
horse, with as much success as he had won when exhibiting his prowess
in the evening.

"Shall we lend you a hand?" said the corporal.

"Wait till I try again," said the driver, who had turned his cart
obliquely, to lessen the sharpness of the acclivity, and now, grasping
the horse by the bridle, prepared for a final effort to disprove the
blame the corporal laid upon him.

He whipped his beast vigorously, exciting him by voice and pulling on
the bridle, while the soldiers joined their cries to his. The horse
stiffened all four legs for the effort, making the sparks fly from his
heels among the stones of the road; then, he suddenly fell down, and
at the same moment, as if the wheels had encountered some obstacle
which disturbed their equilibrium, the cart swayed over to left and
upset against the building.

The soldiers ran forward and helped to release the horse from the
harness and get him on his legs. The result of their friendly
eagerness was that none of them saw Trigaud, who, satisfied no doubt
with a result to which he had powerfully contributed by slipping under
the cart and hoisting it on his Herculean shoulders, until it lost its
centre of gravity, now retired composedly behind a hedge to await
events.

"Shall we help you to set your cart back on its pin?" said the
corporal to the driver. "If so, you must get an additional horse."

"Faith, no!" cried the cartman. "To-morrow I'll see about it. It is
evident the good God doesn't mean me to keep on,--mustn't go against
His will."

So saying, the peasant threw the reins on the crupper of his horse,
pushed up the collar, mounted the animal, and departed, after wishing
good-night to the soldiers, and saying he should be back in the
morning to remove the hay. Two hundred yards from the guard-house
Trigaud joined him.

"Well," said the peasant, "was that done to your liking? Are you
satisfied?"

"Yes," replied Trigaud, "that was just as _gars_ Aubin Courte-Joie
ordered."

"Good luck to you, then! As for me, I'll put the horse back where I
found it. But when the cartman wakes up to-morrow and looks for his
cart and his hay he'll be rather surprised to find it up there."

"Well, tell him it is for the good of the cause, and he won't mind,"
replied Trigaud.

The two men parted.

Trigaud, however, did not leave the place; he roamed about its
neighborhood till he heard the stroke of twelve from the steeple of
Saint-Colombin. Then he returned to the guard-house, _sabots_ in hand,
and without making the slightest noise, or rousing the attention of
the sentry, who was pacing up and down, he crept to the grating of the
dungeon. Once there he softly drew the hay into a thick heap beside
the millstone, which he then, as softly, turned over upon it. Then he
leaned behind it to the grating, wrenched off the boards that closed
it, drew out first Courte-Joie, whom Michel pushed behind, then the
young baron by the hands; after which, putting one on each shoulder,
Trigaud, still barefooted, walked rapidly away from the neighborhood
of the guard-house, making, in spite of his immense size and the
weight he carried, no more noise than a cat on a carpet.

When he had gone about five hundred yards he stopped; not that he was
tired but because Aubin Courte-Joie signed to him. Michel slipped to
the ground and feeling in his pocket pulled out a handful of money,
among it a few gold coins which he deposited in Trigaud's capacious
hand.

The giant made as though he were about to put them in a pocket twice
as capacious as the hand itself, but Aubin Courte-Joie stopped him.

"Return that to monsieur," he said; "we don't take pay from both
sides."

"Both sides!" exclaimed Michel, "what do you mean?"

"Yes; we haven't obliged you personally as much as you think for,"
said Courte-Joie.

"I don't understand you, friend."

"My young gentleman," said the cripple, "now that we are safely
outside that cellar I'll frankly admit that I lied to you just now,
when I said I had got myself locked up merely to get you out of that
hole. But, don't you see, I wanted your help; I could never have
clambered up alone to that grating. Now, however, thanks to your
good-will and my friend Trigaud's wrists, we've given 'em the slip
successfully, and I feel bound to tell you that you have only
exchanged one captivity for another."

"What does that mean?"

"It means that just now you were in a damp unhealthy prison, and now,
though you are in the midst of the fields, on a calm, still night, you
are none the less in prison."

"In prison?"

"Well, a prisoner."

"Whose prisoner?"

"Mine, of course!"

"Yours?" said Michel, laughing.

"Yes, for the time being. Oh, you needn't laugh! You are a prisoner, I
tell you, till I consign you to the hands that want you."

"Whose hands are they?"

"As for that, you can find out for yourself. I fulfil my errand,
neither more nor less. You needn't be frightened; you might have
fallen into worse hands, that's all I shall tell you."

"But--"

"Well, in return for services that have been done, and in
consideration of a good sum of money for my poor Trigaud, I took the
order of a person who said: 'Help M. le Baron Michel de la Logerie to
escape, and bring him to me.' I have helped you to escape, and now I
am taking you to that person, Monsieur le baron."

"Listen," said the young man, who did not comprehend one word of all
the tavern-keeper was telling him: "Here is my purse, well-filled; put
me on the road to La Logerie, where I desire to be this evening, and
take the purse and my thanks to boot."

Michel fancied that his two liberators did not think the price paid
sufficient.

"Monsieur," said Courte-Joie, with all the dignity of which he was
capable, "my comrade Trigaud cannot accept your reward because he has
been already paid for doing exactly the contrary of what you wish. As
for me, I am not aware if you know who I am, and therefore it is best
to tell you. I am an honest trader, whom differences of opinion with
the government have compelled to close his business; but, miserable as
my external appearance may be, let me tell you that I give my services
to others, I don't sell them."

"But where the devil are you taking me?" demanded Michel, who
certainly did not expect such sensitive feelings in his strange
conductor.

"Be so good as to follow us, and in less than an hour you will find
out."

"Follow you, indeed! when you say I am your prisoner! Not I! I am not
so amiable as all that."

Courte-Joie made no answer; but a single touch on Trigaud's arm told
the giant what he had to do, and the young man had scarcely uttered
the words and made a hasty step in advance, before Trigaud, flinging
out his arm like a grapnel-iron, seized him by the collar. Michel
tried to shout, preferring to be retaken by the soldiers rather than
be Trigaud's prisoner. But with his free hand the giant grasped the
baron's face and silenced him as successfully as the famous gag of
Monsieur de Vendôme might have done it. In this condition Michel was
rushed, with the rapidity of a race-horse, across the fields for a
distance of some seven or eight hundred yards, half suspended in space
by the arm of the colossus, so that he touched the ground with the
points of his toes only.

"That will do, Trigaud," said Courte-Joie, who was in his usual place
on the shoulders of his human steed, who seemed to care little for the
double burden; "that will do; the young baron is disgusted enough by
this time with the idea of going back to La Logerie. Besides, we were
cautioned to take care of him; it won't do to spoil the merchandise."
Then as Trigaud halted obediently, Aubin said to Michel, who was
nearly suffocated, "Will you be docile now?"

"You are the stronger, and I have no arms," said the baron. "I am
therefore obliged to submit to your ill-treatment."

"Ill-treatment! Ha! don't you say that, or I'll appeal to your honor
to say if it isn't true that you have urged me all along, both in the
dungeon of the Blues and here in the fields, to let you go back to La
Logerie, and that it was only your obstinacy which obliged me to use
violence."

"Well, at any rate, tell me the name of the person who ordered you to
come after me and take me to him."

"I am positively forbidden to do so," said Courte-Joie, "but, without
transgressing orders, I can tell you that it is one of your very best
friends."

A cold chill ran through Michel's heart. He thought of Bertha. He
fancied she had received his letter. It was doubtless an angry
"she-wolf" who awaited him, and, painful as the interview would be, he
felt that he could not, in honor, refuse it.

"Very good," he said; "I know now who it is."

"You know, do you?"

"Yes, it is Mademoiselle de Souday."

Aubin Courte-Joie did not answer; but he looked at Trigaud with an air
that seemed to say, "Faith! he's guessed it!" Michel intercepted the
look.

"Let us walk on," he said.

"You won't try to get away?"

"No."

"On your word of honor?"

"On my word of honor."

"Well, as you are now sensible, we'll give you the means of getting
along without skinning your feet among the briers or gluing them to
this cursed sticky soil, which adds at least seven pound weight to our
boots."

These words were soon explained to Michel, for after crossing the
highway behind Trigaud, and going a hundred yards into the woods that
bordered the road he heard the whinnying of a horse.

"My horse!" he exclaimed, not concealing his surprise.

"Did you think we had stolen it?" asked Courte-Joie.

"Why didn't you stay at the place where I gave it to you?"

"Confound it!" replied Aubin. "I'll tell you: we noticed a lot of men
walking round us and watching us with an interest that was too deep
not to be disquieting; and as inquisitive folk are not to my taste,
and time went by and you didn't return, we thought we had better take
your beast to Banl[oe]uvre, where we supposed you had gone, if not
arrested; and it was only as we went along we discovered that if not
actually arrested you soon would be."

"Soon would be?"

"Yes, and so you were."

"Were you near me when the gendarmes arrested me?"

"My young gentleman," replied Courte-Joie in his jeering, sarcastic
way, "you must have little experience in life or you wouldn't go along
the high-roads dreaming of your own affairs, instead of looking about
you and seeing who go and come and what they are doing. You might have
heard the trot of those gendarmes ten minutes before they came up with
you; we heard them, and you might easily have gone into the woods as
we did."

Michel took care not to say what was filling his mind to the exclusion
of every other thought at the moment the gendarmes arrested him; he
contented himself by giving a deep sigh at this reminder of his
sufferings. Then he mounted his horse, which Trigaud had unfastened
and presented to him awkwardly enough, though Courte-Joie endeavored
to show his henchman how to hold a stirrup properly. Then they took
once more to the high-road, and the giant, with his hand on the
withers of the horse, accompanied Michel easily at whatever pace the
latter chose to ride.

A mile and a half farther on they struck into a crossroad, and Michel
fancied, dark as it was, that he recognized the path from certain
shapes in the dark masses of the trees. Presently they reached a
crossway at sight of which the young man quivered. He had passed that
place on the evening when for the first time he walked home with
Bertha from Tinguy's cottage. A minute more and they were making their
way to the cottage itself, where, in spite of the lateness of the
hour, a light was sparkling; at that instant a little cry, apparently
a call, came from behind the hedge that ran along the road.

Aubin Courte-Joie answered it.

"Is that you, Monsieur Courte-Joie?" asked a woman's voice, and at the
same moment a white form showed itself above the hedge.

"Yes, but who are you?"

"Rosine, Tinguy's daughter; don't you remember me?"

"Rosine!" exclaimed Michel, confirmed in the thought that Bertha was
awaiting him by the sight of her young maid.

Courte-Joie with his monkey-like agility slid down Trigaud's body, and
went to the hedge-bank with a movement a good deal like that of a
frog's jump, leaving Trigaud to keep guard over Michel.

"Pest, little one!" he cried, "the night is so dark one may well take
white for gray. But," he added, lowering his voice, "why are not you
at home, where we were told to find you?"

"Because there are people in the cottage, and it won't do to take
Monsieur Michel there."

"People? Ah, _ça!_ those damned Blues get a footing everywhere."

"There are no soldiers there; it is only Jean Oullier, who has spent
the day going round the country, and has brought a few of the Montaigu
men with him."

"What are they doing?"

"Only talking. Go in, and drink a cup of cider with them, and warm
yourself a bit."

"Well, but our young gentleman, my dear, what shall we do with him?"

"Leave him with me. That was agreed upon, you know, Maître
Courte-Joie."

"We were to give him to you in your house, where there's a cellar or a
garret to put him in; and that's easy enough to do, for he is not hard
to manage, poor fellow,--but here in the open fields there's a risk of
losing him; he'll slip away from you like an eel."

"Pooh!" said Rosine, with a smile which since the deaths of her father
and brother seldom came upon her lips, "do you think he would make
more objection to following a pretty girl than two old fellows like
you?"

"But suppose the prisoner carries off his keeper?" said Courte-Joie,
still dissatisfied.

"Oh! don't trouble yourself about that; I've a good foot, a good eye,
and an honest heart. Besides, Baron Michel is my foster-brother; we've
known each other this long while, and I know he is no more capable of
forcing the virtue of a girl than the bolts of a prison. Besides, what
were you told to do?"

"Release him if we could and bring him, willingly or unwillingly, to
your father's house, where we were to find you."

"Well, here I am, and there's the house; the bird is out of his cage;
that's all that was asked of you, wasn't it?"

"Hang it! yes, I believe so."

"Then, good-night."

"Look here, Rosine, for greater security, don't you want us to put a
rope round his paws?" said Courte-Joie, sarcastically.

"Thank you, no, Maître Courte-Joie," said Rosine, going toward Michel;
"better put one on your own tongue."

Michel, in spite of the distance at which he stood, had distinguished
Rosine's name and perceived, as we have said, the connivance which
evidently existed between her and his captors. He was more and more
confirmed in the belief that he owed his deliverance to Bertha.
Courte-Joie's proceedings, the sort of violence he had used toward
him, by means of his auxiliary Trigaud, the mystery in which the
tavern-keeper had wrapped the origin and reason of his devotion to a
man whom he scarcely knew,--all these things agreed wonderfully with
the irritation which the letter he had sent by the notary was
calculated to rouse in the violent and irascible heart of the young
girl.

"Oh! Rosine, is that you?" he exclaimed, raising his voice as soon as
he saw through the darkness his foster-sister coming toward him.

"Good!" cried Rosine, "you are not like that wretch of a Courte-Joie,
who didn't choose to recognize me at first. You knew me at once,
didn't you, Monsieur Michel?"

"Yes, of course. Tell me, Rosine, where is she?"

"Who?"

"Mademoiselle Bertha."

"Mademoiselle Bertha?"

"Yes."

"I don't know," said Rosine, with a simplicity which Michel knew to be
sincere.

"What! you don't know?" he repeated.

"I suppose she is at Souday."

"You don't know, you only suppose?"

"Bless me--"

"Have you seen her to-day?"

"No, Monsieur Michel; I only know that she was to go to the château
to-day with Monsieur le marquis; but I've been at Nantes myself."

"At Nantes!" cried the young man, "were you at Nantes this morning?"

"Yes."

"What time were you there?"

"It was striking nine as we crossed the pont Rousseau."

"You say _we?_"

"Yes, of course."

"Then you were not alone?"

"Why, no! I went there to accompany Mademoiselle Mary; it was sending
to the château for me that delayed her journey."

"But where is she now,--Mademoiselle Mary?"

"Now, this minute?"

"Yes."

"On the little island of La Jonchère; and that's where I am going to
take you. But how queer of you to ask me all this, Monsieur Michel!"

"Are you really going to take me to her?" cried Michel, beside himself
with joy. "Then come along, come quick, my little Rosine."

"Good! and that old fool Courte-Joie, who said I couldn't manage you!
What idiots men are!"

"Rosine, my dear, for heaven's sake don't lose time."

"I'm ready; but hadn't you better take me up behind? and then we can
go faster."

"Of course we can," said Michel, whose heart, at the mere idea of
seeing Mary, abjured all its jealous suspicions, and glowed with the
thought that she whom he loved was really the one who had so
effectually managed his release. "Come, come on!"

"Here I am! give me your hand," said Rosine, resting her wooden shoe
on the young man's foot. Then, making her spring, "There! I'm all
right," she said, settling herself. "Now then, turn to the right."

The young man obeyed, with no more thought of Courte-Joie and Trigaud
than if they did not exist. To him, there was no one at this moment in
the world but Mary.

"Rosine," he said, after he had gone a little way, longing to talk
about Mary, "how did mademoiselle know I was arrested by the
gendarmes?"

"Bless me! I should have to tell you what happened before that,
Monsieur Michel."

"Tell me all you can, my dear, good Rosine; only, do speak up. I'm
burning with impatience. Ah! how good it is to be free," cried the
young man; "and to be going to Mary!"

"Then I must tell you that mademoiselle came from Banl[oe]uvre to
Souday very early this morning; she borrowed my Sunday clothes and put
them on, and then she said 'Rosine, you are to go with me.'"

"Go on, Rosine, do! I'm listening."

"Well, then we started, with eggs in our baskets like real
peasant-women. At Nantes while I sold eggs mademoiselle did her
errand."

"What was that errand, Rosine?" asked Michel, before whose eyes the
form of the young man disguised as a peasant now loomed like a
spectre.

"Oh, that I don't know, Monsieur Michel." Then, without pausing to
notice the heavy sigh with which Michel received her words, she added:
"As mademoiselle was very tired we asked Monsieur Loriot, the Légé
notary, to drive us back in his carriole. We stopped half way to bait
the horse and while the notary was gossiping with the inn-keeper we
went into the garden to get away from the people who stared at
mademoiselle,--who is really much too beautiful for a peasant-woman.
There she read a letter, which made her cry dreadfully."

"A letter!" exclaimed Michel.

"Yes, a letter Monsieur Loriot gave her as we came along."

"My letter!" murmured Michel; "she has read my letter to her sister!
Oh!"

He stopped his horse abruptly, not knowing whether to rejoice or to be
terrified at this fact.

"What's the matter?" asked Rosine, who of course, did not understand
the sudden halt.

"Nothing, nothing," replied Michel, shaking the reins and putting the
horse to a trot.

Rosine resumed her tale.

"Well, she was crying over the letter when some one called us from the
other side of the hedge: it was Aubin Courte-Joie, and Trigaud with
him. He told us your adventure, and asked mademoiselle what he had
better do with your horse. Then, poor young lady, she seemed to feel
worse than when she read that letter. She was all upset, and said such
a lot of things to Courte-Joie--who, indeed, is under great
obligations to Monsieur le marquis--that she persuaded him to rescue
you from the soldiers. You've got a good friend in her, Monsieur
Michel."

Michel listened delightedly; he was almost beside himself with joy and
satisfaction, and would gladly have paid a piece of gold for every
syllable Rosine uttered. He began to think his horse went much too
slowly, and cutting a branch from a nut-tree he endeavored to excite
the animal to a pace in keeping with the pulses of his heart.

"But," he asked, "why didn't she wait for me in your father's cottage,
Rosine?"

"We did intend to, Monsieur le baron; in fact, we made Monsieur Loriot
leave us there, telling him we would walk to Souday. Mademoiselle had
charged Courte-Joie to take you to my house, and on no account let you
go to Banl[oe]uvre until she had seen you; but as ill-luck would have
it, the cottage, which since father's death has been quite deserted,
was to-night as full of people as an inn. Jean Oullier has got a
meeting there of all the leaders of his district. So Mademoiselle Mary
hid herself in the barn, and asked me to take her to some place where
she could see you alone as soon as Courte-Joie brought you. Here we
are on a level with the mill of Saint-Philbert; we shall see the lake
of Grand-Lieu in a moment."

Rosine's last words brought a more emphatic blow with the nut-stick on
the horse's quarters than any that preceded it. Michel felt that an
end was coming to the difficult position in which he stood. Mary now
knew the strength of his love; she knew that it was powerful enough to
make him reject the proffered marriage; she was evidently not offended
by it, since her regard for him had led her to do him a signal service
and even to risk her reputation by doing it. Timid, reserved, and
backward as Michel was, his hopes now rose to the level of these
proofs, as he thought them, of Mary's affection. It seemed to him
impossible that a young girl who braved public opinion, her father's
anger, her sister's reproaches, to secure the safety of a man whose
love and whose hopes she thoroughly well knew, could deny herself to
that love or disappoint those hopes. He saw his future through a misty
horizon still, but the mists were roseate as he began to descend the
hill which locks in the lake of Grand-Lieu to the southeast.

"Are we getting there?" he said to Rosine.

"Yes," she replied, slipping from the horse's back, "follow me."

Michel dismounted and the pair entered a little thicket of osiers, in
the middle of which stood a willow, to which Michel tied his horse.
Then they pushed their way for a hundred yards or so through the
flexible branches, until they came out upon the bank of a sort of
creek which flowed to the lake, Rosine jumped into a little boat with
a flat bottom. Michel offered to take the oars, but Rosine, knowing
that he was a novice at such performances, pushed him back and took
her seat on the thwart with an oar in each hand.

"No, no!" she said, "I can manage better than you; I have often rowed
my poor father when he cast his nets into the lake."

"But," said Michel, "are you sure you can hit the island of Jonchère
in this darkness?"

"Look!" she said, without turning round, "can't you see anything on
the water?"

"Yes," replied the young man, "I see what looks like a star."

"Well, that star is Mademoiselle Mary, who is holding a lamp in her
hand. She must have heard the oars, and is coming to meet us."

Michel would gladly have flung himself into the sea to precede the
boat, for, in spite of Rosine's nautical skill, it progressed very
slowly. He began to think he should never get over the distance
between himself and that light, which was now seen to grow brighter
and brighter every moment.

But, alas! contrary to the hopes which Rosine had inspired, when they
were near enough to the island to distinguish the one willow which
adorned it Michel did not see Mary awaiting him on the shore; the glow
came from a fire of rushes which she had doubtless lighted and left to
burn slowly out upon the shore.

"Rosine," cried Michel, aghast, jumping up in the boat which he nearly
overset, "I don't see Mademoiselle Mary."

"She is probably in the duck-shooters' hut," replied the girl, pulling
in her oars. "Take one of those burning sticks; you'll find the hut on
the other side toward the offing."

Michel sprang ashore, did as he was told, and hurried away in the
direction of the hut.

The island of Jonchère is some two or three hundred yards square. It
is covered with reeds on the low ground, which is overflowed in winter
by the waters of the lake. About fifty feet square of dry land rise
above the level of this inundation; on this elevation old Tinguy had
built for himself a little hut, to which he came on winter nights to
watch for wild-duck. This was the place to which Rosine had taken
Mary.

Whatever his hopes might be, Michel's heart beat almost to bursting
when he came in sight of the little building. As he laid his hand on
the latch of the door the oppression became so great that he
hesitated.

During that momentary pause his eyes rested on a pane of glass
introduced into the upper half of the entrance door, through which it
was possible to look into the cabin. There he beheld Mary, sitting on
a heap of reeds, her head bending forward on her breast.

By the feeble light of a lantern which was placed on a stool he
fancied he saw two tears glittering on the long, fringed eyelashes of
the young girl, and the thought that those tears were shed for him
made him lose all diffidence. He opened the door and rushed to her
feet, crying out:

"Mary, Mary, I love you!"

XI.

MARY IS VICTORIOUS AFTER THE MANNER OF PYRRHUS.

However firm Mary's resolution to control herself may have been,
Michel's entrance was so sudden, his voice vibrated with such an
accent, there was in his cry so much of love, so passionate a prayer,
that the gentle creature was unable to repress her own emotion; her
breast heaved, her fingers trembled, and the tears the young baron
fancied he saw on her eyelids detached themselves and fell, drop by
drop like liquid pearls, on Michel's hands which were grasping hers.
The poor lover himself was too overcome with his own emotion to notice
Mary's, and the girl had time to recover herself before he spoke. She
gently pushed him aside and looked about her. Michel's eyes followed
Mary's and then fixed themselves anxiously and inquiringly on her
face.

"How is it that you are alone, monsieur?" she asked. "Where is
Rosine?"

"And you, Mary," said the young man, in a voice full of sadness, "how
is it that you are not, as I am, full of the happiness of our
meeting?"

"Ah! my friend," said Mary, dwelling on the word, "you have no
cause--now especially--to doubt the interest I take in your safety."

"No," said Michel, trying to regain the hand she had drawn away from
him. "No, indeed, for it is you to whom I owe my liberty, and probably
my life."

"But," interrupted Mary, trying to smile, "all that does not make me
forget that we are alone together. Do me the kindness to call Rosine,
for there are certain social conventions I do not wish to disregard."

Michel sighed and remained on his knees, while two large tears escaped
his eyelids. Mary turned away her head that she might not see them;
then she made a motion as if to rise. But Michel retained her. The
poor lad had not enough experience of the human heart to observe that
Mary had never before manifested any reluctance to be alone with him,
and to draw from her present action a deduction favorable to his love.
On the contrary, all his beautiful visions went up in smoke, and Mary
seemed to him even colder and more indifferent than she had been of
late.

"Ah!" he cried, in a tone of melancholy reproach, "why did you rescue
me from the hands of the soldiers? They might have shot me, but I
would meet that fate rather than live to know you do not love me!"

"Michel! Michel!" cried Mary.

"Oh!" he exclaimed, "I repeat it, I would rather die."

"Don't talk so, naughty child that you are!" said Mary, striving to
assume a maternal tone. "Don't you see that it distresses me?"

"You do not care!" said Michel.

"You cannot doubt," continued Mary, "that my friendship for you is
true and most sincere."

"Alas! Mary," said the young man, sadly, "that feeling is not enough
to satisfy the passion that consumes my heart ever since I have known
you; I do feel certain of your friendship, but my heart wants more."

Mary made a supreme effort.

"My friend, what you ask of me, Bertha will give you; She loves you as
you wish to be loved, as you deserve to be loved;" said the poor
child, in a trembling voice, striving to put her sister's name as a
barrier between herself and the man she loved.

Michel shook his head and sighed.

"Oh, not her! not her!" he said.

"Why--" said Mary as if she did not see his gesture of refusal or hear
that cry from his heart. "Why did you write her that letter, which
would have filled her with despair had it reached her?"

"That letter; then it was you who received it?"

"Alas! yes," said Mary, "and painful as it was to me, it is most
fortunate that I did so."

"Did you read it through?" asked Michel.

"Yes," said the young girl, lowering her eyes before the supplicating
glance with which he enfolded her as he asked the question. "Yes, I
read it--all; and it is because I did so, dear friend, that I wished
to speak to you before you see my sister again."

"But, Mary, do you not see that that letter is truth itself from the
first line to the last, and that if I love Bertha at all it can only
be as a sister?"

"No, no," cried Mary; "I only know that my future would be horrible if
I caused unhappiness to my poor sister whom I love so well."

"But," said Michel, "what do you ask of me?"

"I ask you," replied Mary, clasping her hands, "to sacrifice a feeling
which has not had time to strike deep roots into your heart; I ask you
to forget a fancy nothing justifies, to renounce an attachment which
can have no good result for you and must be fatal to all three of us."

"Ask my life, Mary; I can kill myself, or let myself be
killed,--nothing is easier; but to ask me not to love you! Good God!
what would my poor heart be if deprived of its love for you?"

"And yet it must be so, dear Michel," said Mary, in her winning voice;
"for never--no never--will you obtain from me a word of encouragement
for the love you speak of in that letter. I have sworn it."

"To whom, Mary?"

"To God and to myself."

"Oh!" exclaimed Michel, sobbing, "and I dreamed she loved me!"

Mary thought that the more warmth he put into his words and actions,
the colder it behooved her to be.

"All that I have now said to you, my friend," she continued, "is
dictated not only by common-sense, but by the strong interest I feel
in your future. If I were indifferent to you, I should simply express
my feelings and let the matter end; but as a friend I cannot do
so,--as a friend, I say to you, Michel, forget the woman who can never
be yours and love the woman who loves you and to whom you are
virtually betrothed."

"Oh, but you know very well how that betrothal, as you call it, took
me by surprise; you know that in making that proposal Petit-Pierre
mistook my feelings. Those feelings you well know. I expressed them to
you that night when the general and the soldiers were at the château.
You did not repulse them; I felt your hands press mine; I knelt at
your feet, Mary, as I do now; you bent your head to mine; your hair,
your beautiful, adored hair touched my forehead. I did wrong not to
tell Petit-Pierre who it was I loved; but how could I expect what has
happened? It never crossed my mind she could suppose I loved any one
but Mary. It is the fault of my timidity, which I curse; but, after
all, it is not so grievous a fault that it ought to separate me
forever from the woman I love, and chain my life to one I do not
love."

"Alas! my friend, the fault that seems to you so light seems to me
irreparable. Whatever happens, and even though you repudiate the
promise made in your name and in which you acquiesced by silence, you
must understand that I can never be yours, for I will never rend the
heart of my beloved sister with the sight of my happiness."

"Good God!" cried Michel, "how wretched I am!"

He put his face in his hands and burst into tears.

"Yes," said Mary, "I know you suffer now; but take courage. Call up
your virtue, your courage, my friend. Listen willingly to my advice;
this feeling will, little by little, be effaced from your heart. If
necessary, I will go away for a time that you may cure yourself."

"Go away! separate yourself from me! No, Mary, never, never! no, don't
leave me, for I swear that the day you leave, I leave; where you go, I
go. Good God! what would become of me, deprived of your dear presence?
No, no, no; don't go, I implore you, Mary."

"So be it; I will stay, but only to help you to do whatever may be
painful and sad in your duty; and when that is done, when you are
happy, when you are Bertha's husband--"

"Never! never!" muttered Michel.

"Yes, my friend, for Bertha is more fitted to be your wife than I am;
her love for you,--and I can swear this for I have heard her express
it,--is greater than you suppose; her tenderness will satisfy the
craving for love which now consumes you, and my sister's strength and
energy, which I do not possess, will clear your path in life of the
thorns and briers you might not of yourself be able to put aside. So,
if there is really a sacrifice on your part, that sacrifice, believe
me, will be well-rewarded."

In saying these words Mary affected a calmness which was far indeed
from being in her heart, the real condition of which was betrayed by
her paleness and agitation. As for Michel, he listened in feverish
agitation.

"Don't talk so!" he cried as she ended. "Do you suppose the current of
human affections is a thing to be managed and directed as we please,
like a river which an engineer forces between the banks of a canal, or
a vine which the gardener trains as he will? No, no; I tell you again,
I repeat it and I will repeat it a hundred times,--it is you, you
alone whom I love, Mary. It would be impossible for my heart to name
any other name than yours, even if I wished it, and I don't wish it.
My God! my God!" continued the young man, flinging up his arms to
heaven with a look of agonized despair; "what would become of me if I
saw you the wife of another man?"

"Michel," said Mary, with passionate fervor, "if you will do as I ask
you, I swear by all that is most sacred that, as I cannot be your
wife, I will belong to none but God; I will never marry. All my
affection, my tenderness shall remain yours; and this affection will
not be of the vulgar kind that years destroy or a mere chance kills.
It will be the deep, unutterable affection of a sister for a brother;
it will be a gratitude which will forever bind me to you. I shall owe
to you the happiness of my sister, and all my life shall be spent in
blessing you."

"Your love for your sister misleads you, Mary," replied Michel. "You
think only of her; you do not think of me when you seek to condemn me
to the horrible torture of being chained, for life, to a woman I do
not love. Oh, Mary! it is cruel of you,--you for whom I would give my
life,--it is cruel to ask of me a thing to which I can never resign
myself."

"Oh, yes, you can, my friend," persisted the girl; "you can surely
resign yourself to what, though it may be the result of fate, is also
most assuredly, a generous and magnanimous action; you can resign
yourself because you know that God would never suffer a sacrifice like
that to go unrewarded, and the reward will be--yes, it will be--the
happiness of two poor orphans."

"Oh, Mary," said Michel, quite beside himself, "don't talk to me like
that. Oh, it is plain that you don't know what it is to love! You tell
me to give you up! but remember that you are my heart, my soul, my
life,--it is simply asking me to tear my heart from my breast,
forswear my soul, blast my happiness, dry up my very existence at its
source. You are the light for which and by which the world, to my
eyes, is a world; the day you cease to shine upon my life I shall fall
into a gulf the darkness of which horrifies me. I swear to you, Mary,
that since I have known you, since that moment when I first saw you
and felt your hands cooling my wounded forehead, you have been so
identified with my being that there is not a thought in my mind that
does not belong to you, all that is within me refers to you, and if my
heart were to lose you, it would cease to beat as if the principle of
life were taken from it. You see, therefore, that it is impossible I
should do as you ask."

"And yet," cried Mary, in a paroxysm of despair, "Bertha loves you,
and I do not love you."

"Ah! if you do not love me, Mary, if, with your eyes in my eyes, your
hands in my hands, you have the courage to say, 'I do not love you,'
then, indeed, all is over."

"What do you mean by that,--how is it all over?"

"Simply enough, Mary. As truly as those stars in heaven see the
chastity of my love for you, as truly as that God who is above those
stars knows that my love for you is immortal, Mary, neither you nor
your sister shall ever see me again."

"Oh, don't say that, Michel."

"I have but to cross the lake and mount my horse, which is there among
the osiers, and gallop to the first guard-house; once there, I have
only to say, 'I am Baron Michel de la Logerie,' to be shot in three
days." Mary gave a cry. "And that is what I will do," added Michel,
"as surely as the stars look down upon us, and God himself is above
them."

The young man made a movement to rush from the hut. Mary threw herself
before him and clasped him round the body, but her strength gave way,
her hold loosened, and she slipped to his feet.

"Michel," she murmured, "if you love me as you say you do, you will
not refuse my entreaty. In the name of your love I implore you,--I
whom you say you love,--do not kill my sister, grant me her life;
grant her happiness to my prayers and tears. God will bless you for
it; and every day my soul shall rise to Him, imploring happiness for
one who has helped me to save a sister I love better than myself.
Michel, forget me,--I ask it of your mercy, Michel,--do not reduce my
Bertha to despair."

"Oh, Mary, Mary, you are cruel!" cried the young man, grasping his
hair with both hands; "you are asking my very life. I shall die of
this."

"Courage, friend, courage," said the girl, weakening herself.

"I could have courage for all, except renouncing you; but the simple
thought of that makes me feebler than a child,--more despairing than a
soul in hell."

"Michel, my friend, will you do as I ask of you?" stammered Mary, her
voice half drowned in tears.

"I--I--"

He was about to answer that he would, but he stopped.

"Ah," he cried, "if you suffered as I suffer!"

At that cry of utter selfishness and yet of infinite love, Mary,
beside herself, panting for breath, half maddened, clasped him in her
nervous arms and said in a sobbing voice:--

"Would it comfort you to know that my heart is torn with an anguish
like yours?"

"Yes, yes; oh, yes!"

"Would hell be a paradise if I were by your side?"

"An eternity of suffering with you, Mary, and I could bear all."

"Well, then," cried Mary, losing control of herself; "be satisfied,
cruel man! your sufferings, your anguish--I feel them all. Like you, I
am dying of despair at the sacrifice our duty is wringing from us."

"Then you love me, Mary?" said the young man.

"Oh, faithless heart!" she cried; "oh, faithless man, who can see my
tears, my tortures, and cannot see my love!"

"Mary, Mary!" exclaimed Michel, staggering, breathless, mad, and
drunken at once; "after killing me with grief, will you kill me with
joy?"

"Yes, yes, I love you!" repeated Mary. "I love you! I needs must say
the words that have choked me long. Yes, I love you as you love me. I
love you so well that when I think of the sacrifice we both must make,
death would be dear to me could it come at this moment when I tell you
the truth."

Saying these words in spite of herself, and as if attracted by
magnetic power, Mary approached her face to that of the young man, who
looked at her with the eyes of one whom a sudden hallucination has
flung into ecstasy; her blond hair touched his forehead; their breaths
mingled and intoxicated both. As if overcome by this amorous
effluence, Michel closed his eyes, his lips touched Mary's, and she,
exhausted by her struggle so long sustained against herself, yielded
to the impulse that moved her. Their lips united, and thus they stayed
for several moments, lost in a gulf of dolorous felicity.

Mary was the first to recover herself. She rose quickly, pushed Michel
away from her, and began to cry bitterly.

At that instant Rosine entered the hut.

XII.

BARON MICHEL FINDS AN OAK INSTEAD OF A REED
ON WHICH TO LEAN.

Mary felt that Rosine's coming was a help sent to her from above.
Alone, without other support than her own heart, which had yielded so
utterly, she felt herself at the mercy of her lover. Seeing Rosine,
she ran to her and caught her hand.

"What is it, my child?" she said. "What have you come to say?"

She passed her hands over her forehead and eyes to efface, if
possible, the signs of her emotion.

"Mademoiselle," said Rosine, "I think I hear a boat."

"In which direction?"

"Toward Saint-Philbert."

"I thought your father's boat was the only one on the lake."

"No, mademoiselle, the miller of Grand-Lieu has one; it is half-rotten
to be sure, but some one has no doubt taken it to come over here."

"Well," said Mary, "I'll go with you and see who it is?"

Then, without paying the slightest heed to the young man, who
stretched out his arms to her in a supplicating way, Mary, who was not
sorry to leave Michel in order to gather up her courage, sprang from
the hut. Rosine followed her.

Michel was left alone, completely crushed; he felt that happiness had
escaped him, and he doubted the possibility of recovering it. Never
again would another such scene bring another such avowal.

When Mary returned, after listening in all directions without hearing
anything more than the lapping of the water on the shore, she found
Michel sitting on the reeds with his head in his hands. She thought
him calm,--he was only depressed; she went to him. Michel, hearing her
step, raised his head, and seeing her as reserved on her return as she
was emotional before she left him, he merely held out his hand and
shook his head sadly.

"Oh, Mary, Mary!" he said.

"Well, my friend?" she replied.

"Repeat to me, for Heaven's sake--repeat to me those dear words you
said just now! Tell me again that you love me!"

"I will repeat it, dear friend," said Mary, sadly; "and as often as
you wish it, if the conviction that my love is watching tenderly your
sufferings and your efforts can in any way inspire you with courage
and resolution."

"What!" cried Michel, wringing his hands, "are you still thinking of
that cruel separation? Can you expect me, with the knowledge of my
love for you, and the certainty of your love for me,--can you still
expect me to give myself to another woman?"

"I expect us both to accomplish the duty that lies before us, my
friend. That is why I do not regret having opened my heart to you. I
hope that my example will teach you to suffer, and inspire you with
resignation to the will of God. A fatal chain of circumstances, which
I deplore as much as you, Michel, has separated us; we cannot belong
to each other."

"But why not? I have made no pledge. I never said one word of love to
Mademoiselle Bertha."

"No; but she told me that she loved you. I received her confidence as
long ago as that evening when you met her at Tinguy's cottage, and
walked home with her."

"But whatever I said to her that night that may have seemed tender
referred to you," said the luckless young man.

"Ah! friend, a heart which bends is soon filled; poor Bertha deceived
herself. As we returned to the château that night and I was thinking
in the depths of my heart, 'I love him,' she said those very words to
me aloud. To love you is only to suffer, but to be yours, Michel,
would be a crime."

"Ah! my God! my God!"

"Yes. God will give us strength, Michel,--the God whom we invoke. Let
us bear heroically the consequences of our mutual timidity. I do not
blame you for yours, be sure of that; but, at least, spare me the
remorse of feeling that I have made my sister's unhappiness without
benefit or advantage to myself."

"But," said Michel, "your project is senseless; the very thing you
seek to avoid would surely come of it. Sooner or later Bertha must
discover that I do not love her, and then--"

"Listen to me, friend." interrupted Mary, laying her hand on Michel's
arm: "though very young, I have strong convictions on what is called
love. My education, the direct opposite of yours, has, like yours, its
drawbacks, but also some advantages. One of these advantages--a
terrible one, I admit--is a practical view of realities. Accustomed to
hear conversations in which the past disguised nothing of its
weakness, I know, through what I have learned from my father's life,
that nothing is more fugitive than the feelings which you now express
to me. I therefore hope that Bertha will have taken my place in your
heart before she has time to perceive your indifference. That is my
hope, Michel, and I pray you not to destroy it."

"You ask an impossibility, Mary."

"Well, if it must be so, it must. You are free not to keep the
engagement which binds you to my sister: free to reject the prayer I
make to you on my knees; it will be only another wound and shame
inflicted on two poor girls already unjustly treated by the world. My
poor Bertha will suffer, I know that; but at least I shall suffer with
her, and with the same pain as hers; but take care, Michel, lest our
sufferings, increased by each seeing that of the other, end by cursing
you.

"I implore you, Mary. I conjure you do not say such words,--they break
my heart."

"Listen, Michel; the hours are passing, the night is nearly gone, day
will soon be here; we must now separate, and my resolution is
irrevocable. We have both dreamed a dream which we must both forget. I
have told you how you can deserve,--I will not say my love, for you
have it,--but the eternal gratitude of your poor Mary. I swear to
you," she added, in a deeper tone of supplication than she had yet
used; "I swear to you that if you will devote yourself to the
happiness of my sister, I will have but one thought, one prayer, in my
heart,--that of beseeching God to reward you here below, and in heaven
above. If on contrary, you refuse me, Michel, if your heart cannot
rise to the level of my own abnegation, you must renounce the sight of
us, you must go far away; for, I repeat, and I swear it before God, I
will never, my friend, _never_ be yours!"

"Mary, Mary, do not take that oath; leave me some hope, at least. The
obstacles around us may lessen."

"To leave you any hope would be doing wrong, Michel; and since the
certainty that I share your sufferings has not given you--as you
promised me it should--the firmness and resignation which strengthen
my own heart, I bitterly regret the confession I have made this night.
No," she added, passing her hand across her forehead, "we must have no
more dreams; they are too dangerous. I have made you a request, a
prayer; you will not listen to it; there is nothing left but to bid
you an eternal farewell."

"Never to see you, Mary! Oh, rather death! I will do what you exact--"

He stopped, unable to say the words.

"I exact nothing," said Mary. "I have asked you on my knees not to
break two hearts instead of one, and, on my knees, I once more ask
it."

And she did, in fact, slip down to the feet of the young man.

"Rise, rise!" he cried. "Yes, Mary, yes, I will do what you want. But
you must be there, you must never leave me; and when I suffer too much
I must draw my strength and courage from your eyes. Promise me that,
Mary, and I will obey you."

"Thank you, friend, thank you. That which gives me strength to ask and
accept this sacrifice, is my conviction that nothing is lost for your
happiness as well as Bertha's."

"But yours, yours?" cried the young man.

"Do not think of me, Michel." A groan escaped him. "God," she
continued, "has given consolations to sacrifice of which the soul
knows nothing till it sounds those depths. As for me," said Mary,
veiling her eyes with her hand as though she feared they might deny
her words, "I shall endeavor to find the sight of your happiness
sufficient for me."

"Oh, my God, my God!" cried Michel, wringing his hands; "is it all
over,--am I condemned to death?"

And he flung himself face down upon the floor.

At that moment Rosine entered.

"Mademoiselle," she said, "the day is breaking."

"What is the matter, Rosine?" asked Mary; "you are trembling!"

"I am sure I heard oars in the lake; and just now I heard footsteps
behind me."

"Footsteps on this lonely islet! you are dreaming, child."

"I think so myself, for I have searched everywhere and seen no one."

"Now we must go," said Mary.

A sob from Michel made her turn to him.

"We must go alone, my friend," she said, "but in an hour Rosine shall
come back for you with the boat. Don't forget what you have promised
me. I rely upon your courage."

"Rely upon my love, Mary," he said. "The proof you exact is terrible;
the task you impose immense. God grant I may not fail under the burden
of it."

"Remember, Michel, that Bertha loves you, that she cherishes every
glance you give her. Remember, too, that I would rather die than have
her discover the true state of your heart."

"Oh, my God! my God!" murmured the young man.

"Courage! courage! Farewell, friend!"

Profiting by the moment when Rosine turned to open the door and look
outside, Mary laid a kiss on Michel's forehead. It was a different
kiss from that she had given him half an hour earlier. The first was
the jet of flame, which darts from the heart of the lover to that of
the loved one; the second was the chaste farewell of a sister to a
brother.

Michel understood the difference, and it wrung his heart. Tears sprang
again to his eyes. He went with the two young girls to the shore, and
when he had seen them in the boat he sat down upon a stone and watched
the little bark till it was lost in the morning mist that was rising
from the lake.

The sound of oars still lingered in his ear; he was listening, as
though to some funeral knell which told him that his illusions were
vanishing like phantom dreams, when a hand was lightly laid upon his
shoulder. He turned and saw Jean Oullier close beside him.

The Vendéan's face was sadder than usual, but it seemed to have lost
the expression of hatred which Michel had so often seen there. His
eyelids were moist, and two big drops were hanging to the beard which
formed a collar round his face. Were they dew? Could they be tears
from the eyes of the old follower of Charette?

He held out his hand to Michel, a thing he had never done before. The
latter looked at him in surprise, and took, with some hesitation, the
hand that was offered to him.

"I heard all," said Jean Oullier.

Michel sighed and dropped his head.

"Noble hearts! both of you," said the Vendéan; "but you were right. It
is a terrible task that poor child has set you. May God reward her
devotion! As for you, when you feel that you are weakening, let me
know, Monsieur de la Logerie, and you'll find out one thing, and that
is, if Jean Oullier hates his enemies he can also love those he does
love."

"Thank you," replied Michel.

"Come, come!" continued Jean Oullier, "no more tears; it isn't manly
to cry. If necessary, I'll try to make that iron head, called Bertha,
listen to reason; though I admit to you, in advance, it isn't easy."

"But in case she won't hear reason, there is one thing else you can
help me in,--an easy thing."

"What is that?"

"To get myself killed."

Michel said it so simply that it was evidently the expression of his
thought.

"Oh, oh!" muttered Jean Oullier; "he really looks, my faith, as if
he'd do it." Then he added aloud, addressing the young man: "Well, so
be it; if the necessity comes, we'll see about it."

This promise, melancholy as it was, gave Michel a little courage.

"Now, then," said the old Chouan, "come with me. You can't stay here.
I have a miserable boat, but by taking some precautions I think we can
both of us get safely ashore."

"But Rosine was to return in an hour and row me over," objected the
young man.

"She will come on a useless errand, that's all;" replied Jean Oullier.
"It will teach her to gossip on the high-road about other people's
affairs as she did with you to-night."

After these words, which explained how Jean Oullier came to visit the
island of Jonchère, Michel followed him to the boat, and presently,
avoiding the road taken by Mary and Rosine, they took to the open
country in the direction of Saint-Philbert.

XIII.

THE LAST KNIGHTS OF ROYALTY.

As Gaspard had clearly foreseen, and as he had predicted to
Petit-Pierre at the farmhouse of Banl[oe]uvre, the postponement of
the uprising till the 4th of June was a fatal blow to the projected
insurrection. In spite of every effort and every activity on the part
of the leaders of the Legitimist party, who all, like the Marquis de
Souday, his daughters, and adherents, went themselves to the villages
of their divisions to carry the order for delay, it was too late to
get the information sent to the country districts, and these
conflicting plans defeated the whole movement.

In the region about Niort, Fontenay, and Luçon, the royalists
assembled; Diot and Robert, at the head of their organized bands,
issued from the forests of the Deux-Sèvres, to serve as kernel to the
movement. This was instantly made known to the military leaders of the
various surrounding detachments, who at once assembled their forces,
marched to the parish of Amailloux, defeated the peasantry, and
arrested a large number of gentlemen and royalist officers who were in
the neighborhood, and had rushed into the fight on hearing the firing.

Arrests of the same kind were made in the environs of the
Champ-Saint-Père. The post of Port-la-Claye was attacked, and
although, because of the small number of assailants the royalists were
easily repulsed, it was evident from the audacity and vigor of the
attack that it was made, or at any rate led, by other than mere
refractories,--deserting recruits.

On one of the prisoners taken at the Champ-Saint-Père a list was found
of the young men forming the corps d'élite of the royalist forces.
This list, these attacks made on various sides at the same time, these
arrests of men known for the enthusiasm of their Legitimist opinions,
naturally put the authorities on their guard, and made them regard as
imminent the dangers they had hitherto treated lightly.

If the countermand of the uprising did not reach the country districts
of La Vendée in time, still less could the provinces of Brittany and
Maine receive the order; and there the standard of revolt was openly
unfurled. In the first, the division of Vitré took the field, and even
won a victory for the Bretons at Bréal,--an ephemeral victory, which
was changed to defeat the following day at Gaudinière.

In Maine Gaullier received the countermand too late to stop his _gars_
from making a bloody fight at Chaney, which lasted six hours; and
besides that engagement (a serious one in its results) the peasantry,
unwilling to return to their homes after beginning the insurrection,
kept up a daily guerilla warfare with the various columns of troops
which lined the country.

We may boldly declare that the countermand of May 22, the headlong and
unsupported movements which then took place, the want of cohesion and
confidence which naturally resulted, did more for the government of
July than the zeal of all its agents put together.

In the provinces where these premature attempts were made it was
impossible to revive the ardor thus chilled and wasted. The insurgent
peasantry had time to reflect; and reflection, often favorable to
calculation, is always fatal to sentiment. The leaders, whose names
were now made known to the government, were easily surprised and
arrested on returning to their homes.

It was still worse in the districts where the peasantry had openly
taken the field. Finding themselves abandoned by their own supporters,
and not receiving the reinforcements on which they counted, they
believed themselves betrayed, broke their guns in two, and returned,
indignantly, to their cottages.

The Legitimist insurrection died in the womb. The cause of Henri V.
lost two provinces before his flag was raised; but such was the
courage of these sons of giants that, as we are now about to see, they
did not yet despair.

Eight days had elapsed since the events recorded in our last chapter,
and during those eight days the political turmoil going on around
Machecoul was so violent that it swept into its orbit all the
personages of our history whose own passions and interests might
otherwise have kept them aloof from it.

Bertha, made uneasy at first by Michel's disappearance, was quite
reassured when he returned; and her happiness was shown with such
effusion and publicity that it was impossible for the young man,
unless he broke the promise he had made to Mary, to do otherwise than
appear, on his side, glad to see her. The many services she had to
render to Petit-Pierre, the many details of the correspondence with
which she was intrusted, so absorbed Bertha's time that she did not
notice Michel's sadness and depression, or the constraint with which
he yielded to the familiarity her masculine habits led her to show to
the man whom she regarded as her betrothed husband.

Mary, who had rejoined her father and sister two hours after leaving
Michel on the islet of Jonchère, avoided carefully all occasions of
being alone with her lover. When the necessities of their daily life
brought them together she took every possible means to put her sister
at an advantage in Michel's eyes; and when her own eyes encountered
those of the young baron she looked at him with so supplicating an
expression that he felt himself gently but relentlessly held to the
promise he had given.

If, by accident, Michel seemed to authorize by his silence the
attentions with which Bertha overwhelmed him, Mary affected a joyous
and demonstrative pleasure, which, though doubtless far from her own
heart, was agonizing to that of Michel. Nevertheless, in spite of all
her efforts, it was impossible for her to conceal the ravages which
the struggle she was making against her love wrought in her
appearance. The change would certainly have struck every one about her
had they been less preoccupied,--Bertha with her love, Petit-Pierre
and the marquis with the cares of State. Poor Mary's healthy freshness
disappeared; dark circles of bluish bistre hollowed her eyes, her pale
cheeks visibly grew thinner, and slender lines appearing on her
beautiful forehead contradicted the smile that was ever on her lips.

Jean Oullier, whose loving solicitude could not have been deceived,
was absent. The very day he returned to Banl[oe]uvre the marquis
despatched him on a mission to the East, and, inexperienced as he was
in matters of the heart, he had departed almost easy in mind, having
no real conception, in spite of all he had heard, that the trouble was
so deep.

The 3d of June had now arrived. On that day a great commotion took
place at the Jacquet mill in the district of Saint-Colombin. From
early morning the going and coming of women and beggars had been
incessant, and by nightfall the orchard which surrounded the mill had
all the appearance of an encampment.

Every few minutes men in blouses or hunting-jackets, armed with guns,
sabres, and pistols, kept coming in; some through the fields, others
by the roads. They said a word to the sentries posted around the farm,
on which word they were allowed to pass. They stacked their guns along
the hedge which separated the orchard from the courtyard, and
prepared, as they severally arrived, to bivouac, under the
apple-trees. Each and all came full of devotion; few with hope.

The courage and loyalty of such convictions make them sacred and
worthy of respect. No matter to what opinions we may belong, we must
be proud of finding such loyalty, such courage, among friends, and
glad to recognize them among adversaries. That political faith for
which men did not shrink from dying may be rebuked and denied; God was
not with it and it fell. Nevertheless, it has won the right to be
honored, even in defeat, without discussion.

Antiquity declared, "Ills to the vanquished!" but antiquity was pagan.
Mercy never reigned among false gods.

As for us,--not concerning ourselves in the sentiments or convictions
which animated them,--we feel it was a noble and chivalric devotion
which these Vendéans of 1832 held up to France, then beginning to be
invaded by the narrow, sordid, commercial spirit which has since then
absorbed it. And above all it seems noble and chivalrous when we
reflect that most of these Vendéans had no illusion as to the outcome
of their struggle; they advanced without hope to certain death.
However mistaken they may have been, whatever may be said of their
action, the names of those men belong to history; and we here join
hands with history, if not to glorify them, at least to absolve them,
although their actual names must not be mentioned in our narrative.

Inside the Jacquet mill the concourse, though less numerous than
without, was not less noisily busy. Some of the leaders were receiving
their last instructions and concerting with each other for the morrow;
others were relating the occurrences of the day, which had not been
uneventful. A gathering had taken place on the moors of Les Vergeries,
and several encounters with the government troops had occurred.

The Marquis de Souday made himself conspicuous among the various
groups by his enthusiastic loquacity. Once more he was a youth of
twenty. In his feverish impatience it seemed to him that the sun of
the morrow would never dawn; and he was profiting by the time the
earth consumed in making its revolution to give a lesson in military
tactics to the young men about him.

Michel, sitting in the chimney-corner, was the only person present
whose mind was not completely absorbed in the events that were
impending. His situation was growing more complicated every moment. A
few friends and neighbors of the marquis had congratulated him on his
approaching marriage with Mademoiselle de Souday. At every step he
made he felt he was entangling himself more and more in the net he had
blindly entered head foremost; and at the same time he felt that all
his efforts to keep the promise Mary had wrung from him were hopeless.
He knew it was in vain to attempt to drive from his heart the gentle
image that had taken possession of it.

His sadness grew deeper and heavier, and presented at this moment a
curious contrast with the eager countenances of those about him. The
noise and the excitement soon became intolerable to him, and he rose
and went out without exciting notice. He crossed the courtyard and
passing behind the mill-wheel entered the miller's garden, followed
the water-course, and finally sat down on the rail of a little bridge
some two or three hundred yards from the house.

He had been sitting there about an hour, indulging in all the dismal
ideas which the consciousness of his unfortunate position suggested to
him, when he noticed a man who was coming toward him along the path he
himself had just taken.

"Is that you, Monsieur Michel?" asked the man.

"Jean Oullier!" cried Michel. "Jean Oullier! Heaven has sent you. When
did you get back?"

"Half an hour ago."

"Have you seen Mary?"

"Yes, I have seen Mademoiselle Mary."

And the old keeper raised his eyes to heaven and sighed. The tone in
which he said the words, the gesture, and the sigh which accompanied
them, showed that his deep solicitude was not blind to the cause of
the young girl's fading appearance, and also that he fully appreciated
the gravity of the situation.

Michel understood him; he covered his face with his hands and merely
murmured:--

"Poor Mary!"

Jean Oullier looked at him with a certain compassion; then, after a
moment's silence he said:--

"Have you decided on a course?"

"No; but I hope that to-morrow a musket-ball will save me the
necessity."

"Oh," said Jean Oullier, "you can't count on that; balls are so
capricious,--they never go to those who call them."

"Ah, Monsieur Jean!" exclaimed Michel, shaking; "we are very unhappy."

"Yes, so it seems; you are making terrible trouble for yourselves, all
of you. What you call love is nothing but unreasonableness. Good God!
who could have told me that these two children, who thought of nothing
but roaming the woods bravely and merrily with their father and me,
would fall in love with the first hat that came in their way,--and
that, too, when the man it covered was more of a girl in his sex than
they were in theirs!"

"Alas! it is fatality, my good Jean."

"No," said the Vendéan, "you needn't blame fate; it was I. But come,
as you haven't the nerve to face that foolish Bertha, and speak the
truth, how do you expect to remain an honest man?"

"I shall do all I can to get nearer to Mary; you can count on me for
that so long as you act in that direction."

"Who says anything about your keeping near to Mary? Poor child! she
has more good sense than all of you. She cannot be your wife,--she
told you so the other day, or rather the other night; and she was
perfectly right,--only, her love for Bertha is carrying her too far.
She is condemning herself to the torture she wishes to spare her
sister; and that is what neither you nor I must allow."

"How can we help it, Jean Oullier?"

"Easily. As you cannot be the husband of the woman you love, you must
not be the husband of the woman you don't love. Now it is my opinion
that Mary's grief will get easier when that pain is taken away from
her. For she may say what she pleases; there's always a touch of
jealousy at the bottom of a woman's heart, however tender it may be."

"Renounce both the hope of making Mary my wife and the consolation of
seeing her? Impossible! I can't do it. I tell you, Jean Oullier, that
to get nearer to Mary I would go through hell-fire."

"Phrases, my young gentleman, phrases! The world has been consoled for
being turned out of paradise, and at your age a man can always forget
the woman he loves. Besides, the thing that ought to separate you from
Mary is something else than hell-fire. It may be the dead body of her
sister; for you don't yet know what an undisciplined child it is that
goes by the name of Bertha, nor of what she is capable, I don't
understand, poor fool of a peasant that I am, all your fine
sentiments; but it seems to me the grandest of them ought to pause
before an obstacle of this sort."

"But what can I do, my friend? What shall I do? Advise me."

"All the trouble comes, as I think, from your not having the character
of your sex. You must now do what a person of the sex to which by your
manners and your weakness you seem to belong would do under the
circumstances. You have not known how to master the situation in which
fate placed you; and now you must flee from it."

"Flee from it! But did you hear Mary say the other day that if I
renounced her sister she would never see me again?"

"What of that, if she respects you?"

"But think of all I shall have to suffer!"

"You won't suffer at a distance more than you will suffer here."

"Here, at least, I can see her."

"Do you think the heart knows distance? No, not even when those we are
parted from have bid us their last farewell. Thirty years ago and over
I lost my poor wife, but there are days when I see her as plain as I
now see you. Mary's image will remain on your heart, and you will hear
her voice thanking you for what you now do."

"Ah! I would rather you talked to me of death."

"Come, Monsieur Michel, make an effort. I'd go on my knees to you if
necessary--I who have many a cause of hatred against you; I beg you, I
implore you, give peace, as far as it is now possible, to those poor
creatures!"

"What do you want me to do?"

"I want you to go. I have said it, and I repeat it."

"Go? Go away? You can't mean it. Why, they fight to-morrow, and to go
to-day would be deserting,--it would be dishonor."

"No, I don't want you to dishonor yourself. If you go it shall not be
desertion."

"How so?"

"In the absence of a captain of the Clisson division I have been
appointed to take his command; you shall come with me."

"Oh, I hope the first ball to-morrow may carry me off."

"You will fight under my eyes," continued Jean Oullier; "and if any
one doubts your bravery, I'll bear witness to it. Will you come?"

"Yes," replied Michel, in so low a voice that the old man could
scarcely hear him.

"Good! in three hours we start."

"Start! without bidding her farewell?"

"Yes. In the face of such circumstances she might not have the
strength to let you go. Come, take courage!"

"I will take it, Oullier; you shall be satisfied with me."

"Then I can rely upon you?"

"You can. I give you my word of honor."

"I shall be waiting at the cross ways of Belle-Passe in three hours
from now."

"I will be there."

Jean Oullier made Michel a farewell sign that was almost friendly;
then springing across the little bridge, he went to the orchard and
mingled with the other Vendéans.

XIV.

JEAN OULLIER LIES FOR THE GOOD OF THE CAUSE.

The young baron remained for several minutes in a state of utter
prostration. Jean Oullier's words rang in his ears like a knell
sounding his own death. He thought he dreamed, and he kept repeating,
as if to convince himself of the reality of his sorrow, "Go away? Go
away?"

Presently, the chill idea of death, which he had lately invoked as a
succor from heaven, an idea adopted as we fasten upon such thoughts at
twenty, passed from his brain to his heart and froze him. He shuddered
from head to foot. He saw himself separated from Mary, not merely by a
distance he dared not cross, but by that wall of granite which
incloses a man eternally in his last abode.

His pain grew so intense that he thought it a presentiment. He now
accused Jean Oullier of cruelty and injustice. The sternness of the
old Vendéan in refusing him the consolation of a last farewell seemed
to him intolerable; it was surely impossible that he should be
actually denied a last look. He rebelled at the thought, and resolved
to see Mary, no matter what might come of it.

Michel knew the internal arrangements of the miller's house.
Petit-Pierre's room was the miller's own, above the grindstones. This
was, naturally, the place of honor in the establishment. The sisters
slept in a little room adjoining this chamber. A narrow window in the
smaller room looked down upon the outside mill-wheel which kept the
machinery at work. For the present, however, all was still, lest the
noise should prevent the sentries from hearing other sounds.

Michel waited till it was dark,--an hour perhaps; then he went to the
buildings. A light could be seen in the narrow window. He threw a
plank on a paddle of the wheel and managed, by resting his body
against the wall, to climb spoke by spoke to the highest point of the
wheel; there he found himself on a level with the narrow casement. He
raised his head and looked into the tiny room.

Mary was alone, sitting on a stool, her elbow resting on the bed, her
head in her hands. Now and then a heavy sigh escaped her; from time to
time her lips moved as though she were murmuring a prayer. The young
man tapped against a window-pane. At the sound she raised her head,
recognized him through the glass, and ran to him.

"Hush!" he said.

"You! you here!" cried Mary.

"Yes, I."

"Good God! what do you want?"

"Mary, it is more than a week since I have spoken to you, almost a
week since I have seen you. I have come to bid you farewell before I
go to meet my fate."

"Farewell! and why farewell?"

"I have come to say farewell, Mary," said the youth, firmly.

"Oh, you do not mean to die?"

Michel did not answer.

"No, no; you will not die," continued Mary. "I have prayed so much
that God must hear me. But now that you have seen me, now that you
have spoken to me, you must go,--go!"

"Why must I leave you so soon? Do you hate me so intensely that you
cannot bear to see me?"

"No, you know it is not that, my friend;" said Mary. "But Bertha is in
the next room; she may have heard you come. She may be hearing what
you say. Good God! what would become of me--of me who have sworn to
her that I did not love you!"

"You may have sworn that to her, but to me you swore otherwise. You
swore that you loved me, and it was upon the faith of that love that I
consented to conceal my own."

"Michel, I entreat you, go away!"

"No, Mary, I will not go until your lips have repeated to me again
what they said on the island of Jonchère."

"But that love is almost a crime!" said Mary, desperately. "Michel, my
friend, I blush, I weep, when I think of that momentary weakness."

"Mary! I swear to you that to-morrow you shall have no such remorse,
you shall shed no tears of that kind."

"Oh, you mean to die! No, no; do not say it! Leave me the hope that my
sufferings may bring you a better fate than mine. Hush! Don't you
hear? Some one is coming! Go, Michel; go, go!"

"One kiss, Mary!"

"No."

"Yes, yes; a last kiss--the last!"

"Never, my friend."

"Mary, it is to a dying man!"

Mary gave a cry; her lips touched his forehead; but the instant they
had done so, and while she was closing the window hastily, Bertha
appeared in the doorway.

When the latter saw her sister, pale, perturbed, scarcely able to
support herself, she rushed, with the terrible instinct of jealousy,
to the window, opened it violently, leaned out, and saw a shadow
disappearing in the darkness.

"Michel was with you, Mary!" she cried, with trembling lips.

"Sister," said Mary, falling on her knees; "I swear--"

Bertha interrupted her.

"Don't swear, don't lie. I heard his voice."

Bertha pushed Mary away from her with such violence that the latter
fell flat upon the floor. Then Bertha, springing over her sister's
body, furious as a lioness deprived of her young, rushed from the room
and down the stairs, crossed the mill, and reached the courtyard.
There, to her astonishment, she saw Michel sitting on the doorstep
beside Jean Oullier. She went straight up to him.

"How long have you been here?" she said in a curt, harsh voice.

Michel made a gesture as if to say, "I leave Jean Oullier to reply."

"Monsieur le baron and I have been talking here for the last half hour
or more."

Bertha looked fixedly at the old Vendéan.

"That is singular!" she said.

"Why singular?" asked Jean Oullier, fixing his own eyes steadily upon
her.

"Because," said Bertha, addressing Michel and not Jean Oullier.
"because I thought I heard you talking with my sister at her window,
and saw you climbing down the mill-wheel which you had mounted to
reach her."

"Monsieur le baron doesn't look as if he had just performed such an
acrobatic feat," said Jean Oullier, sarcastically.

"Then who do you suppose it was, Jean?" said Bertha, stamping her foot
impatiently.

"Oh, some of those drunkards over there, who were playing a trick."

"But I tell you that Mary was pale and trembling."

"With fright," said Jean Oullier. "She hasn't got your iron nerves."

Bertha grew thoughtful. She knew the feelings that Jean Oullier
cherished against the young baron; therefore she could hardly suppose
he was in league with him against her. After a moment's silence her
thoughts reverted to Mary, and she remembered that she had left her
almost fainting.

"Yes," she said; "yes. Jean Oullier, you are right. The poor child
must have been frightened, and I, with my rough ways, have made
matters worse. Oh," she muttered, "this love is making me beside
myself!"

Then, without another word to Michel or Jean Oullier, she rushed into
the mill.

Jean Oullier looked at Michel, who lowered his eyes.

"I shall not reproach you," he said to the young man, "but you must
see now on what a powder-barrel you are stepping. What would have
happened if I had not been here to lie, God forgive me! as if I were a
liar born."

"Yes," said Michel, "you are right, Jean,--I know it; and the proof is
that I swear to follow you, for I see plainly I can't stay here any
longer."

"That's right. The Nantes men will start in a few moments; the marquis
joins them with his division; start yourself at the same time, but
fall behind and join me, you know where."

Michel went off to fetch his horse, and Jean Oullier, meantime,
obtained his last instructions from the marquis. The Vendéans camping
in the orchard now formed in line, their arms sparkling in the
shadows. A quiver of repressed impatience ran through the ranks.

Presently Petit-Pierre, followed by the principal leaders, came out of
the house and advanced to the Vendéans. She was hardly recognized
before a mighty cry of enthusiasm burst from every mouth. Sabres were
drawn to salute her for whose cause each man was prepared to die.

"My friends," said Petit-Pierre, advancing, "I promised I would be
present at the first armed meeting; and here I am, never to leave you.
Fortunate or unfortunate, your fate shall be mine henceforth. If I
cannot--as my son would have done--rally you to where my white plume
shines, I can--as he would--die with you! Go, sons of giants, go where
duty and honor call you!"

Frantic cries of "Vive Henri V! Vive Marie-Caroline!" welcomed this
allocution. Petit-Pierre addressed a few more words to those of the
leaders whom she knew; and then the little troop on which rested the
fate of the oldest monarchy in Europe took its way in the direction of
Vieille-Vigne.

During this time Bertha had been showering attentions on her sister,
all the more eager because of her sudden change of feeling. She
carried her to her bed and bathed her face in cold water. Mary opened
her eyes and looked about her in a bewildered way, murmuring in a low
voice Michel's name. Her heart revived before her reason.

Bertha shuddered. She was about to ask Mary to forgive her violence,
but Michel's name on her sister's lips stopped the words in her
throat. For the second time the serpents of jealousy were gnawing at
her heart.

Just then the acclamations with which the Vendéans welcomed the
address of Petit-Pierre reached her ears. She went to the window of
the next room and saw the waving line of a dark mass among the trees,
lighted here and there with flashes. It was the column just beginning
its march. The thought struck her that Michel, who was certainly with
that column, had gone without bidding her good-bye; and she returned,
thoughtful, uneasy, and gloomy to her sister's bedside.

XV.

JAILER AND PRISONER ESCAPE TOGETHER.

At daybreak on the 4th of June the tocsin sounded from all the
bell-towers in the districts of Clisson, Montaigu, and Machecoul. The
tocsin is the drum-call of the Vendéans. Formerly, that is to say in
the days of the great war, when its harsh and sinister clang resounded
through the land the whole population rose in a mass and ran to meet
the enemy.

How many noble things those people must have done to enable us to
forget, almost forget, that their enemy was--France!

Happily,--and this proves the immense progress we have made in the
past forty years,--happily, we say, in 1832 the tocsin appeared to
have lost its power. If a few peasants, answering its impious call,
left their ploughs and seized the guns hidden in the hedges, the
majority continued calmly along the furrows, and contented themselves
by listening to the signal for revolt with that profoundly meditative
air which suits so well with the Vendéan cast of countenance.

And yet, by ten o'clock that morning, a rather numerous body of
insurgents had already fought an engagement with the regular army.
Strongly intrenched in the village of Maisdon, this troop sustained a
strong attack directed against it, and had only given way before
superior numbers. It then effected its retreat in better order than
was customary with the Vendéans even after a slight or momentary
reverse.

The reason was, and we repeat it, that La Vendée was no longer
fighting for the triumph of a great principle, but simply from a great
devotion. If we are now making ourselves the historian of this war
(after our usual fashion of writing history) it is because we hope to
draw from the very facts we relate the satisfactory conclusion that
civil war will soon be impossible in France.

Now, this devotion of which we speak was that of men of noble,
elevated hearts, who felt themselves bound by their fathers' past, and
who gave their honor, their fortunes, and their life in support of the
old adage, _Noblesse oblige_. That is the reason why the retreat was
made in good order. Those who executed it were no longer undisciplined
peasants, but gentlemen; and each man fought not only from devotion
but also from pride,--pride for himself, and, in a measure, for
others.

The Whites were immediately attacked again at Château-Thébaud by a
detachment of fresh troops sent by General Dermoncourt to pursue them.
The royalists lost several men at the passage of the Maine, but having
succeeded in putting that river between themselves and their pursuers,
they were able to form a junction on the left bank with the Nantes
men, whom we lately saw departing, full of enthusiasm, from the
Jacquet mill, and who since then had been reinforced by the men from
Légé and the division of the Marquis de Souday. This reinforcement
brought the effective strength of this column, which was under
Gaspard's command, to about eight hundred men.

The next morning it marched on Vieille-Vigne, hoping to disarm the
National Guard at that point; but learning that the little town was
occupied by a much superior force, to which would be added in a few
hours the troops assembled at Aigrefeuille (where the general had
collected a large body for the purpose of throwing them on any point
in case of necessity), the Vendéan leader determined to attack the
village of Chêne, intending to capture and occupy it.

The peasants were scattered through the neighborhood. Hidden among the
wheat, which was already of a good height, they worried the Blues with
incessant sharp-shooting, following the tactics of their fathers. The
men of Nantes and the country gentlemen formed in column and prepared
to carry the village by main force, attacking it along the chief
street which runs from end to end of it.

At the end of that street ran a brook; but the bridge had been
destroyed the night before, nothing remaining of it but a few
disjointed timbers. The soldiers, withdrawn into the houses and
ambushed behind the windows, protected with mattresses, poured a
cross-fire down upon the Whites, which repulsed them twice and
paralyzed their onset, until, electrified by the example of their
leaders, the Vendéan soldiers flung themselves into the water, crossed
the little river, met the Blues with the bayonet, hunted them from
house to house, and drove them to the extremity of the village, where
they found themselves face to face with a battalion of the 44th of the
line which the general had just sent forward to support the little
garrison of Chêne.

The sound of the firing reached the mill, which Petit-Pierre had not
yet quitted. She was still in that room on the first floor where we
have already seen her. Pale, with eager eyes, she walked up and down
in the grasp of a feverish agitation she could not quell. From time to
time she stopped on the threshold of the door, listening to the dull
roll of the musketry which the breeze brought to her ears like the
rumbling of distant thunder; then, she passed her hand across her
forehead, which was bathed in sweat, stamped her feet in anger, and at
last sat down in the chimney-corner opposite to the Marquis de Souday,
who, though no less agitated, no less impatient than Petit-Pierre,
only sighed from time to time in a dolorous way.

How came the Marquis de Souday, whom we have seen so impatient to
begin all over again his early exploits in the great war, to be thus
tied down to a merely expectant position? We must explain this to our
readers.

The day of the engagement at Maisdon Petit-Pierre, in accordance with
the promise she had given to her friends, made ready to join them and
share in the fight itself. But the royalist chiefs were alarmed at the
great responsibility her courage and ardor threw upon them. They felt
that the dangers were too many under the still uncertain chances of
this war, and they decided that until the whole army were assembled
they could not allow Petit-Pierre to risk her life in some petty and
obscure encounter.

Respectful representations were therefore made to her, all of which
failed to change her strong determination. The Vendéan leaders then
took counsel together and decided among themselves to keep her as it
were a prisoner, and to appoint one of their own number to remain
beside her, and prevent her, by force if necessary, from leaving her
quarters.

In spite of the care the Marquis de Souday (who was of the council)
took in voting and intriguing to throw the choice on one of his
colleagues, he himself was selected; and that is why he was now, to
his utter despair, compelled to stay in the Jacquet mill beside the
miller's fire, instead of being at Chêne and under the fire of the
Blues.

When the first sounds of the combat reached the mill Petit-Pierre
endeavored to persuade the marquis to let her join her faithful
Vendéans: but the old gentleman was not to be shaken; prayers,
promises, threats, were all in vain against his strict fidelity to
orders received. But Petit-Pierre could plainly see on his face the
deep annoyance he felt; for the marquis, who was little of a courtier
by nature, was unable to conceal it. Stopping short before him just as
one of the sighs of impatience we have already mentioned escaped him,
she said:--

"It seems to me, marquis, that you are not extraordinarily delighted
with my companionship?"

"Oh!" exclaimed the marquis, endeavoring, but without success, to give
a tone of shocked denial to his interjection.

"Yes," said Petit-Pierre, who had an object in persisting, "I think
you are not at all pleased with the post of honor assigned to you."

"On the contrary, I accepted that post with the deepest gratitude;
but--"

"Ah! there's a _but?_ I knew it!" said Petit-Pierre, who seemed
determined to fathom the old gentleman's mind on this point.

"Isn't there always a _but_ in every earthly thing?" replied the
marquis, evasively.

"What is yours?"

"Well, I regret not to be able, while showing myself worthy of the
trust my comrades have laid upon me, I certainly do regret not being
able to shed my blood on your behalf, as they are doing, no doubt, at
this very moment."

Petit-Pierre sighed heavily.

"I have no doubt," she said, "that our friends are even now regretting
your absence. Your experience and tried courage would certainly be of
the utmost help to them."

The marquis swelled with pride.

"Yes, yes," he said; "I know they'll repent of it."

"I am sure of it. My dear marquis, will you let me tell you, with my
hand on my conscience, the whole truth as I see it?"

"Oh, yes; I entreat you."

"Well, I think they distrusted you as much as they did me."

"Impossible!"

"Stop! you don't see what I mean. They said to themselves: 'A woman
would hinder us in marching; we should have to think of her if we
retreat. In any case we must devote to the security of her person a
troop of soldiers we could better employ elsewhere.' They did not
choose to believe that I have succeeded in conquering the weakness of
my body, and that my courage is equal to the greatness of my task; if
they think so of me, can you wonder if they think it of you?"

"Of me!" cried Monsieur de Souday, furious at the mere suggestion. "I
have given proofs of courage all my life!"

"All the world knows that, my dear marquis; but perhaps, remembering
your age, they may have thought that your bodily vigor, like mine, was
no longer equal to the ardor of your spirit."

"Oh, that's too much!" cried the old soldier of former days in a tone
of the deepest indignation. "Why! there hasn't been a day for the
last fifteen years that I haven't been six or eight hours in the
saddle,--sometimes ten, sometimes twelve! In spite of my white hairs I
can stand fatigue as well as any man. See what I can do still!"

Seizing the stool on which he was sitting, he struck it with such
violence against the stone chimney-piece that he shattered the stool
to bits and made a deep gash in the mantel. Brandishing above his head
the leg of the hapless stool which remained in his hand, he cried
out:--

"How many of your young dandies, Maître Petit-Pierre, could do that?"

"I never doubted your powers, my dear marquis; and that is why I say
those gentlemen have made a great mistake in treating you like an
invalid."

"An invalid! I? God's death!" cried the marquis, more and more
exasperated, and totally forgetting the presence of the person with
whom he was speaking. "An invalid! I? Well, this very evening, I'll
tell them I renounce these functions, which are those, not of a
gentleman, but a jailer."

"That's right!" interjected Petit-Pierre.

"Functions, which for the last two hours," continued the marquis,
striding up and down the room, "I have been sending to all the
devils."

"Ah, ha!"

"And to-morrow, yes, I say to-morrow, I'll show them who's an invalid,
that I will!"

"Alas!" said Petit-Pierre in a melancholy tone, "tomorrow may not
belong to us, my poor marquis; you are wrong to count upon it."

"Why so?"

"You know very well the uprising is not as general as we hoped it
might be. Who knows whether the shots we now hear may not be the last
fired in defence of the white flag?"

"Hum!" growled the marquis, with the fury of a bulldog tugging at his
chain.

Just then a call for help from the farther end of the orchard put an
end to their talk. They both ran to the spot, and there saw Bertha,
whom the marquis had stationed as an outside lookout, bringing in a
wounded peasant, whom she had scarcely strength enough to support.
Mary and Rosine had also rushed out at the cry. The peasant was a
young _gars_ from twenty to twenty-two years of age, with his
shoulder shattered by a ball. Petit-Pierre ran up to him and placed
him on a chair, where he fainted.

"For heaven's sake, retire," said the marquis to Petit-Pierre; "my
daughters and I will dress the poor devil's wound."

"Pray, why should I retire?" said Petit-Pierre.

"Because the sight of that wound is not one that everybody can stand;
I am afraid it is more than you have strength to bear."

"Then you are like all the rest; and you lead me to suppose that our
friends were right in the judgment they formed on you as well as on
me."

"I don't see that; how so?"

"You think, as they do, that I am wanting in courage." Then, as Mary
and Bertha were beginning to examine the wound, "Let the poor fellow's
wound alone," she continued, "I--and I alone, do you hear me?--will
dress it."

Taking her scissors Petit-Pierre slit up the sleeve of the Vendéan's
jacket, which was stuck to the arm by the dried blood, opened the
wound, washed it, covered it with lint and deftly bandaged it. Just as
she was finishing her work the wounded peasant opened his eyes and
recovered his senses.

"What news?" asked the marquis, unable to restrain himself a moment
longer.

"Alas!" said the man; "our _gars_, who were conquerors at first, are
now repulsed."

Petit-Pierre, who did not blanch while attending to the wound, grew as
white as the linen she was using for bandages; and putting in a last
pin to hold it, she seized the marquis by the arm and drew him toward
the door.

"Marquis," she said, "you, who saw the Blues in the great war, tell
me, what was done when the nation was in danger?"

"Done?" cried the marquis. "Why, everybody ran to arms."

"Even the women?"

"Yes, the women; even the old men, even the children."

"Marquis, it may be that the white flag will fall to-day never to rise
again. Why do you condemn me to making barren and impotent prayers and
vows in its behalf?"

"But just reflect," said the marquis; "suppose a ball were to strike
you."

"Oh! do you think my son's cause would be injured if my bloody and
bullet-riddled clothing were carried on a pike in front of our
battalions?"

"No, no!" cried the marquis, passionately. "I would curse my native
soil if the stones themselves did not rise at such a sight."

"Then come with me and let us join our troops."

"But," replied the marquis, with less determination than he had
previously shown against Petit-Pierre's entreaties,--as if the idea of
being regarded as an invalid had shaken the firmness with which he
executed his orders,--"but I promised you should not leave the mill."

"Well, I release you from that promise," said Petit-Pierre; "and I,
who know your valor, order you to follow me. Come, marquis, we may
still be in time to rally victory to our flag; if not, if we are too
late, we can at least die with our friends."

So saying, Petit-Pierre darted through the courtyard and orchard,
followed by Bertha and by the marquis, who thought it his duty to
renew, from time to time, his remonstrances; although, in the depths
of his heart, he was delighted with the turn affairs were taking.

Mary and Rosine remained behind to care for the wounded.

XVI.

THE BATTLEFIELD.

The Jacquet mill was about three miles from the village of Chêne.
Petit-Pierre, guided by the noise of the firing, did half the way
running; and it was with great difficulty that the marquis stopped her
as they neared the scene of action, and succeeded in inspiring her
with some prudence, lest she should plunge head-foremost into the
government troops.

On turning one of the flanks of the line of sharp-shooters, whose
firing, as we have said, was her guide, Petit-Pierre, followed by her
companions, came upon the rear of the Vendéan army, which had, in
truth, lost all the ground we saw it gain in the morning, and was now
driven back some distance beyond the village of Chêne. On catching
sight of Petit-Pierre, as, with flying hair and gasping breath she
came up the hill toward the main body of the Vendéans, the whole of
the little army burst into a roar of enthusiasm.

Gaspard, who, together with his officers, was firing like a common
soldier, turned round at the shout and saw Petit-Pierre, Bertha, and
the Marquis de Souday. The latter, in the rapidity of their course,
had lost his hat, and now appeared with his white hair flying in the
wind. It was to him that Gaspard spoke first.

"Is this how the Marquis de Souday keeps his word?" he said in an
irritated tone.

"Monsieur," replied the marquis, sharply, "it is not of a poor invalid
like me that you ought to ask that question."

Petit-Pierre hastened to intervene. Her party was not strong enough to
allow of dissensions among its leaders.

"Souday is bound, as you are, to obey me," she said; "I seldom claim
the exercise of that right; but to-day I have thought proper to do so.
I assume my place as generalissimo, and ask, how goes the day,
lieutenant?"

Gaspard shook his head significantly.

"The Blues are in force," he said, "and my scouts report that
reinforcements are reaching them."

"So much the better," cried Petit-Pierre; "they will be so many more
to tell France how we died."

"You cannot mean that, Madame!"

"I am not Madame here; I am a soldier. Fight on, without regard to me;
advance your line of skirmishers and double their fire."

"Yes; but first, to the rear!"

"To the rear! who?"

"You, in God's name!"

"Nonsense! to the front you mean."

Snatching Gaspard's sword, Petit-Pierre put her hat on the point of it
as she sprang in the direction of the village crying out:--

"Those who love me, follow me!"

Gaspard vainly attempted to restrain her, and even caught her arm; but
Petit-Pierre, light and agile, escaped him and continued her way
toward the line of houses whence the soldiers, observing the renewed
movement on the part of the Vendéans, were beginning a murderous fire.

Seeing the danger that Petit-Pierre was incurring, all the Vendéans
rushed forward to make a rampart of their bodies, and the effect of
such a rush was so sudden, so powerful, that in a few seconds they
were over the brook and into the village, where they came face to face
with the Blues. The clash was almost instantly followed by a terrible
_mêlée_. Gaspard, his mind wholly occupied by one thing, the safety of
Petit-Pierre, succeeded in reaching her and flinging her back among
his men. So intent was he on saving the august life he felt that God
himself had intrusted to him, that he gave no thought to his own
safety, and did not see that a soldier posted at the corner of the
first house was aiming at him.

It would have been all over with the Chouan leader if the marquis had
not observed the threatened danger. Slipping along the wall of the
house he threw up the muzzle of the weapon just as its owner fired it.
The ball struck a chimney; the soldier turned furiously on the
marquis, and tried to stab him with his bayonet, which the latter
evaded by throwing back his body. The old gentleman was about to reply
with a pistol-shot when a ball broke the weapon in his hand.

"So much the better!" he cried, drawing his sabre and dealing so
terrible a blow that the soldier rolled at his feet like an ox felled
by a club; "I prefer the white weapon." Then, brandishing his sabre he
cried out: "There, General Gaspard, what do you think of your invalid
now?"

Bertha had followed Petit-Pierre, her father and the Vendéans; but her
thoughts were much less on the soldiers than on what was passing
immediately about her. She looked for Michel, striving to distinguish
him in the whirlwind of men and horses that passed beside her.

The government troops, surprised by the suddenness and vigor of the
attack, retreated step by step; the National guard of Vieille-Vigne
had retired altogether. The ground was heaped with dead. The result
was that as the Blues no longer replied to the straggling fire of the
_gars_ posted in the vineyards and gardens around the village, Maître
Jacques, who commanded the skirmishers, was able to assemble his men
in a body. Putting himself at their head he led them through a by-way
which skirted the gardens and fell upon the flank of the soldiers.

The latter, whose resistance was becoming by this time more resolute,
sustained the attack valiantly, and forming in line across the main
street of the village, presented a front to their new assailants. Soon
a pause of hesitation appeared among the Vendéans, the Blues regained
the advantage, and their column having, in its charge, passed the
opening of the little by-way by which Maître-Jacques and his men had
debouched, the latter with five or six of his "rabbits," among whom
figured Aubin Courte-Joie and Trigaud-Vermin, found themselves cut off
from the body of their comrades. Whereupon Maître Jacques, rallying
his men about him, set his back to a wall to protect his rear, and
sheltering beneath the scaffolding of a house which was just being
built at the corner of the street, prepared to sell his life dearly.

Courte-Joie, armed with a small double-barrelled gun, fired
incessantly on the soldiers; each of his balls was the death of a man.
As for Trigaud, his hands being free, for the cripple was strapped to
his shoulders by a girth, he man[oe]uvred with wonderful adroitness a
scythe with its handle reversed, which served him as lance and sabre
both.

Just as Trigaud, with a backward blow, brought down a gendarme whom
Courte-Joie had only dismounted, great shouts of triumph burst from
the government ranks, and Maître Jacques and his men beheld a woman in
a riding-habit in the hands of the Blues, who seemed, even in the
midst of the fight, to be transported with joy. It was Bertha, who,
still preoccupied by her search for Michel, had imprudently advanced
too far and was captured by the soldiers. They, being deceived by her
dress, mistook her for the Duchesse de Berry; hence their joy.

Maître Jacques was misled like the rest. Anxious to repair the blunder
he had made in the forest of Touvois, he made a sign to his men, and
together they abandoned their defensive position, and rushing forward,
thanks to a great swathe mown down by Trigaud's terrible scythe, they
reached the prisoner, seized her, and placed her in their midst.

The soldiers, disappointed, renewed their efforts, and flung
themselves on Maître Jacques and his men, who had promptly regained
their shelter against the wall of the house; and the little group
became a centre toward which converged the points of twenty-five
bayonets, and a continuous fusillade from the circumference of the
circle. Already two Vendéans were dead; Maître Jacques, struck by a
ball which broke his wrist, was forced to drop his gun and take to his
sabre, which he wielded with his left hand. Courte-Joie had exhausted
his cartridges; and Trigaud's scythe was almost the only protection
left to the four surviving Vendéans,--an efficacious protection
hitherto, for it laid the assailants on the ground in such serried
ranks that the soldiers no longer dared to approach the terrible
mendicant.

But Trigaud, wishing to strike a direct blow at a horseman, missed his
aim. The scythe struck a stone and flew into a thousand bits; the
giant fell to his knees, so violent was the force of his impulsion;
the girth which fastened Courte-Joie to his shoulders broke, and the
cripple rolled into the midst of the fray.

A loud and joyous hurrah greeted this accident, which delivered the
formidable giant into the hands of his enemies; and a National guard
was in the act of raising his bayonet to stab the fallen cripple, when
Bertha, taking a pistol from her belt, fired upon the man and brought
him down upon the body of Courte-Joie.

Trigaud had risen with an agility scarcely to be expected of so
enormous a bulk; his separation from Courte-Joie and the danger the
latter was in increased his strength tenfold. Using the handle of his
scythe, he disposed of one man and disabled another. With a single
kick he sent to a distance of several feet the body of the man who had
fallen upon his friend, and taking the latter in his arms, as a nurse
lifts a child, he joined Bertha and Maître Jacques beneath the
scaffolding.

While Courte-Joie lay on the pavement, his eyes, roving about him with
the rapidity and acuteness of a man in peril of death, seeking on all
sides for a chance of escape, fell on the scaffolding where they
noticed a heap of stones collected by the masons for the construction
of the wall.

"Get under shelter in the doorway," he said to Bertha, when,
thanks to Trigaud, he found himself beside her; "perhaps I can
return the service you have just done me. As for you, Trigaud, let the
red-breeches come as near as they please."

In spite of Trigaud's thick brain he at once understood what his
companion wanted of him; for, little as the sound was in harmony with
the situation, he broke into a peal of laughter that resembled the
braying of trumpets.

The soldiers, seeing the three disarmed men, and wishing, at any cost,
to recapture the woman whom they still supposed to be the Duchesse de
Berry, came nearer, calling out to the Vendéans to surrender. But,
just as they stepped beneath the scaffolding, Trigaud, who had placed
Courte-Joie near Bertha, sprang to one of the joists that supported
the whole erection, seized it with both hands, shook it, and tore it
from the ground. In an instant the planks tipped, and the stones piled
upon them followed their incline and fell like hail, beyond Trigaud,
upon eight or ten of the foremost soldiers.

At the same moment the Nantes men, led by Gaspard and the Marquis de
Souday, making a desperate effort, firing, sabring, bayoneting hand to
hand, had driven back the Blues, who now retreated to their line of
battle in the open country, where their superiority in numbers and
also in weapons would infallibly give them the victory.

The Vendéans, rash as the effort was, were about to risk an attack,
when Maître Jacques, whom his men had rejoined, and who, in spite of
his wound, still continued to fight, said a few words in Gaspard's
ear. The latter immediately, and in spite of the commands and
entreaties of Petit-Pierre, ordered a retreat and again took up the
position he had occupied an hour earlier on the other side of the
village.

Petit-Pierre was ready to tear her hair with anger, and urgently
demanded explanations, which Gaspard did not give her until he had
ordered a halt.

"We are now surrounded by five or six thousand men," he said, "and we
ourselves are scarcely six hundred. The honor of the flag is safe, and
that is all we can hope for."

"Are you certain of that?" asked Petit-Pierre.

"Look for yourself," he replied, taking her to a rise in the ground
from which could be seen, converging on all sides toward the village
of Chêne, dark masses topped with bayonets which sparkled in the rays
of the setting sun. There, too, they heard the sound of drums and
bugles approaching from all the points of the horizon.

"You see," continued Gaspard, "that in less than an hour we shall be
completely surrounded, and no resource will then remain to these brave
men--who, like myself, cannot away with Louis Philippe's prisons--but
to get themselves killed upon the spot."

Petit-Pierre stood for some moments in gloomy silence; then, convinced
of the truth of what the Vendéan leader told her, beholding the
destruction of the hopes which a few moments earlier had seemed to her
ardent mind so strong and dauntless, she felt her courage desert her,
and she became, what she really was, a woman; she, who had so lately
braved fire and sword with the nerve of a hero, sat down by the
wayside and wept, disdaining to conceal the tears which furrowed her
cheeks.

XVII.

AFTER THE FIGHT.

Gaspard, having rejoined his companions, thanked them for their
services, told them of the state of things, and dismissed them for
better times,--advising them to disperse at once, and thus escape all
pursuit by the soldiers. Then he returned to Petit-Pierre, whom he
found in the same place, and around her the Marquis de Souday, Bertha,
and a few Vendéans who would not think of their own safety till
certain of hers.

"Well," asked Petit-Pierre when Gaspard returned to her alone, "have
they gone?"

"Yes; they could do no more than they have done."

"Poor souls! what troubles await them!" said Petit-Pierre. "Why has
God refused me the consolation of pressing them to my heart? But I
should never have had the strength; they do right to leave me without
farewell. Twice to suffer thus in life is too much agony. Those days
at Cherbourg!--I hoped I might never see their like again."

"Now," said Gaspard, "we must think of your safety."

"Oh, never mind me personally," replied Petit-Pierre; "my sole regret
is that the balls did not choose to come my way. My death would not
have given you the victory, that is true; but at least the struggle
would have been glorious. And now what are we to do?"

"Wait for better days. You have proved to the French people that a
valiant heart is beating in your bosom. Courage is the principal
virtue they demand of their rulers; they will remember your action,
never fear."

"God wills it!" said Petit-Pierre, rising and leaning on Gaspard's
arm, who led her from the hilltop into the road across the plain. The
government troops, who did not know the country, were forced to keep
to the main roads.

Gaspard guided the little company, which ran no risk in the open
country, except from scouts--thanks to the knowledge Maître Jacques
possessed of paths that were almost impassable; they reached the
neighborhood of the Jacquet mill without so much as seeing a tricolor
cockade.

As they went along, Bertha approached her father and asked him whether
in the midst of the _mêlée_ he had seen or heard of Baron Michel; but
the old gentleman, horrified at the issue of the insurrection prepared
with so much care and so quickly stifled, was in the worst of humors,
and answered gruffly that for the last two days no one knew what had
become of the Baron de la Logerie; probably he was frightened, and had
basely renounced the glory he might have won and the alliance which
would have been the reward of his glory.

This answer filled Bertha with consternation. Useless, however, to say
that she did not believe one word of what her father said; but her
heart trembled at an idea which alone seemed to her probable,--namely,
that Michel had been killed, or at any rate grievously wounded. She
resolved to make inquiries of every one until she discovered something
as to the fate of the man she loved. She first questioned all the
Vendéans. None of them had seen Michel; but some, impelled by the old
hatred against his father, expressed themselves about the son in terms
that were not less vehement than those of the marquis himself.

Bertha grew frantic with distress; nothing short of palpable, visible,
undeniable proof could have forced her to admit that she had made a
choice unworthy of her, and, though all appearances were against
Michel, her love, becoming more ardent, more impetuous under the
pressure of such accusations, gave her strength to regard them as
calumnies. A few moments earlier her heart was torn, her brain
maddened under the idea that Michel had met his death in the struggle;
and now that glorious death had become a hope, a consolation to her
grief. She was frantic to acquire the cruel certainty, and even
thought of returning to Chêne, visiting the battlefield, in search of
her lover's body, as Edith sought that of Harold; she even dreamed of
avenging him on his murderers after vindicating his memory from her
father's aspersions. The girl was reflecting on the pretext she could
best employ to remain behind the rest and return to Chêne, when Aubin
Courte-Joie and Trigaud, the rear-guard of the company, came up and
were about to pass her. She breathed more freely; they, no doubt,
could throw some light upon the matter.

"You, my brave friends," she said, "can you give me news of Monsieur
de la Logerie?"

"Yes, indeed, my dear young lady," replied Courte-Joie.

"Ah!" cried Bertha, with the eagerness of hope, "he has not left the
division as they say he has, has he?"

"He has left it," replied Courte-Joie.

"When?"

"The evening before the fight at Maisdon."

"Good God!" cried Bertha, in a tone of anguish. "Are you sure?"

"Quite sure. I saw him meet Jean Oullier at the Croix-Philippe; and we
walked a little way together."

"With Jean Oullier!" cried Bertha. "Oh! then I am satisfied; Jean
Oullier was not deserting. If Michel is with Jean Oullier he has done
nothing cowardly or dishonorable."

Suddenly a terrible thought came into her mind. Why this sudden
interest on Jean Oullier's part for the young man? Why had Michel
followed Jean Oullier rather than the marquis? These questions, which
the young girl put to herself, filled her heart with sinister
forebodings.

"And you say you saw the two on their way to Clisson?" she said to
Courte-Joie.

"With my own eyes."

"Do you know what is going on at Clisson?"

"It is too far from here to have got the details as yet," replied
Courte-Joie; "but a _gars_ from Sainte-Lumine overtook us just now and
said that a devilish firing had been going on since ten o'clock in the
morning over against Sèvre."

Bertha did not answer; her ideas had taken another course. She saw
Michel led to his death by Jean Oullier's hatred; she fancied the poor
lad wounded, panting, abandoned, lying helpless on some lonely and
bloody moor, calling on her to save him.

"Do you know any one who could guide me to Jean Oullier?" she asked
Courte-Joie.

"To-day?"

"Now, this instant."

"The roads are covered with the red-breeches."

"The wood-paths are not."

"But it is almost night."

"We shall be all the safer. Find me a guide; if not, I shall start
alone."

The two men looked at each other.

"No one shall guide you but me," said Aubin Courte-Joie. "Do I not owe
your family a debt of gratitude? Besides, Mademoiselle Bertha, you did
me, no later than to-day, a service I shall never forget,--in knocking
up the bayonet of that National guard who was going to split me."

"Very good; then drop behind and wait for me here in this
wheat-field," said Bertha. "I shall be back in fifteen minutes."

Courte-Joie and Trigaud lay down among the wheat ears, and Bertha,
hastening her steps, rejoined Petit-Pierre and the Vendéans just as
they were about to enter the mill. She went rapidly up to the little
room she occupied with her sister, and hurriedly changed her clothes,
which were covered with blood, for the dress of a peasant-woman.
Coming down, she found Mary busy among the wounded, and told her,
without explaining her plan, not to feel uneasy if she did not see her
again till the next day. She then returned to the wheat-field.

Reserved as she was in what she said to her sister, her face was so
convulsed and agitated that Mary read upon it plainly the thoughts
that filled her soul; she knew of Michel's disappearance, and she did
not doubt that Bertha's sudden departure was caused by it. After the
scene of the previous evening Mary dared not to question her sister;
but a new anguish was added to those which already rent her heart, and
when she was called to mount and attend Petit-Pierre in search of
another refuge, she knelt down and prayed to God that her sacrifice
might not be useless, and that it would please Him to protect both the
life and honor of Bertha's affianced husband.

XVIII.

THE CHÂTEAU DE LA PÉNISSIÈRE.

While the Vendéans were making their useless but not inglorious fight
at Chêne, forty-two of their number were sustaining a struggle at
Pénissière de la Cour, of which the memory survives in history.

These forty-two royalists, who were part of the Clisson division, left
that town intending to march to the village of Cugan, and there disarm
the National Guard. A frightful storm forced them to find shelter in
the château de la Pénissière, where a battalion of the 29th regiment
of the line, informed of their movements, lost no time in besieging
them.

La Pénissière is an ancient building, with a single story between the
ground-floor and garret. It has fifteen irregularly shaped windows.
The chapel backs against one corner of the château. Beyond it, joining
the valley, are meadow-lands divided by evergreen hedges, which heavy
rains sometimes transform into a lake. A battlemented wall, built by
the Vendéans, surrounded the building.

The commanding officer of the battalion of the line had no sooner
reconnoitred the situation than he ordered an immediate attack. After
a short defence the exterior wall was abandoned, and the Vendéans
retreated to the château, within which they barricaded themselves.
Each man took his place on the ground-floor, and on the main-floor;
and on both floors a bugler was stationed, who never ceased to sound
his instrument throughout the combat, which began with rapid volleys
from the windows, so well directed and so vigorous as to conceal the
small number of the besieged.

Picked men and the best shots were chosen to fire; they discharged,
almost without stopping, the heavy blunderbusses which their comrades
reloaded and handed back to them. Each blunderbuss carried a dozen
balls. The Vendéans fired five or six at once; the effect was that of
a discharge of grape-shot. Twice the regular troops attempted an
assault; they came within twenty paces of the château, but were forced
to retreat.

The commander ordered a third attack, and while it was preparing, four
men, assisted by a mason, approached the château by a gable-end, which
had no outlook on the garden, and was therefore undefended. Once at
the foot of the wall, the soldiers raised a ladder, and reaching the
roof uncovered it, flung down into the garret inflammable substances,
to which they set fire, and then retreated. Immediately a column of
smoke burst from the roof, through which the flames soon forced their
way.

The soldiers, uttering loud cries, again marched eagerly to the little
citadel, which seemed to be flying a flag of flame. The besieged had
discovered the conflagration, but there was no time to extinguish it;
besides, the flames were pouring upward, and they trusted that after
destroying the roof the fire might burn out of itself. Accordingly
they replied to the shouts of their assailants with a terrible
fusillade,--the bugles never ceasing for a single instant to sound
their joyous and warlike notes.

The Whites could hear the Blues saying to each other: "They are not
men, they are devils!" and this military praise inspired them with
fresh ardor.

Nevertheless, a reinforcement of fifty men having reached the
besiegers, the commanding officers ordered the drummers to beat the
charge; and the soldiers, emulous of each other, rushed for the fourth
time upon the château. This time they reached the doors, which the
sappers began to batter in. The Vendéan leaders ordered their men on
the ground-floor up to the first floor; the men obeyed; and while one
half of the besieged continued the firing, the other half pulled up
the boards and broke through the ceilings, so that when the soldiers
entered the building they were greeted with a volley at close
quarters, poured down upon them from above through the rafters. Again,
and for the fourth time, they were forced to retreat.

The commander of the battalion then ordered his men to do on the
ground-floor what they had done in the attic. Fascines of gorse and
dried fagots were thrown through the windows into the rooms of the
lower floor; lighted torches were flung after them, and in a few
moments the Vendéans were inclosed in fire above and below them. And
still they fought. The volumes of smoke which issued from the window
were striped, every second or two, with the scarlet flame of the
blunderbusses; but the firing now became the vengeance of despair
rather than an effort of defence. It seemed impossible for the little
garrison to escape death.

The place was no longer tenable; beams and joists were on fire and
were cracking beneath the feet of the Vendéans; tongues of flame began
to dart here and there through the floor; at any moment the roof might
fall in and crush them from above, or the floor give way and
precipitate them into a gulf of flame. The smoke was suffocating.

The Vendéan leaders took a desperate resolution. They determined to
make a sortie; but to give it any chance of success, the firing would
have to be kept up to protect the movement. The leaders asked if any
would volunteer to sacrifice themselves for the safety of their
comrades.

Eight men stepped forward.

The troop was then divided into two squads. Thirty-three men and a
bugler were to gain, if possible, the farther extremity of the park,
which was closed by a hedge only; the eight others, among them the
second bugler, were left to protect the attempt.

In consequence of these arrangements, and while those who volunteered
to remain were running from window to window and keeping up a vigorous
fire, the others broke through the wall on the opposite side to where
the soldiers were attacking, issued in good order with the bugler at
their head, and made their way at a quick step toward the end of the
park where the hedge stood. The soldiers fired upon them and rushed to
intercept them. The Vendéans fired back, knocked over those who
opposed them, escaped through the hedges, leaving five of their number
dead, and scattered over the meadows, which were then under water. The
bugler, who received three wounds, never ceased to sound his bugle.

As for the men who remained in the château, they still held out. Each
time that the soldiers attempted to approach, a volley issued from the
brazier and cut a swathe through their ranks. This lasted for half an
hour. The bugle of the besieged never ceased to sound through the
rattling of the volleys, the crackling of the flames, the rumbling of
the falling timbers, like a sublime defiance hurled by these men at
Death standing before them.

At last, an awful crash was heard; clouds of smoke and sparks rose
high in air; the bugle was hushed, the firing ceased. The flooring had
fallen in, and the little garrison were doubtless swallowed up in the
burning gulf beneath them--unless a miracle had happened.

Such was the opinion of the soldiers, who, after watching the ruins
for some moments, and hearing no cry or moan that betrayed the
presence of a living Vendéan, abandoned the furnace which was burning
up the bodies of both friends and enemies; so that nothing remained on
the scene of the struggle, lately so turbulent and noisy, but the red
and smoking flames dying down in silence, and a few dead bodies
lighted by the last glare of the conflagration.

Thus the scene remained for several hours of the night. But about one
o'clock a man of more than ordinary height, gliding beside the hedges,
or crawling when obliged to cross a path, inspected cautiously the
surroundings of the château. Seeing nothing that warranted distrust,
he made the round of the devastated building, examining attentively
all the bodies he found; after which he disappeared among the shadows.
Presently, however, he returned, carrying a man upon his back and
accompanied by a woman.

These men and this woman, as our readers are of course aware, were
Bertha, Courte-Joie, and Trigaud.

Bertha was pale; her firmness and her habitual resolution had given
way to a sort of restless bewilderment. From time to time she hurried
before her guides, and Courte-Joie was obliged to recall her to
prudence. When the three debouched from the wood into the meadow
lately occupied by the soldiers, and saw in front of them the fifteen
openings which stood out, red and gaping, from the blackened wall,
like so many vent-holes out of hell, the young girl's strength gave
way; she fell upon her knees and cried out a name which her agony
transformed into a sob. Then, rising like a man, she rushed to the
burning ruins.

On her way she stumbled over something; that something was a dead
body. With a horrible expression of anguish she stooped to look at the
livid face, turning it toward her by the hair. Then, seeing other
bodies scattered on the ground, she went wildly from one to another as
if beside herself.

"Alas! mademoiselle," said Courte-Joie, "he is not here. To spare you
this dreadful sight, I had already ordered Trigaud, who came here
first, to look at those bodies. He has seen Monsieur de la Logerie two
or three times, and idiot though he be, you can be sure he would have
recognized him were he here among the dead."

"Yes, yes, you are right; and if he is anywhere--" cried Bertha,
pointing to the ruins; and before the two men could stop her, she
sprang upon the sill of a window on the ground-floor, and there,
standing on the heated stone, she looked down into the gulf of fire
still belching at her feet, into which it almost seemed as though she
were about to fling herself.

At a sign from Courte-Joie Trigaud seized the girl round her waist and
placed her at some distance on the grass. Bertha made no resistance,
for an idea had just crossed her brain which paralyzed her will.

"My God!" she cried, as if with a last expiring sigh of her former
strength, "you denied me the power to defend him or to die with him;
and you now deny me the consolation of giving burial to his body."

"But mademoiselle," said Courte-Joie, "if it is the will of the good
God you must resign yourself to it."

"Never! never! never!" cried Bertha, with the excitement of despair.

"Alas!" said the cripple, "my heart is heavy too; for if Monsieur de
la Logerie is down there, so is poor Jean Oullier."

Bertha groaned; in the selfishness of her grief she had never once
thought of Jean Oullier. "It's true," continued Courte-Joie, "he dies
as he wished to die--with arms in his hand; but that doesn't console
me for thinking he is down there."

"Is there no hope?" cried Bertha. "Couldn't they have escaped in some
way? Oh, let us look! let us search!"

Courte-Joie shook his head.

"I think it is impossible. After what that man of the thirty-three
others who did escape told us, it does not seem possible. Five of
those who made the sortie were killed."

"But Jean Oullier and Monsieur Michel were among those who remained,"
said Bertha.

"No doubt; and that is why I have so little hope. See," said
Courte-Joie, pointing to the walls, which rose from their foundations
to the eaves without a fissure, and then recalling Bertha's eyes by a
gesture to the furnace of the ground-floor, where the roof and the
floors were still burning; "see, there is nothing left but charred
remains and walls that threaten ruin. Courage, mademoiselle, courage,
for there is not one chance in a hundred that your lover and Jean
Oullier have escaped that wreck."

"No, no!" cried Bertha, rising. "No! I say he cannot, he shall not be
dead! If it needed a miracle to save him God has performed it. I will
dig those embers, I will sound those walls. I will have him, dead or
living! I say I will; do you hear me Courte-Joie?"

Seizing in her white hands a beam which protruded its charred end
through a window, Bertha made superhuman efforts to draw it toward
her, as if with that lever she could lift the enormous mass of
material and discover what it concealed.

"Don't think of it!" cried Courte-Joie, desperately; "the work is
beyond your strength, mademoiselle, and above mine and even Trigaud's.
Besides, we haven't time for it; the soldiers will return by daybreak,
and they mustn't find us here. Let us go, mademoiselle; for Heaven's
sake let us go at once!"

"You may go if you like," said Bertha, in a tone that allowed of no
objections. "I shall stay here."

"Stay here!" exclaimed Courte-Joie, horrified.

"I shall stay. If the soldiers return it will no doubt be for the
purpose of searching the ruins. I will throw myself at the feet of
their commander; my prayers, my tears will persuade them to let me
share in the work, and I shall find him--oh, yes, I shall find him!"

"You are mistaken, mademoiselle; the red-breeches will know you as the
daughter of the Marquis de Souday. If they don't shoot you, they'll
take you prisoner. Come away! it will be daylight soon. Come, and if
necessary," added Courte-Joie, alarmed at the girl's determination,
"if necessary, I promise to bring you back to-morrow night."

"No, I tell you, no,--I will not go away!" answered the young girl.
"Something tells me here" (and she struck her breast) "that he is
calling me, he wants me."

Then, as Trigaud advanced, on a sign from Courte-Joie, apparently to
seize her, she cried out, springing once more to the sill of the
window:--

"Come a step nearer, and I will jump into that furnace."

Courte-Joie, perceiving that nothing could be obtained of Bertha by
force, was about to resort to prayers, when Trigaud, who had remained
standing with his arms stretched out in the position he had taken to
seize the young girl, made a sign to his companion to be silent.

Courte-Joie, who knew by experience the extraordinary acuteness of the
poor fool's senses, obeyed him. Trigaud listened.

"Are the soldiers returning?" asked Courte-Joie.

"No; it is not that," replied Trigaud.

Then, unbinding Courte-Joie, who was strapped as usual to his
shoulders, he lay down flat on his stomach with his ear to the ground.
Bertha, without coming down from her present post, turned her head to
the mendicant and watched him. The movement he had made, the words he
had said, caused her heart, she knew not why, to beat violently.

"Do you hear anything extraordinary?" asked Courte-Joie.

"Yes," replied Trigaud.

Then he made a sign to Courte-Joie and Bertha to listen likewise.
Trigaud, as we know, was stingy of words.

Courte-Joie lay down with his ear to the earth. Bertha sprang down
from the window, and it was but a second after she had laid her ear to
the ground before she rose again, crying out:--

"They are alive! they are alive! Oh, my God, I thank thee!"

"Don't let us hope too soon," said Courte-Joie; "but I do hear a dull
sound which seems to come from the depths of those ruins. But there
were eight of them; we can't be sure the sound comes from the two we
seek."

"Not sure, Aubin! My presentiment, which would not let me go away when
you begged me, makes me sure of it. Our friends are there, I tell you;
they found a shelter in some cellar where they are now imprisoned by
the fall of these materials."

"It may be so," replied Courte-Joie.

"It is certainly so!" cried Bertha. "But how can we release them? How
shall we reach the place where they are?"

"If they are in a vault, the vault must have an opening; if they are
in a cellar, the cellar has a window."

"Well, then, if we can't find either we must dig out the earth and
through the foundation-wall."

So saying, Bertha began to go round the building, dragging aside with
frenzied motions the beams, stones, tiles, and other fragments which
had fallen beside the outer wall and now hid its base.

Suddenly she gave a cry. Trigaud and Courte-Joie ran to her,--one on
his great legs, the other on his stumps and hands, with the rapidity
of a batrachian.

"Listen!" said Bertha, triumphantly.

Sure enough, on the spot where she stood they heard distinctly a dull
but continued sound coming from the depths of the ruined building,--a
sound like that of some tool or instrument striking steady and regular
blows on the foundations.

"This is the place," said Bertha, pointing to an enormous pile of
rubbish heaped against the wall. "We shall find them here."

Trigaud set to work. He began by pushing away a whole section of the
roof which had slid down outside the building and now lay vertically
against the wall. Then he threw aside the loose stones piled there by
the fall of a window-casing on the first floor; and finally, after
wonderful feats of strength, he laid bare an opening through which the
sounds of the labor of the buried men came to them distinctly.

Bertha wanted to pass through the opening as soon as it was
practicable; but Trigaud held her back. He took a fallen lath, lit it
by the embers, fastened the girth, which usually held Courte-Joie to
his shoulders, round the latter's waist, and lowered him into the
cavity.

Bertha and Trigaud held their breaths. Courte-Joie's voice was heard,
speaking to some one; then he gave a signal to be hoisted up. Trigaud
obeyed with the alacrity of a well-fed animal.

"Living? are they living?" cried Bertha, in anguish.

"Yes, mademoiselle, but for God's sake don't attempt to go down there;
they are not in the cellar, but in a sort of niche beyond it. The
opening through which they got there is blocked. We must break
through the wall to reach them; and I am very much afraid that may
bring down the roof of the cellar upon them. Let me direct Trigaud."

Bertha fell on her knees and prayed. Courte-Joie collected a number of
dry laths and returned to the cellar; Trigaud followed him.

At the end of ten minutes, which seemed to Bertha as many centuries, a
loud noise of crashing stones was heard. A cry of anguish escaped her;
she darted to the opening and there met Trigaud coming up, bearing on
his shoulder the body of a man bent double, whose pale face was
hanging down upon the giant's breast. Bertha recognized Michel.

"He is dead! Oh, my God! he is dead!" she cried, not daring to go up
to him.

"No, no," said a voice from below, which Bertha recognized as that of
Jean Oullier, "no, he is not dead."

At these words the girl sprang forward, took Michel from Trigaud's
hands, laid him on the grass, and quite reassured by the beating of
his heart, endeavored to bring back his senses by bathing his forehead
with water from a pool.

XIX.

THE MOOR OF BOUAIMÉ.

While Bertha endeavored to bring Michel from his swoon (which was
chiefly caused by suffocation) Jean Oullier reached the outer air,
followed by Courte-Joie, whom Trigaud drew up by the same means he had
used to lower him. A moment more and all three were safely outside.

"Ah _ça!_ were you the only ones in there?" said Courte Joie to Jean
Oullier.

"Yes."

"And the others?"

"They took refuge under the stairway; the ceiling fell before they had
time to get to us."

"Are they dead?"

"I don't think so; for about an hour after the soldiers left we heard
the stones moving and voices. We called to them, but they did not
hear."

"It is a lucky chance we came."

"That it is; without you I could never have got through that wall,
especially with the young baron in such a state. Ha! I've made a fine
campaign of it, faith," muttered Jean Oullier, shaking his head as he
looked at Bertha, who, having drawn Michel's head and shoulders on her
knees and brought him to his senses, was now expressing to him all the
happiness she felt in recovering him.

"And it is not over yet," said Courte-Joie, ignorant of the meaning
the old Vendéan gave to his words, and anxiously looking to the east,
where a broad purple line announced that the day was breaking.

"What do you mean?" asked Jean Oullier.

"I mean that two hours more of darkness would have mightily helped our
safety; a cripple, a fainting man, and a woman are not so easy to
man[oe]uvre on a retreat. Besides, the victors in yesterday's fight
will swarm upon the roads to-day--if they don't beat the woods."

"Yes; but I'm at ease now. I don't have that roof over my head."

"You are only half saved yet, my good Jean."

"Well, let us take precautions."

So saying, Jean Oullier began to search for the cartridge-boxes of the
dead, and took their contents. Then he loaded his gun as coolly as
though he were starting on a hunt, and went up to Bertha and Michel.
The eyes of the latter were closed as if he were unconscious.

"Can you walk?" Jean Oullier said to him.

Michel did not answer. When he first opened his eyes he saw Bertha,
and closed them hastily, conscious of the difficulties of his
position.

"Can you walk?" repeated Bertha, in a tone which the latter could no
longer pretend not to hear.

"I think so," he replied.

In point of fact he had only a flesh wound in the arm; the bone was
not injured.

Bertha had examined the wound and slung the arm about his neck with
her white silk cravat.

"If you can't walk," said Jean Oullier, "I'll carry you."

At this fresh proof of the change in Jean Oullier's feelings to the
young baron, Bertha went up to him.

"You must explain to me why you took away my betrothed husband," she
said, emphasizing the last two words; "and why you persuaded him to
leave his post and be dragged into this affair which has exposed him,
in spite of all the dangers he may have met, to serious and shameful
accusations."

"If Monsieur de la Logerie's reputation has suffered through me,"
replied Jean Oullier, gently, "I will repair it."

"You?" said Bertha, more and more astonished.

"Yes," said Jean Oullier; "for I can and will say openly that with all
his effeminate ways, this young man has shown himself to be full of
courage and constancy."

"Will you really do that, Jean Oullier?" cried Bertha.

"Not only will I do it," said the old Vendéan, "but if my testimony is
not enough I will get that of the brave men beside whom he
fought,--for I now desire that his name be counted honorable and
honored."

"Is it possible that you say that, Jean Oullier?"

Jean Oullier nodded.

"You who would rather see me dead than bearing that name?"

"That's how things change in this world, Mademoiselle Bertha. I desire
now to see Monsieur Michel my master's son-in-law."

Jean Oullier said the words with a look so expressive and a voice so
sad and meaning, that Bertha felt her heart tighten, and she thought
involuntarily of Mary. She was about to question the old keeper, but,
at that moment, the sound of trumpets came down upon the wind from the
direction of Clisson.

"Courte-Joie was right!" exclaimed Jean Oullier. "The explanation you
ask of me, Bertha, you shall have as soon as circumstances permit; for
the present we must think of our own safety." Then, listening
attentively, he added: "Come, let us start! there's not an instant to
lose, I'll answer for that."

Passing his hand through Michel's well arm to support him, he gave the
signal to depart. Courte-Joie was already perched on Trigaud's
shoulders.

"Which way shall we go?" he asked.

"Better make for the lonely farmhouse of Saint-Hilaire," replied Jean
Oullier, who felt Michel staggering under his first few steps. "It is
quite impossible that Monsieur Michel should do the twenty miles to
Machecoul."

"Straight for Saint-Hilaire, then," said Courte-Joie.

In spite of their slow advance, by reason of Michel's feebleness in
walking, they were not more than a few hundred steps from the farm,
when Trigaud showed his rider with some pride a sort of club he had
been peeling and polishing with his knife as he walked along. It was
made from the stem of a wild apple-tree, of suitable length, which
Trigaud had spied in the orchard at Pénissière; he thought it
admirably suited to replace the terrible scythe he had shattered at
Chêne.

Courte-Joie gave a cry of anger. Evidently he did not share the
satisfaction with which his companion flourished the knotty bulk of
his new weapon.

"The devil take that animal to the lowest hell!" he cried.

"What's the matter?" asked Jean Oullier, leaving Michel to Bertha's
care and hurrying on to join Courte-Joie and Trigaud.

"Matter!" cried Courte-Joie, "the matter is that this brute has put
the whole band of the red-breeches on our track! May the plague choke
me for not having thought of it before! Ever since we left La
Pénissière he has been a regular Tom Thumb; and, unluckily for us, it
isn't bread crumbs he has strewn along the way, but the twigs, leaves,
bark of his tree. Those scoundrelly soldiers, who, I haven't a doubt,
will find out that we dug among the embers, are by this time at the
other end of the trail this animal has provided for them. Ah, double,
treble, quadruple, brute!" concluded Courte-Joie, by way of
peroration.

Joining action to words he brought down his fist with all his might on
the skull of the giant, who seemed no more conscious of the blow than
if Courte-Joie had merely passed his hand through his hair.

"Damn it!" said Jean Oullier, "what's to be done now?"

"Give up the farm at Saint-Hilaire, where they'd catch us like mice in
a trap."

"But," said Bertha, quickly, "Monsieur Michel cannot possibly go any
farther. See how pale he is!"

"Let us bear to the right," said Jean Oullier, "and make for the
Bouaimé moor, where we can hide among the rocks. To walk faster and
leave fewer tracks, I'll take Monsieur Michel on my shoulders. We'll
walk in file, and Trigaud's steps will hide the rest."

The Bouaimé moor, toward which Jean Oullier now guided the little
troop, lies about three miles from the village of Saint-Hilaire; the
river Maine must be crossed to reach it. It extends on the north as
far as Rémouillé and Montbert; the lay of the land is very uneven and
it is strewn with granite rocks, some evidently placed there by the
hand of man. Druidic stones and dolmens lift their brown heads crowned
with moss amid tufts of heather and the yellow flowers of the gorse
and broom. It was to one of the most remarkable of these stones that
Jean Oullier now guided the little caravan. This stone was flat, and
rested on four enormous corner-stones of granite. Ten or a dozen
persons could easily have lain in its shadow.

Michel was no sooner there than he gave way entirely, and would have
fallen flat on the ground if Bertha had not supported him. She
hastened to gather ferns, which she spread beneath the dolmen; and
Michel was no sooner laid upon them than, in spite of the gravity of
the situation, he fell soundly asleep.

Trigaud was stationed as sentinel on the dolmen; aboriginal statue on
an aboriginal pedestal, he called to mind by his mighty outline the
giants of two thousand years ago, who raised that altar. Courte-Joie,
unstrapped, lay down to rest near Michel, whom Bertha would not leave,
in spite of the exhaustion, both moral and physical, which the
fatigues of the previous day and night had entailed upon her. Jean
Oullier walked away, partly to reconnoitre the situation, and partly
to obtain provisions, of which they stood greatly in need.

For about two hours Trigaud's eyes had roved over the broad expanse of
the savanna before and around him. Not a sound had reached his ear,
attentively listening, except the monotonous hum of bees and wasps
pilfering sweetness from the broom and the wild thyme. The mists which
the sun was drawing from the earth began to assume to Trigaud's eyes a
variety of rainbow tints, the shimmerings of which, added to the rays
of the sun, which were now falling plumb on his tufts of red hair,
benumbed his brain; various somniferous combinations were about to
plunge him into a siesta, not induced, unfortunately for him, by any
meal, when the sudden report of a firearm roused him from his torpor.

He looked in the direction of Saint-Hilaire and saw the white vapor
produced by the shot. Next, he saw a man running at full speed,
apparently making for the dolmen. With one bound Trigaud was off his
pedestal. Bertha, who had resisted sleep, heard the shot and
immediately waked up Courte-Joie.

Trigaud took the cripple in his arms and hoisted him above his head
till he was fully ten feet off the ground, saying but two words,
which, however, needed no commentary:--

"Jean Oullier."

Courte-Joie shaded his eyes with his hand and had no difficulty in
recognizing the old Vendéan; but he noticed that instead of making
direct for the dolmen, Jean Oullier had taken to the opposite hill and
was heading for Montbert. He also observed that instead of running on
the slope of the hill, where he might have been sheltered from the
eyes of his pursuers, the old huntsman had chosen the most exposed
places, keeping in full view of whoever was within three miles of him.

Jean Oullier, he knew, was far too wary to act heedlessly; he must
have some good reason for his present behavior; no doubt he was
attracting the enemy's attention to himself in order to divert it from
the rest of the party. Courte-Joie therefore concluded that the wisest
thing for him and his companions to do was to stay in their present
shelter and await events, carefully watching, meantime, all that
happened.

Whenever intelligence was needed instead of senses, Courte-Joie no
longer trusted to Trigaud. He had himself hoisted to the top of the
dolmen, although, small as his truncated body was, he thought best not
to display it too openly on that pedestal. He therefore lay down flat
on his stomach with his face turned in the direction of the hill up
which Jean Oullier was proceeding.

Soon, at the very place whence the Vendéan had issued, he saw a
soldier, then another, then a third; he counted them up to twenty.
They did not seem eager to measure speed with their game; they simply
spread over the moor to cut off his retreat in case he attempted to
return. These equivocal tactics increased Courte-Joie's watchfulness;
for they led him to think that the soldiers had some other object in
view than the mere pursuit of the Vendéan. The hill which the latter
was mounting ended, about half a mile from the point where Jean
Oullier then was, in a sharp point of rocks, at the foot of which was
a bog. It was on that spot, no doubt because Jean Oullier was aiming
for it, that Courte-Joie's attention was now fixed.

"Hum!" said Trigaud, suddenly.

"What is it?" asked Courte-Joie.

"Red-breeches," replied the other, pointing to the bog.

Courte-Joie followed the direction of Trigaud's finger and saw the
barrel of a gun in the midst of the reeds; then a form. It was that of
a soldier, and he, like the one first seen on the heath, was followed
by twenty others. Courte-Joie saw them crouching among the reeds like
sportsmen on the watch. Their game was Jean Oullier. If he descended
by the point of rocks, as he was evidently about to do, he must fall
into the ambush.

There was not a moment to be lost in warning him. Courte-Joie did not
hesitate; he seized his gun and fired it, taking care to hold the
muzzle below the bushes and to fire behind the dolmen. Then he looked
hastily back to the scene of action.

Jean Oullier had heard the signal and knew the ring of Courte-Joie's
little gun; he was not mistaken for a moment as to the reasons that
constrained his friend to abandon the concealment he was preserving
for them at such cost to himself. Instantly he made a half turn, and
instead of continuing his way to the steep descent and the bog, he
rapidly descended the hill he had been climbing. He no longer ran, he
flew; no doubt some plan had occurred to him, and he was hurrying to
put it into execution. At the rate he was coming down he would join
his friends in a few moments.

But in spite of Courte-Joie's precautions to conceal the smoke of his
shot, the soldiers had seen the direction from which it came, and
those on the moor as well as those in the bog joined forces behind
Jean Oullier (who was still coming down at a great pace), and seemed
to be consulting together while awaiting orders.

Courte-Joie glanced about him, apparently studying each point of the
horizon; he wet a finger and lifted it to discover the direction of
the wind, and felt the heather anxiously, to be sure that the sun,
which was hot, and the wind, which was keen, had dried it thoroughly.

"What are you doing?" asked Bertha, who had watched the different
phases of this prologue, fully aware of the imminence of the danger,
and was now helping Michel, who seemed more depressed than suffering,
to get on his feet.

"What am I doing,--or rather what am I going to do, my dear young
lady?" replied the cripple. "I am going to make a glorious bonfire;
and you can boast to-night, if the fire saves you, as I hope it will,
that you never saw the like before."

So saying, he gave Trigaud several lighted bits of tinder, which the
latter stuck into bundles of dried herbage, which he placed at
intervals of ten feet among the heather, blowing each of them into a
flame with his powerful lungs. He was placing his last bundle as Jean
Oullier came up the slope, which led to the dolmen.

"Up! up!" cried the latter. "I am not ten minutes in advance of them."

"Yes, but this will give us twenty," said Courte-Joie pointing to the
twigs of heather which were beginning to curl and crackle with the
flames, while a dozen or more spiral lines of smoke were rising in the
air.

"That fire won't burn fast enough or hot enough to stop them," said
Jean Oullier. "Besides," he added, after studying the condition of the
atmosphere, "the wind will send the flame in the direction that we
must take."

"Yes; but flame, _gars_ Oullier, carries smoke," said Courte-Joie,
triumphantly; "and that's what I'm counting on. The smoke will hide
how few we are and where we are going."

"Ah! Courte-Joie, Courte-Joie," muttered Oullier between his teeth,
"if you had your legs what a poacher you'd be!"

Then, without saying another word, he picked Michel up and put him on
his shoulders (in spite of the young man's assurance that he could
walk well enough, and did not wish to cause that additional fatigue to
the old Vendéan), and followed Trigaud, who had already started with
his rider on his back.

"Take mademoiselle's hand!" called Courte-Joie to Jean Oullier; "and
tell her to shut her mouth and take in a long breath; in ten minutes
we sha'n't be able to see or breathe."

In fact the ten minutes had not expired before the ten columns of
smoke were blended into one and formed a dense sheet stretching to
right and left five hundred feet, while the flames roared sullenly
behind them.

"Can you see sufficiently to guide us?" said Jean Oullier to
Courte-Joie; "for the most important thing of all is not to go astray,
and next, not to get separated."

"We have no other guide than the smoke," replied Courte-Joie. "Let us
follow that boldly and it will take us where we want to go; but don't
lose sight of Trigaud as head of the column."

Jean Oullier was one of those men who know the value of words and
time; he therefore contented himself with saying:--

"Forward, march!" giving the example and seeming no more hindered by
Michel's weight than Trigaud was by Courte-Joie's.

They walked thus for fifteen minutes without getting out of the smoke
which their conflagration, spreading with amazing rapidity under the
force of the wind, rolled up about them. Once or twice Jean Oullier
muttered to Bertha, who was half suffocated:--

"Can you breathe?"

To which she replied with an almost inarticulate yes. As for Michel,
the old keeper cared not at all; he was certain to keep up with the
rest, inasmuch as he, Jean Oullier, had him on his shoulders.

Suddenly Trigaud, who marched at their head guided by Courte-Joie, and
utterly indifferent to where he went, stepped back abruptly. He had
set his feet in water, which the smoke had prevented him from seeing,
and he was now knee-deep in it. Aubin uttered a cry of joy.

"We've done it!" he said; "the smoke has led us as straight as the
best-broken hound ever led a sportsman."

"Ah!" exclaimed Jean Oullier.

"You understand now, don't you, my _gars?_" said Courte-Joie, in a
tone of triumph.

"Yes; but how shall we reach the island?"

"How? Why, there's Trigaud."

"True; but when the soldiers miss us won't they suspect the trick?"

"Of course, if they do miss us; but I intend they sha'n't."

"Go on."

"They don't know how many we are. We will put Mademoiselle Bertha and
the wounded man in safety, and then, as if we had made a mistake and
found our way blocked by the pond, you and I and Trigaud will land,
and show them by a few shots where we are. After that, being free of
incumbrance, we can easily get into the woods of Gineston, and return
to the island after dark."

"But these poor children will be left without food!"

"Pooh!" said Courte-Joie, "it won't kill them to go twenty-four hours
without eating."

"So be it." Then, with a sort of sad contempt for his want of
intelligence, "Last night," he continued, "must have addled my brain,
or I should have thought of all this myself."

"Don't expose yourselves uselessly," said Bertha, half joyous at the
thought of the _tête-à-tête_ which these strange circumstances were
giving her with the man she loved.

"Don't trouble about that," replied Jean Oullier.

Trigaud took Michel in his arms, without unhorsing Courte-Joie (which
would have made him lose time) and entered the pond. He walked thus
till the water was up to his middle; then he hoisted Michel to his
head in case the water mounted higher. It stopped, however, at the
level of the giant's breast. He crossed the pond to a sort of island
about twelve feet square, which seemed in the midst of that stagnant
water to be nothing more than a vast duck's-nest. It was covered with
a forest of reeds.

Trigaud deposited Michel among the reeds and returned for Bertha, whom
he carried in the same manner and put down, as he might a bird, beside
the young Baron de la Logerie.

"Lie down flat among the reeds in the middle of the island!" called
Jean Oullier from the shore. "Lift the reeds you have just bent down,
and I can promise that no one will find you!"

"Very good," replied Bertha; "and now, my friends, think only of
yourselves."

XX.

THE FIRM OF AUBIN COURTE-JOIE AND CO. DOES HONOR
TO ITS PARTNERSHIP.

It was high time for the three Chouans to finish what they had to do
on the borders of the pond. The flames were rolling onward with
terrifying rapidity; they ran along the flowery tops of the broom and
heather like gold and purple birds swept forward by the wind, as if
they preferred to play among the twigs and branches before they seized
upon the stems. Their mutterings, like the roar of ocean, increased in
all directions round the fugitives, and the smoke grew denser and more
suffocating.

But the steel muscles possessed by Jean Oullier and Trigaud were a
match for the flames, and the trio were soon safe from all danger of
fire. They turned obliquely to the left, and soon reached a dip in the
valley which was almost free of the smoke which so far had been their
main protection,--serving to hide their number, the direction of their
flight, and the man[oe]uvre by which Michel and Bertha were now in a
place of safety.

"Let us crawl; we must crawl now, Trigaud," cried Jean Oullier. "The
soldiers mustn't see us till we know where they are and what they are
doing."

The giant bent down as though he were going on all fours; and it was
lucky for him he did so, for no sooner had he stooped than a ball,
which he would otherwise have received in his breast, whizzed
harmlessly through the air.

"The devil!" cried Courte-Joie; "you didn't give that advice a bit too
soon, _gars_ Oullier."

"They have guessed our trick and have surrounded us--on this side at
least," said Jean Oullier.

They now saw a file of soldiers posted at a hundred paces from each
other, all the way from the dolmen to a distance of a mile and a half,
evidently waiting, like huntsmen, till the quarry should reappear.

"Shall we rush upon them?"

"That's my advice; but wait till I have made a gap."

Putting his gun to his shoulder (but without leaving his horizontal
position) Jean Oullier fired on the soldier who was now reloading his
gun. The man, struck in the breast, twirled round upon himself and
fell head foremost to the ground.

"That's one!" said Jean Oullier.

Then aiming at the next soldier as calmly as he would at a partridge,
he fired. The second man fell like the first.

"A double-shot!" exclaimed Courte-Joie. "Bravo, _gars_ Oullier,
bravo!"

"Forward! forward!" cried Oullier, springing to his feet with the
agility of a panther. "Forward! and spread a little to give less
chance for the balls they'll rain upon us!"

The Vendéan was right. The three comrades had scarcely advanced ten
steps before six or eight successive discharges were heard; and one of
the balls splintered the club which Trigaud was carrying in his hand.
Happily for the fugitives, the soldiers hurrying on all sides to the
help of their wounded companions, and coming up out of breath, had
fired unsteadily. Nevertheless they closed the way and it is probable
that Jean Oullier and his friends would not have had time to escape
through their line without a hand-to-hand fight.

As it was, just as Jean Oullier, who held the left, was about to
spring across a little ravine, a shako rose on the other side, and he
saw a soldier awaiting him with fixed bayonet. The rapidity of his
rush prevented the Vendéan from reloading his gun, but he calculated
that as his adversary contented himself with his bayonet he was
probably in the same condition as himself. Risking all, he drew his
knife, put it between his teeth, and continued his way with headlong
speed. On the edge of the ravine he stopped short, and putting up his
gun took aim at his adversary. The soldier, thinking the Vendéan's gun
was loaded, flung himself flat on his stomach to escape the shot. An
instant after, and as if the pause he made had not diminished the
impulsion of his spring, Jean was across the ravine, over the body of
the soldier, and away like lightning on the other side.

Trigaud was equally fortunate; and save for a ball which grazed his
shoulder and added more rags to those he wore, he and his partner
Courte-Joie got safely across the line. The two fugitives (Trigaud and
Courte-Joie count as one) now turned diagonally, one to right, the
other to left, so as to meet at the point of the angle. At the end of
five minutes they were within speaking distance.

"Are you all right?" said Jean Oullier to Courte-Joie.

"All right!" answered the cripple; "and in twenty minutes, if we don't
have a limb lopped off by those rascally Blues, we'll be in the
fields; and once we are behind a hedge the devil himself can't touch
us. That was a bad idea of ours, taking to the moor, _gars_ Oullier."

"Pooh! we'll soon be away from it; and the young folks are much safer
where they are than if we had put them in the thickest forest. You are
not wounded?"

"No; and you, Trigaud? I thought I felt a sort of shudder on your
hide."

The giant showed the gash the ball had made in his club; evidently,
this misfortune, which destroyed the symmetry of the work at which he
had fondly labored all the morning, troubled him far more than the
damage done to his clothing or to his deltoid, which was slightly
injured by the passage of the ball.

"Oh, be joyful!" cried Courte-Joie; "here are the fields."

In truth, not a thousand steps away from the fugitives, at the bottom
of a slope which was so gentle as to be almost imperceptible, fields
of wheat were visible, their ears already yellowing and swaying to the
breeze in their dull-green sheaths.

"Suppose we stop to breathe a minute," said Courte-Joie, who seemed to
feel the fatigue that Trigaud felt.

"Yes," said Jean Oullier, "and give me time to reload. Meantime, do
you look about."

Jean Oullier reloaded his gun, and Courte-Joie turned his eyes in a
circle around him.

"Oh, ten million thunders!" exclaimed the cripple suddenly, just as
the Vendéan was ramming in his second ball.

"What now?" said Jean Oullier, turning round.

"Forward! all the devils of hell! forward! I don't see anything yet,
but I hear something that bodes no good."

"Whew! they are doing us the honor of cavalry, _gars_ Courte-Joie.
Quick, quick, lazy-bones!" he added, addressing Trigaud.

The latter, as much to relieve his lungs as to make answer to Jean
Oullier, gave vent to a sort of bellow which a lusty Poitevin bull
might have envied him, and then with a single stride he jumped an
enormous stone which lay on his way; as he did so a cry of pain burst
from Jean Oullier.

"What's the matter?" asked Courte-Joie, looking back to the latter,
who had stopped and was leaning on his gun with his foot raised.

"Nothing, nothing," replied Oullier; "don't trouble about me."

He tried to walk, gave another cry, and sat down.

"Oh," said Courte-Joie, "we shall not go on without you. Tell me,
what's the matter?"

"Nothing, I say."

"Are you wounded?"

"Oh, for that bone-setter of Montbert!" exclaimed Jean Oullier.

"What's that?" said Courte-Joie, who did not catch his meaning.

"I've either broken or turned my ankle by stepping into a hole; at any
rate, I can't take another step."

"Trigaud will take you on one shoulder and me on the other."

"Impossible! you could never reach the hedges."

"But if we leave you behind they'll kill you, my Jean."

"Maybe so," said the Vendéan, "but I'll kill a few of them before I
die; and by way of a beginning, look at that fellow."

A young officer of chasseurs, better mounted than the rest, appeared
at the top of a rise about three hundred paces from the fugitives.
Jean put his musket to his shoulder and fired. The young man threw up
his arms and fell from his saddle. Jean Oullier reloaded his gun.

"Can't you walk at all?" asked Courte-Joie.

"I might limp a dozen steps; but what's the good of that?"

"Then here we'll stay, Trigaud."

"You won't do such a foolish thing, I hope?" cried Jean Oullier.

"Yes, by my faith, I will. Where you die we die, old friend; but, as
you say, we'll bring down a few of them first."

"No, no, Courte-Joie; that sha'n't be so. You must live to look after
those young ones we left over there--What are you about, Trigaud?" he
suddenly asked, looking at the giant, who had gone down into a ravine
and was lifting a block of granite.

"Don't scold him!" said Courte-Joie; "he isn't wasting time."

"Here, here!" cried Trigaud, showing a hollow made by the flow of
water under the stone.

"Faith, he's right. I declare if he hasn't the mind of a monkey this
day, my _gars_ Trigaud! Here, Jean Oullier, here, get under! get
under!"

Jean Oullier dragged himself to the stone and rolled into the
excavation, where he curled himself into a ball with the water to his
middle. Trigaud then replaced the stone, leaving just enough space to
give air and light to the living being it covered like a tombstone.

The giant had just concluded this work when the horsemen appeared at
the top of the slope; and after convincing themselves that the young
officer was really dead, dashed down in pursuit of the Chouans at full
gallop.

Nevertheless, all hope was not lost. Trigaud and Courte-Joie were
scarcely fifty steps from a hedge beyond which they would be safe from
horsemen; and as for the foot-soldiers, they appeared to have
relinquished their pursuit.

But a subaltern officer admirably mounted pressed them so hard that
Courte-Joie felt the hot breath of the animal on his legs. The rider,
determined to end the matter, rose in his stirrups and aimed such a
blow with his sabre at the cripple's head that he would certainly have
split it in two; but the horse, which he did not have well in hand,
swerved to the left, while Trigaud instinctively flung himself to the
right. The weapon therefore missed its mark and merely made a flesh
wound on the cripple's arm.

"Face about!" cried Courte-Joie to Trigaud, as though he were
commanding a company. The latter pivoted round, absolutely as though
his body were riveted to the ground with an iron screw.

The horse, passing beside him, struck him in the breast, but did not
shake him. At the same instant Courte-Joie, firing one barrel of his
little gun, knocked over the subaltern, who was dragged to some
distance by the impetus of his horse.

"One!" counted Trigaud, in whom the imminence of danger seemed to
develop a loquacity which was not habitual with him.

During the moment that this affair lasted the other horsemen were
rapidly approaching; a few horse's-lengths alone separated them from
the two Vendéans, who could hear, above the tramp of their galloping
steeds, the sharp cocking of their pistols and musketoons. But that
moment had sufficed Courte-Joie to judge of the resources offered him
by the place in which he found himself.

They were now at the farther end of the moor of Bouaimé, a few steps
from a crossway whence several roads diverged. Like all such open
spaces in Brittany and La Vendée, this crossway had its crucifix; and
the cross, which was of stone, and dilapidated on one side, offered a
temporary refuge which might soon become untenable. To right were the
first hedges of the fields; but there was no chance whatever of
reaching them, for three or four horsemen, forestalling their
intention, had obliquely advanced to thwart it. Opposite to them and
flowing to their left was the river Maine, which made a bend at this
place; but Courte-Joie knew it was useless to even think of putting
the river between himself and the soldiers, for the opposite bank was
a face of rock rising from the water; and in following the current to
find a spot to land, the two Chouans would have been simply a target
for the enemy.

It was, therefore, the refuge of the cross on which Courte-Joie
decided, and in that direction Trigaud, under his master's orders,
proceeded. But just as he reached the column of stone and turned it to
put its bulk between the soldiers and themselves, a ball struck an arm
of the cross, ricochetted, and wounded Courte-Joie in the cheek,--not,
however, preventing the cripple from replying to it in turn.

Unfortunately, the blood which poured from the wound fell on Trigaud's
hands. He saw that blood, gave a roar of fury,--as though he felt
nought but that which injured his companion,--and charged madly on the
soldiers like a wild-boar on its hunters.

In an instant Courte-Joie and Trigaud were surrounded; a dozen sabres
whirled above their heads, a dozen pistol muzzles threatened their
bodies, and one gendarme seized Courte-Joie. But Trigaud's club
descended; it fell upon the leg of the gendarme and crushed it; the
hapless rider uttered a terrible cry and fell from his horse, which
fled across the moor.

At the same instant a dozen shots were fired; Trigaud had a ball in
the breast, and Courte-Joie's right arm, broken in two places, hung
helpless at his side. The giant seemed insensible to pain; with his
trunk of a tree he made a moulinet which broke two or three sabres and
warded others.

"To the cross! to the cross!" cried Courte-Joie. "It is well to die
there."

"Yes," muttered Trigaud; hearing his master speak of dying he brought
down his club convulsively on the head of a horseman, who fell like a
log. Then, executing the order he had received, he walked backward to
the cross--to cover as much as possible the body of his friend with
his own body.

"A thousand thunders!" shouted a corporal; "we are wasting time and
lives and powder on those beggars."

So saying, he spurred his horse and forced it with one bound upon the
two Vendéans. The horse's head struck Trigaud full in the chest, and
the shock was so violent that it brought the giant to his knees. The
soldier profited by the chance to strike Courte-Joie a blow which
entered his skull.

"Throw me at the foot of the cross and escape if you can!" said
Courte-Joie, in a failing voice. "It is all over with me." Then he
began the prayer: "Receive my soul, God!"

But the colossus no longer obeyed him; maddened with blood and fury he
uttered hoarse, inarticulate cries, like those of a lion at bay; his
eyes, usually dull and lifeless, cast out flames; his lips drew up,
exposing the clenched and savage teeth ready to render eraunch for
eraunch with a tiger. The gallop of the horse had carried the soldier
who wounded Courte-Joie to some distance. Trigaud could not reach him;
but he measured the space with his eye, and whirling the club above
his head, he flung it hissing through the air as if from a catapult.

The rider forced his horse to rear, and so avoided the blow; but the
horse received it on his head. The creature beat the air with his
forefeet as he fell over backward, and rolled with his rider on the
ground.

Trigaud uttered a cry of joy more terrible and horrible than a cry of
pain; the rider's leg was caught beneath the animal. He flung himself
upon him, parried with his arm, which was deeply gashed, a sabre-cut;
seized the soldier by the leg; dragged him from the body of the horse;
and then, twirling him in the air, as a child does a sling, he dashed
out his brains upon an arm of the cross.

The byzantine stone shook to its base, and remained bent over to one
side, and covered with blood. A cry of horror and of vengeance burst
from the troops, but this specimen of the giant's strength deterred
the soldiers from approaching him; they stopped where they were, to
reload their guns.

During this time Courte-Joie breathed his last, saying, in a load
voice:--

"Amen!"

Then Trigaud, feeling his beloved master dead, and utterly ignoring
the preparations the chasseurs were making to kill him,--Trigaud sat
down at the foot of the cross, unfastened the body of Courte-Joie from
his shoulders and laid it on his knees, as a mother might handle the
body of her child; he gazed on the livid face, wiping with his sleeve
the blood that blurred it, while a torrent of tears--the first that
being, indifferent to all the miseries of life, had ever shed--flowed
thick and fast from his eyes, mingling with the blood he was piously
and absorbedly removing.

A violent explosion, two new wounds, and the dull thud produced by
three or four balls striking the body which Trigaud was holding in his
arms and pressing to his breast, roused him from his grief and his
insensibility, he rose to his full height; and this movement, which
made the soldiers think he meant to spring upon them, caused them to
gather up the reins of their horses, while a visible shudder ran
through their ranks.

But Trigaud never looked at them; he thought of them no longer; he was
seeking a means of not being parted from his friend by death; was he
searching for a spot which promised him a union throughout eternity?

He walked toward the river. In spite of his wounds, in spite
of the blood which flowed down his body from the holes of several
pistol-balls and left a rivulet of blood behind him, Trigaud walked
firm and erect. He reached the river-bank before a single soldier
thought of preventing him; there he stopped at a point overlooking a
black pool of water, the stillness of which proclaimed its depth.
Clasping the body of the cripple still tighter to his breast, and
gathering up his last remaining strength, he sprang forward into its
depths without uttering a word.

The water dashed noisily above the mighty mass it now engulfed,
boiling and foaming long over the place where Trigaud and his friend
had disappeared; then it subsided into rings, which widened, widened
ever till they died upon the shore.

The soldiers had ridden up. They thought the beggar had thrown himself
into the water to reach the other bank, and pistol in hand they held
themselves ready to fire the moment he came to the surface of the
stream.

But Trigaud never reappeared; his soul had gone to join the soul of
the only being he had loved in this world, and their bodies lay softly
together on a bed of reeds in a pool of the river Maine.

XXI.

IN WHICH SUCCOR COMES FROM AN UNEXPECTED QUARTER.

During the week which had just elapsed Maître Courtin kept prudently
quiet and out of sight in his farmhouse at La Logerie. Like all
diplomatists, Courtin had no great fancy for war; he calculated, very
justly, that the period of pistol-shots and sabre-cuts must soon pass
by, and he wished to be fresh and lively for the succeeding period,
when he might be useful to the cause--and to himself--according to the
petty means which Nature allotted to him.

He was not without some uneasiness, the cautious farmer, as to the
consequences which might result to him from the part he had taken in
the arrest of Jean Oullier and the death of Bonneville; and at this
moment when hatred, rancor, vengeance of all kinds had put the country
under arms, he thought it wisest not to foolishly risk his person
within their range. He was even afraid of meeting his young master,
Baron Michel (inoffensive as he knew him to be), ever since a certain
night when he had cut the girths of the baron's saddle.

In fact, the day after that performance, thinking that the best way to
escape being killed was to seem half dead, he took to his bed and gave
out, by his servant-woman, to his neighbors and administrators that a
malignant fever like that of poor old Tinguy had brought him to
death's door.

Madame de la Logerie, in her distress at Michel's flight, had sent
twice for her farmer; but danger paralyzed Courtin's desire to please
her, and the proud baroness, goaded by anxiety, was forced to go
herself to the peasant's house.

She had heard that Michel was a prisoner, and was about to start for
Nantes to use all her influence with the authorities to get him
released, and all her authority as a mother to take him far away from
this disastrous neighborhood. Under no circumstances would she return
to La Logerie, where further sojourn seemed to her dangerous by reason
of the conflict about to take place; and she was anxious to see
Courtin and leave him in charge of the château and her interests.

Courtin promised to be worthy of her confidence, but in so weak and
dolorous a voice that the baroness left the farmhouse with a heart
full of pity for the poor devil, even in the midst of her own personal
anxieties.

After this came the fights at Chêne and La Pénissière. On the days of
their occurrence the noise of the musketry, as it reached the farmer's
ears, caused a relapse in his illness. But no sooner had he heard of
the result of those fights than he rose from his bed entirely cured.
The next day he felt so vigorous that, in spite of his woman's
remonstrance, he determined to go to Montaigu, his market-town, and
get the orders of the sub-prefect as to his future course. The vulture
smelt the carnage, and wanted to be sure of his little share of the
spoil.

At Montaigu Maître Courtin learned that his trip was useless; the
department had just been placed under military authority. The
sub-prefect advised the mayor of La Logerie to go to Aigrefeuille and
get his instructions from the general, who was there at that moment.

Dermoncourt, fully occupied with the movement of his columns, and
having, as a brave and loyal soldier, little liking for men of
Courtin's character, received the latter's denunciations, made under
the guise of necessary information, with an abstracted air, and, in
fact, showed a coldness to the mayor of La Logerie which greatly
chilled that functionary's hopes. Nevertheless the general accepted a
proposal which Courtin made him, to put a garrison in the château de
la Logerie; for the position seemed to him an excellent one from which
to hold the whole region in hand, from Machecoul to Saint Colombin.

Heaven owed the farmer some compensation for the general's want of
sympathy, and, with its usual justice, soon bestowed it.

As he left the house which served as headquarters, Maître Courtin was
approached by a man whom he had no recollection of ever having met,
but who, nevertheless, showed him the utmost civility and a
friendliness that was altogether touching. This individual was a man
about thirty years of age, dressed in black clothes, the cut of which
resembled that of priestly garments worn in a city. His forehead was
low, his nose hooked like the beak of a bird of prey. His lips were
thin; and yet, in spite of their thinness, they were prominent, owing
to a peculiar formation of the jaw; his pointed chin protruded at an
angle which was more than sharp; his hair, of a leaden black, was
plastered along his temples, and his gray eyes, often dropped, seemed
to see through his winking eyelids. It was the countenance of a Jesuit
grafted on the face of a Jew.

A few words said by this unknown man to Courtin appeared to remove the
distrust with which the latter was inclined to receive advances which
seemed to him at first suspicious. He even accepted with a good grace
an invitation to dinner at the hôtel Saint-Pierre, which the stranger
gave him; and after two hours passed _tête-à-tête_ in a private room,
where the individual we have described ordered the table to be laid,
such mutual sympathy had been developed that they treated each other,
Courtin and he, as old friends; exchanging, when they parted, many
shakings of the hand, while the mayor of La Logerie, as he struck his
spurs into his pony's flanks, promised his new acquaintance that he
should not be long without hearing from him.

Toward nine o'clock that evening Maître Courtin was jogging along,
with the tail of his beast toward Aigrefeuille and its nose toward La
Logerie; he seemed quite lively and joyous, and was flirting his whip
by its leather handle right and left on the flanks of his little
steed, with a jollity and ease that were not characteristic of him.

Maître Courtin's brain was evidently larded with _couleur-de-rose_
ideas. He was thinking how on the morrow he should have, at a stone's
throw from his farm, a detachment of fifty soldiers, whose presence
would relieve him of anxiety, not only about the consequences of what
he had done, but also about those of certain things that he wanted to
do; he was thinking, too, that in his capacity as mayor he could use
those fifty bayonets according to the needs of his private
animosities. This idea gratified his self-love and his hatred
together.

But, seductive as this idea of a Pretorian guard which could, if
cleverly managed, be turned into his private guard, might be, it was
surely not sufficient to give Maître Courtin--a practical man if ever
there was one--his present exuberant satisfaction.

The mysterious unknown had no doubt dazzled his eyes with something
more than the glitter of an ephemeral glory,--in fact, it was neither
more nor less than piles of gold and silver which Maître Courtin was
beholding in his mind's eye through the mists of the future, and
toward which he was mechanically stretching out his hand with a smile
of covetousness.

Under the control of these agreeable hallucinations, and somewhat hazy
from the fumes of wine which his is new friend had poured for him
generously, Maître Courtin let himself drop into a state of gentle
somnolence; his body swayed to right and left, according to the
caprices of his ambling pony, until at last, the quadruped having
stumbled over a stone, Maître Courtin pitched forward and remained
doubled over on the pommel of his saddle.

The position was uncomfortable, but Maître Courtin was careful not to
change it; he was then in the midst of so delightful a dream that, for
all the world, he would not lose it by awaking. He thought he was
meeting his young master, who said to him, waving his hand over the
domain of La Logerie, "All this is thine!"

The gift was proving more considerable than Courtin at first thought
it; untold riches were developing. The trees in the orchard were laden
down with gold and silver fruit; all the poles in the neighborhood
would not suffice to hinder the branches from breaking under the
weight of such wealth. The wild-roses and hawthorns were bearing,
instead of their usual haws, jewels of all colors, which sparkled in
the sun like so many carbuncles; and there was such a quantity of them
that, although he knew they were precious stones, Courtin saw, with an
eye of equanimity, a small marauder filling his pockets with them.

The farmer entered his own stable. In that stable he beheld a file of
fat and well-fed cows extending out of sight so far, so far, that the
one which was nearest the door seemed to be of the size of an
elephant, while the one in the farthest distance was no bigger than a
worm. Under each of these cows was a young girl milking. The first two
had the features of the "she-wolves," the daughters of the Marquis de
Souday. From the teats of the cows they were milking ran a white and
yellow liquid, brilliant as two metals in fusion. As it fell into the
copper pails of the two girls it produced that delightful sound which
is music to the ear,--the sound of gold and silver coins piling one
above the other.

As he looked into the pails the happy farmer saw that they were more
than half full of rare and precious coins of various effigies. He
stretched out his eager, grasping, quivering hands to seize these
treasures, and as he did so a violent shock accompanied by a cry of
agony put to flight his soft illusions.

Courtin opened his eyes and saw in the darkness a peasant-woman with
torn clothes and dishevelled hair stretching out her hands to him.

"What do you want?" cried Maître Courtin, assuming a gruff voice and
raising his stick in a threatening manner.

"Your help, my good man; I implore it in God's name!"

Finding that pity alone was asked for, and certain now that he had
only a woman to deal with, Maître Courtin, who at first had looked
about him in a terrified manner, was completely reassured.

"You are committing a misdemeanor, my dear," he said. "You have no
right to stop persons on the high-road and ask for alms!"

"Alms! who said anything about alms?" returned the woman, in a refined
and haughty tone of voice which arrested Courtin's attention. "I want
you to help in rescuing an unfortunate man who is dying of fatigue and
exposure! I want you to lend me your horse to take him to some
farmhouse in the neighborhood."

"Who is it I am to help?"

"You seem by your dress to belong to the country people. I shall
therefore not hesitate to tell you the truth, for I am sure, whatever
your political opinions may be, you will not betray us,--he is a
royalist officer."

The voice of the unknown woman excited Courtin's curiosity to the
utmost. He leaned from his saddle striving to see in the darkness the
face of her to whom the voice belonged; but he did not succeed in
doing so.

"Who are you, yourself?" he asked.

"What is that to you?"

"Do you expect me to lend my horse to persons I don't know?"

"I have made a mistake; your answer proves that I was wrong to treat
you as a friend or a generous enemy. I had better have employed
another means. Give me your horse at once!"

"Indeed!"

"You have two minutes for decision."

"And if I refuse?"

"I will blow your brains out!" said the woman, pointing a pistol at
Courtin and clicking the trigger to let him know the execution of the
threat would follow promptly.

"Ah, good! I recognize you now," said Courtin. "You are Mademoiselle
de Souday."

Then, without allowing his questioner time to say more, the mayor of
La Logerie got off his pony.

"Very good!" said Bertha, for it was she. "Now tell me your name, and
to-morrow the horse shall be sent home to you."

"No need, for I'll go with you and help you."

"You! why this sudden change?"

"Because I take it the person you want me to help is the owner of my
farm."

"His name?"

"Monsieur Michel de la Logerie."

"Ah! you are one of his tenants. Then we can go to your farmhouse for
concealment."

"But," stammered Courtin, who was far from comfortable at the thought
of meeting the young baron, especially when he reflected that if he
took him with Bertha under his roof Jean Oullier would be certain to
come there after them, "you see I am the mayor, and--"

"You are afraid of compromising yourself in serving your master!"
exclaimed Bertha, in a tone of the deepest contempt.

"Oh, no, not that! I'd give my blood for the young man; but we are to
have a garrison of soldiers in the château de la Logerie."

"So much the better; they will never suspect that Vendéans,
insurgents, would take refuge so near them."

"But I think, in the interest of Monsieur le baron, that Jean Oullier
could find you a safer retreat than my house, where the soldiers are
likely to be, morning, noon, and night."

"Alas! poor Jean Oullier is not likely to help any of his friends in
future."

"How so?"

"We heard this morning some brisk firing in the direction of the moor;
we did not stir from where we were, as he told us to wait till he
returned. But we waited, and waited, in vain! Jean Oullier is either
dead or a prisoner, for he is not one of those who desert their
friends."

If it had been daylight Courtin could not have concealed the joy this
news, which relieved him of his worst anxieties, caused him. But,
though he was not master of his countenance, he was of his words; and
he answered Bertha, who had spoken in an agitated voice full of
feeling, with a mournful ejaculation which rather reconciled her to
him.

"Let us walk faster," said Bertha.

"I'm willing. What a smell of burning there is here!"

"Yes, they set fire to the heath."

"Ah! How came Monsieur le baron to escape the fire? He is in the
direction of it."

"Jean Oullier put us among the reeds in the Fréneuse pond."

"Ah! that's why when I touched you just now I felt you were all wet?"

"Yes; as Jean Oullier did not return I crossed the pond to seek for
help. Finding no one, I took Baron Michel on my shoulders and brought
him ashore. I hoped to carry him to the nearest house, but I have not
the strength. I have been obliged to leave him among the bushes
and come to the high-road myself. We have had nothing to eat for
twenty-four hours."

"Ha! you're a stalwart girl!" cried Courtin, who, in the uncertainty
he felt as to how his young master might receive him, was not sorry to
conciliate Mademoiselle Bertha's good-will. "You are just the helpmate
Monsieur le baron needs in these stirring times."

"It is my duty to give my life for him," said Bertha.

"Yes," said Courtin, emphatically; "and that duty no one, I swear to
God, understands as you do. But be calm and don't walk so fast!"

"But he suffers! he may be calling for me--if he comes out of his
swoon."

"Did he swoon?" cried Courtin, eagerly, seeing in that small detail
the chance of escaping an immediate explanation.

"Yes, poor fellow! he is badly wounded, too."

"Good God!"

"Just think! for twenty-four hours, in his state, he has had no proper
care! for my help has been powerless, I may say."

"Good heavens!"

"And think, too! he has been all day in the burning sun in the middle
of the reeds; and to-night, in spite of my precautions, the fog has
wet him through and through, and he has had a chill.

"Good Lord!"

"Ah! if evil happens to him I'll expiate my fault in penance all my
life for having urged him into dangers for which he was unfit!" cried
Bertha, whose political sentiments vanished before the loving anguish
Michel's sufferings caused her.

As for Courtin, Bertha's assurance that Michel was not in a state to
talk to him seemed to double the length of his legs. The girl no
longer needed to hasten him on; he walked at his top speed, with a
vigor he seldom showed, pulling the pony after him by the bridle, the
beast being recalcitrant over the rough and heated road.

Believed for ever and aye of Jean Oullier, Courtin believed it would
be easy to excuse himself to his young master,--in fact, that the
matter would settle itself.

They soon reached the spot where the girl had left Michel. He, with
his back against a stone, his head dropped on his breast, was, if not
actually unconscious, in such a state of utter prostration that he had
only a dim and confused sense of what was passing about him. He paid
no heed to Courtin; and when the latter, with Bertha's help, hoisted
him on the pony, he pressed Courtin's hand, as he did that of Bertha,
without knowing what he was about.

Courtin and Bertha walked on either side of the pony to support
Michel, who, without their help, would have fallen to left or right.

They reached the farmhouse. Courtin woke up his servant-woman, on whom
he knew he could rely, took his own mattress (the only one the house
afforded) into a sort of lean-to above his bedroom, where he installed
his young master with such zeal, self-devotion, and eager
protestations that Bertha ended by regretting the opinion she had
formed of him on the high-road.

When Michel's wound was dressed, and he was safely in the bed
improvised for him, Bertha went to the servant's room to seek her
rest.

Left alone, Maître Courtin rubbed his hands; he had done a good
night's work. Violent behavior had not answered hitherto; gentleness,
he was sure, was more likely to succeed. He had done better than enter
the enemy's camp--he had brought the enemy's camp into his own house,
which gave him every likelihood of detecting the secrets of the
Whites, especially those concerning Petit-Pierre.

He went over in his brain all the injunctions given to him by the
mysterious man at Aigrefeuille; the most important of which was to
send him immediate information if he contrived to discover the retreat
of the heroine of La Vendée, and not to communicate any facts to the
generals,--men who cared nothing for the art of diplomacy, and were
altogether below the level of great political machinations.

Courtin now thought it possible, through Michel and Bertha, to
discover Madame's retreat; he began to believe that dreams were not
always lies, and that, thanks to the two young people, the wells of
gold and silver and precious stones, the streams of metallic milk,
would become to him a reality.

XXII.

ON THE HIGHWAY.

During all this time Mary had no news of Bertha. Since the evening on
which the latter left the Jacquet mill, announcing her resolve to
search for Michel, Mary knew nothing of Bertha's movements. Her mind
was lost in conjecture. Had Michel spoken? Had Bertha, reduced to
despair, done some fatal deed? Was he wounded? Was he killed? Had
Bertha herself been shot in one of her adventurous undertakings? Such
were the gloomy alternatives Mary feared for the two objects of her
affections; both left her a prey to the keenest anxiety, the sharpest
anguish.

In vain she told herself that the wandering life she now led with
Petit-Pierre, forced each evening to leave the shelter of the night
before, made it very difficult for Bertha to recover their traces.
Making all such allowances it seemed to Mary that, unless some
misfortune had happened to her, Bertha would surely have sent some
news of her whereabouts through the channels of communication which
the royalists possessed among the peasantry. Mary's courage was
already weakened by the many shocks she had just endured; and she
herself, unsupported, isolated, deprived of her lover's presence,
which had secretly sustained her in the hour of struggle, now gave way
to gloomy distress, and broke down utterly under her trouble. She
spent her days, which she ought to have employed in resting after the
fatigues of the night, in watching for Bertha or for some messenger
who never came; for hours at a time she sat silently absorbed in her
grief, speaking only when spoken to.

Mary certainly loved her sister; the immense sacrifice to which she
had resigned herself for Bertha's sake abundantly proved it--and yet
she blushed, owning to herself, honestly, that it was not Bertha's
fate that chiefly filled her mind. However warm, however sincere was
the affection Mary felt for her sister, another and more imperious
emotion had glided into her soul, and fed on the pain it brought
there. In spite of all the poor girl's efforts, the sacrifice of which
we speak had never detached her from him who was the occasion of it.
Now that Michel was separated from her, she fancied she could indulge
without danger the thoughts she had struggled to put away from her;
and little by little Michel's image had so gained possession of her
heart that it no longer left it, even for a moment.

In the midst of the sufferings of her life, the pain these
remembrances of her lover gave her seemed comforting; she flung
herself into it with a sort of passion. Day by day he had an
ever-increasing share in the tears and anxiety caused by the strange
and long-protracted absence of her sister. After yielding, without
reserve, to her despair, after exhausting every gloomy supposition,
after evoking all the cruel alternatives of the uncertainty in which
each passing hour left her, after anxiously counting all the minutes
of those hours, little by little Mary fell into regret,--regret
intermingled with self-reproach.

She went over in her memory the smallest incidents of her relation and
that of her sister with Michel. She asked herself whether she were not
doing wrong in breaking the heart of the poor lad while she broke her
own; whether she had the right to force the disposal of his love;
whether she were not responsible for the misery into which she was
plunging Michel by compelling him to be a sharer in the immense
sacrifice she was offering to her sister. Her thoughts returned, with
irresistible inclination, to the night spent on the islet of Jonchère.
She saw once more those reedy barriers; she fancied she heard that
softly harmonious voice, which said: "I love thee!" She closed her
eyes, and again she felt the young man's breath as it touched her
hair, and his lips laying on her lips the first, the only, but ah! the
ineffable kiss she had received from him.

Then the renunciation which her virtue, her tenderness for her sister
urged upon her seemed greater than her strength could bear. She blamed
herself for rashly attempting a superhuman task, and Love regained so
vigorously a heart all love, that Mary,--ordinarily pious, submissive,
accustomed to seek, in view of a future life, the path of patient
courage,--Mary had no longer the strength to look to heaven only; she
was crushed. In the anguish of her passion she gave herself up to
impious despair, asking God if this fleeting memory of the touch of
those lips was all she was to know of the happiness of being loved;
and whether life were worth the pain of living thus disinherited of
joy.

The Marquis de Souday at last perceived the great alteration produced
on Mary's face by these grievous emotions; but he naturally attributed
it to the great bodily fatigue the young girl was now enduring. He was
himself much depressed in seeing all his fine dreams vanishing, and
all the predictions made to him by the general realized. He saw with
dread a return of his exiled days without even having seen, as it
were, the dawn of a struggle. Still, he felt it his duty to force his
courage and resolution to the level of the misfortune which
overwhelmed him, and that duty the marquis would have died rather than
not fulfil; for was it not a soldier's duty? Little as he cared for
social duties and proprieties, the more he stickled for those which
concerned his military honor. Therefore, notwithstanding his inward
depression, he showed no outward sign of it, and even found in the
vicissitudes of their adventurous life the text of many a joke with
which he tried to distract the minds of his companions from the
anxiety and disappointment consequent on the failure of the
insurrection.

Mary had told her father of Bertha's departure; and the worthy old
gentleman had intelligently guessed that the girl's anxiety about the
conduct and fate of her betrothed was at the bottom of it. As
eye-witnesses had already brought him word that Michel, far from
failing in his duty, had heroically contributed to, the defence of La
Pénissière, the marquis,--who supposed that Jean Oullier, on whose
care and prudence he implicitly relied, was with his daughter and
future son-in-law,--the marquis did not think it necessary to be more
uneasy at Bertha's absence than a general might have been about an
officer dispatched on an expedition. Nevertheless, the marquis could
not explain to himself why Baron Michel had preferred to fight so well
under Jean Oullier's orders rather than under his own,--and he was
inclined to be annoyed at the preference.

Surrounded by Legitimist leaders, Petit-Pierre, on the very evening of
the fight at Chêne, left the Jacquet mill, where the danger of a
surprise was imminent. The main-road, which was not far distant, was
covered at intervals by bodies of soldiers escorting prisoners.
Petit-Pierre and her bodyguard started, therefore, as soon as it was
dark.

Wishing to follow the highway as much as possible, the little troop
encountered a detachment of the government troops, and was forced to
crouch in a wayside ditch, which was filled with brambles, for over an
hour, while the detachment filed by. The whole region was so patrolled
by these movable columns that it was only by following the most
impassable wood-paths that the fugitives could be sure of escaping
their vigilance.

Petit-Pierre's uneasiness was extreme; her physical appearance
betrayed her mental sufferings, but her words, her behavior, never! In
the midst of this hazardous life, so disturbed and often so gloomy,
the same bright gayety sparkled from her, and held its own with that
the marquis was assuming. Pursued as they were, the fugitives never
had a full night's rest; and no sooner had the daylight dawned
than danger and fatigue awoke when they did. These terrible night
marches were sometimes dangerous, and always horribly fatiguing
to Petit-Pierre. Sometimes she went on horseback, oftener on
foot,--through fields divided by hedges and embankments, which could
only be crossed after darkness had fallen; through vineyards, which,
in that region, trail their vines on the ground, where they catch the
feet and threaten a fall at every moment; through cow-paths trampled
into mud by the constant passage of the cattle,--mud which came to the
knees of foot-passengers and horses.

Petit-Pierre's companions were now very anxious as to the results of
this life of incessant emotion and bodily fatigue on the health of
their precious charge. They deliberated on the best means of putting
her, once for all, in safety. Opinions differed; some were for taking
her to Paris, where she might be lost in the midst of a vast
population; others proposed Nantes, where a safe concealment was
already prepared; a third party counselled immediate embarkation, not
thinking it possible to ensure her safety so long as she stayed in
France, where search would be only the more active because the actual
insurrection was at an end.

The Marquis de Souday was of the latter opinion; to which objection
was made that a vigorous watch was kept along the coast, and that it
would be absolutely impossible to embark from any port, however
insignificant, without a passport.

Petit-Pierre cut short the discussion by declaring that she should go
to Nantes, and would enter it on the morrow in full daylight, dressed
as a peasant-woman. As the great change and depression visible in
Mary's appearance had not, as may well be supposed, escaped her, and
as she supposed, like the marquis, that they were due to the great
fatigue the girl was enduring,--and as this fatigue would continue if
she stayed with her father,--Petit-Pierre proposed to the marquis to
take his daughter with her. The marquis accepted the offer gratefully.

Mary did not readily resign herself. Shut up in a town she was not so
likely to obtain news of Bertha and Michel, which she was now awaiting
from hour to hour with feverish anxiety. On the other hand, refusal
was impossible, and she therefore yielded.

On the morrow, which was Saturday, and market-day, Petit-Pierre and
Mary, dressed as peasant-women, started for the town at six in the
morning; they had about ten miles to go. After walking for half an
hour the wooden shoes, but, above all, the woollen socks, to which
Petit-Pierre was not accustomed, hurt her feet. She tried to keep on;
but knowing that if she blistered her feet she would be unable to
continue the journey, she sat down by the wayside, took off her shoes
and stockings, stuffed them into her capacious pockets, and started
again barefooted.

Presently, however, she noticed, as other peasant-women passed her,
that the whiteness and delicacy of her skin might betray her; she
therefore turned off the road a little way, took some dark, peaty
earth, and rubbed it on her feet and legs till they were stained with
it, and then resumed her way.

They had just reached the top of the hill at Sorinières when they saw
in front of a roadside tavern two gendarmes who were talking with a
peasant like themselves, who was on horseback.

Mary and Bertha were at this moment in the midst of a group of five or
six peasant-women, and the gendarmes paid no attention to any of them.
But Mary, who watched every one she passed, thinking some information
as to Bertha and Michel might chance to reach her,--Mary fancied that
the mounted peasant looked at her with peculiar attention. A few
moments later she turned her head and saw that the peasant had left
the gendarmes, and was hurrying his pony as if to overtake the group
of peasant-women.

"Take care of yourself," she whispered hastily to Petit-Pierre;
"there's a man I don't know who just examined me with great attention
and then started to follow us. Go on alone, and seem not to know me!"

"Very good; but suppose he joins you, Mary?"

"I can answer him; don't be afraid."

"In case we are forced to separate, shall you know where to find me?"

"Yes; but don't let us say another word to each other--he is coming."

The horse's hoofs were now ringing on the paved centre of the
road. Without appearing to do so Mary lagged behind the group of
peasant-women. She could not help quivering when she heard, as she
expected, the voice of the man addressing her.

"So we are going to Nantes, my pretty girl?" he began, pulling in his
horse when he reached Mary's side, and again looking at her
attentively.

"So it appears," she said, seeming to take the matter gayly.

"Don't you want my company?" asked the rider.

"Oh, no, thank you," replied Mary, imitating the speech of the Vendéan
peasant-women; "I'll keep on with the rest from our parts."

"The rest from your parts? You don't expect me to believe that all
those girls before us are from your village?"

"Whether they are or not, what's that to you?" retorted Mary, evading
a question which was evidently insidious.

The man saw through her purpose.

"I'll make you a proposal," he said.

"What sort of proposal?"

"Get up behind me."

"Yes, that's likely!" replied Mary; "a pretty sight it would be to see
a poor girl like me holding on to a man who looks like a gentleman."

"Especially as you are not accustomed to hug those who look and are
such."

"What do you mean by that?" asked Mary.

"I mean that you may pass for a peasant-girl in the eyes of gendarmes;
but my eyes are another thing. You are not what you are trying to
seem, Mademoiselle Mary de Souday."

"If you have no evil intentions toward me why do you say my name in a
loud voice on the public highway?" asked the young girl, stopping
short.

"What harm is there in that?" said the rider.

"Only that those women may have heard you; and if I wear these clothes
you must know it is because my interests or my safety oblige me."

"Oh!" said the man, winking one eye and affecting a knowing air;
"those women you pretend to be afraid of know all about you."

"No, they do not!"

"One of them does, any how."

Mary trembled in spite of herself; but summoning all her strength of
will, she replied:--

"Neither one nor all. But may I ask why you are putting these
questions to me?"

"Because, if you are really alone, as you say you are, I shall ask you
to stop here for a few minutes."

"I?"

"Yes."

"For what purpose?"

"To save me a long search I should have made tomorrow if I had not met
you now."

"Search for what?"

"Why, for you!"

"Do you mean that you are seeking me?"

"Not on my own account, you must understand."

"But who sent you on such an errand?"

"Those who love you." Then lowering his voice he added: "Mademoiselle
Bertha and Monsieur Michel."

"Bertha? Michel?"

"Yes."

"Then he is not dead!" cried Mary. "Oh, tell me, tell me, monsieur, I
implore you, what has become of them?"

The terrible anxiety betrayed by the tone in which Mary said the
words, the agitation of her face as she awaited the answer, which
seemed to be one of life or death to her, were noticed with curiosity
by Courtin, on whose lips flickered a diabolical smile. He took
pleasure in delaying his answer in order to prolong the young girl's
anguish.

"No, no!" he said at last, "don't be uneasy; he'll get over it!"

"Get over it! is he wounded?" asked Mary, vehemently.

"Didn't you know it?"

"Oh, my God! my God! Wounded!" cried Mary, with her eyes full of
tears.

"Pooh!" said Courtin, "his wound won't keep him long in bed or hinder
his marriage!"

Mary felt that she turned pale in spite of herself. Courtin's words
reminded her that she had not asked news of her sister.

"And Bertha?" she said, "you have told me nothing about her."

"Your sister? Ha! she's a dashing girl! When she hooks her arm into
her husband's she may well say she has earned him."

"But she is not ill, she is not wounded, is she?"

"She is a trifle ill, but that's all."

"Poor Bertha!"

"She did too much. I tell you there's many a man would have died of
the strain if he had done what she did."

"Good God!" cried Mary; "both ill, and both without care!"

"Oh, as for that, no; they are caring for one another. You ought to
see how your sister, ill as she is, cossets the young baron. Some men
have the luck of it, that's a fact; Monsieur Michel is just as much
petted by his lady dove as he was by his mother. He'll have to love
her well, if he doesn't want to be ungrateful."

Mary's agitation increased at these words,--a fact which did not
escape the rider's notice, and he smiled.

"Shall I tell you something that I think I have discovered?" he said.

"What is it?"

"Why, that Monsieur le baron, in the matter of color, prefers fair
hair to black."

"What do you mean?" asked Mary, quivering.

"If you wish me to explain, I'll tell something that you know as well
as I do; and that is, that he loves you. And if Bertha is the name of
his betrothed, Mary is the name of his heart's love."

"Oh!" cried Mary, "you are inventing all that; Monsieur de la Logerie
never told you any such thing."

"No; but I have seen it for myself; and as I cherish him like my own
flesh and blood, I want to see him happy, the dear lad! Therefore I
said to myself yesterday, when your sister asked me to get word to you
about her, that I'd clear my conscience of the matter and tell you
what I think."

"You are mistaken in your thoughts, monsieur," replied Mary. "Monsieur
Michel does not care for me; he is my sister's betrothed husband, and
he loves her deeply; I can assure you of that."

"You are wrong not to trust me, Mademoiselle Mary. Do you know who I
am? I am Courtin, Monsieur Michel's head farmer, and I may say, his
confidential, man; and if you choose--"

"Monsieur Courtin, you will oblige me extremely," interrupted Mary,
"if you would choose--"

"What?"

"To change the conversation."

"Very good; but allow me to renew my offer. Won't you ride behind
me?--it would ease your journey. You are going to Nantes, I suppose?"

"Yes," replied Mary, who, little as she liked Courtin, thought she had
better not conceal her destination from the Baron de la Logerie's
confidential man.

"Well," continued Courtin, "as I am going there myself we had better
go together, unless--If you are going to Nantes on an errand, and I
could do it for you, I'd willingly undertake it, and save you the
trouble."

Mary, in spite of her natural truthfulness, felt compelled to
dissimulate; for it was all-important that no one should even guess at
the cause of her journey.

"No," she replied; "it is impossible. I am on my way to join my
father, who has taken refuge in Nantes, where he is now concealed."

"Dear, dear!" said Courtin, "Monsieur le marquis hiding in Nantes!
that's a clever idea. They are looking for him the other way, and talk
of turning the château de Souday inside out to its foundations."

"Who told you that?" asked Mary.

Courtin saw that he had made a blunder by seeming to know the plans of
the government agents; he tried to repair it as best he could.

"It was chiefly to prevent you from going back there that Mademoiselle
Bertha sent me in search of you," he said.

"Well, you see," said Mary, "that neither my father nor I are at
Souday."

"Ah, that reminds me!" exclaimed Courtin, as if the thought had just
come naturally into his head; "if Mademoiselle Bertha and Monsieur de
la Logerie want to communicate with you, how are they to address you?"

"I don't know myself as yet," replied Mary. "I am to meet a man on the
pont Bousseau who will take me to the house where my father is
concealed. After I get there and have seen him I will write to my
sister."

"Very good; if you have any communication to make, or if Monsieur le
baron and your sister want to join you, and need a guide, I will
undertake to manage it." Then, with a meaning smile, he added: "I'll
answer for one thing; Monsieur Michel will be sending me more than
once."

"Enough!" said Mary.

"Ah! excuse me. I didn't know it would make you angry."

"It does; your suppositions are offensive both to your master and to
me."

"Pooh!" said Courtin, "all that is only talk. Monsieur le baron has a
fine fortune, and there isn't a young lady the country round, whether
she is an heiress or not, who would turn up her nose at it. Say the
word, Mademoiselle Mary," continued the farmer, who believed that
everybody worshipped money as he did; "only say the word and I'll do
my best to make that fortune yours."

"Maître Courtin," said Mary, stopping short, and looking at the farmer
with an expression in her eye he could not mistake; "it needs all my
sense of your attachment to Monsieur de la Logerie to keep me from
being seriously angry. I tell you again, and once for all, you are not
to speak to me in that manner!"

Courtin expected a different reply,--his conception of a "she-wolf"
not admitting of such delicacy. He was all the more surprised because
he saw very plainly that the young girl shared the love his prying
eyes had detected in the depths of the young baron's heart. For a
moment he was disconcerted. Then he reflected that he might lose all
by hurrying matters; better let the fish get thoroughly entangled in
the net before he pulled it in.

The mysterious man at Aigrefeuille had told him it was probable that
the leaders of the Legitimist insurrection would seek shelter in
Nantes. Monsieur de Souday--Courtin believed this--was there already;
Mary was on her way; Petit-Pierre would probably follow. Michel's love
for the young girl might be used, like Ariadne's thread, to lead the
way to her retreat, which would probably be that of Petit-Pierre; and
the capture of Petit-Pierre was the real end and object of Courtin's
ambitious hopes. If he persisted in accompanying Mary he would rouse
her suspicions; and although he was most desirous to succeed that very
day in his enterprise, prudence and strategy prevailed, and he
resolved to give Mary some proof which might reassure her completely
as to his intentions.

"Ah!" said he, "I see you despise my horse; but all the same it hurts
me to see your little feet cut to pieces on those stones."

"Well, it can't be helped," replied Mary. "I shall be less noticed on
foot than if I were mounted behind you; and, if I dared, I would ask
you not to keep at my side. Anything that draws attention to me is
dangerous. Let me walk alone and join those peasant-women just in
front of us. I run less risk in their company."

"You are right," said Courtin; "and all the more because the gendarmes
are behind and will overtake us soon."

Mary started; true enough, two gendarmes were really following them
about a thousand feet back.

"Oh! you needn't be afraid," said Courtin; "I'll detain them at that
tavern. Go on alone; but tell me, first, what I am to say to your
sister?"

"Tell her that all my thoughts and prayers are for her welfare."

"Is that all?"

The girl hesitated; she looked at the farmer; doubtless the expression
of his countenance betrayed his secret thoughts, for she lowered her
head and answered:--

"Yes, that is all."

Courtin was well aware that although Mary did not utter Michel's name,
he was the first and last thought of her heart.

The farmer stopped his horse. Mary, on the other hand, hastened
her steps and joined the other peasant-women, who had gained
some distance ahead while she talked with Courtin. As soon as she
reached them she walked on by Petit-Pierre and told her what had
happened,--suppressing, of course, that part of the conversation that
related to the young baron.

Petit-Pierre thought it wise to evade the curiosity of the man; for
his name recalled in a vague way some unpleasant memory. She therefore
dropped behind the other women with Mary; and when they were fairly
out of sight--thanks to a turn in the road--the two fugitives slipped
into a wood at a short distance from the highway, from the edge of
which they could see who passed it. After about fifteen minutes
they saw Courtin hurrying, as best he could, his stubborn pony.
Unfortunately, the farmer passed too far from the place where they
were hidden to allow of Petit-Pierre's recognizing him as the man who
had visited Pascal Picaut's house, and cut the girths of Michel's
horse.

When he was out of sight Petit-Pierre and her companion returned to
the high-road and continued their way to Nantes. The nearer they came
to the town, where Petit-Pierre was promised a safe retreat, the more
their fears diminished. She was now quite used to her costume, and the
farmers who passed them did not seem to perceive that the little
peasant-woman who tripped so lightly along the road was other than she
seemed to be. It was surely a great thing to have deceived an instinct
so penetrating as that of the country-folk, who have no masters, and
perhaps no rivals, in this respect except soldiers.

At last they came in sight of Nantes. Petit-Pierre put on her shoes
and stockings, preparatory to entering the town. One thing, however,
made Mary uneasy. Courtin would doubtless be watching for her on the
bridge; therefore, instead of entering by the pont Rousseau, the two
women took advantage of a boat to cross the Loire to the other side of
the town.

As they passed the Bouffai a hand was laid on Petit-Pierre's shoulder.
She started and turned round. The person who had taken that alarming
liberty was a worthy old woman on her way to market, who had put down
her basket of apples in order to rest herself, and was not able to
lift it alone and replace it on her head.

"My dears," she said to Petit-Pierre and Mary, "do help me, please, to
get up my basket, and I'll give you each an apple."

Petit-Pierre took one handle, motioned to Mary to take the other, and
the basket was quickly replaced and balanced on the head of the old
woman, who began to walk away without bestowing the promised reward.
But Petit-Pierre caught her by the arm, saying:--

"Look here, mother, where's my apple?"

The market-woman gave it to her. Petit-Pierre set her teeth into it
and was munching it with an appetite sharpened by a ten-mile walk,
when, lifting her head, her eyes fell on a notice posted on the walls
upon which appeared in large letters these words:--

STATE OF SIEGE.

It was a ministerial decree placing four departments in La Vendée
under martial law.

Petit-Pierre went up to the notice and read it through from end to end
tranquilly, in spite of Mary's entreaties to go as quickly as possible
to the house where she was expected. Petit-Pierre very justly remarked
that the matter was of such importance to her that she was right in
obtaining a thorough knowledge of it.

Presently, however, the two women went their way into the dark and
narrow streets of the old Breton city.

XXIII.

WHAT BECAME OF JEAN OULLIER.

Though it was next to impossible for the soldiers to discover Jean
Oullier in the hiding-place poor Trigaud's herculean strength had made
for him, nevertheless, now that Courte-Joie and his companion were
dead, Jean Oullier had only exchanged the prison into which the Blues
would have thrust him, had he fallen into their hands, for another
prison more terrible, a death more awful than any his captors could
inflict upon him. He was buried alive; and in this deserted region
there was little hope that any human being would hear his cries.

Toward the middle of the night which followed his parting from his two
associates, finding they did not return, he felt certain that some
fatal event had overtaken them; evidently, they were either dead or
prisoners. The mere idea of the position in which he himself was
placed was enough to freeze the blood in the veins of the bravest man;
but Jean Oullier had one of those strongly religious natures which
continue a struggle in faith when the bravest despair. He commended
his soul to God in a short but fervent prayer, and then set to work as
ardently as he had done in the burning ruins of La Pénissière.

Up to this time he had been crouching, bent double, with his chin on
his knees; it was the only position the cramped quarters of the
excavation allowed. He now endeavored to change it, and after many
efforts he succeeded in getting on his knees. Then bracing himself on
his hands and applying his shoulders to the heavy stone, he endeavored
to raise it. But that which was child's play to Trigaud was impossible
to any other man. Jean Oullier could not even shake the enormous mass
which the giant had placed between him and the heavens.

He felt the ground beneath him; it was not earth but rock,--rock to
right, rock to left, above and below him, rock only.

The slab of granite which Trigaud had laid like a monstrous cover on
the stone box, slanted forward and left an open space about four
inches wide between the bed of the rivulet and the imprisoned man,
through which the air could reach him.

It was on this side that Jean Oullier, after fully reconnoitring his
position, decided to apply his efforts.

He broke the point of his knife against the rock and made a chisel of
it. The butt-end of his pistol answered for a hammer, and he set to
work to widen the aperture. He spent twenty-four hours at this labor,
without other sustenance than that contained in his huntsman's
brandy-flask, from which he sipped from time to time some drops of the
strengthening liquor it contained. During those twenty-four hours his
courage and force of will did not desert him for a single instant.

At last, on the evening of the second day, he succeeded in passing his
head through the aperture he had cut in the base of his prison; before
long his shoulders could follow his head; and then, clasping the rock
and making a vigorous effort, he drew out the rest of his body.

It was indeed high time that he did so; his strength was exhausted. He
rose to his knees, then to his feet, and attempted to walk. But his
injured ankle had swelled to such a frightful extent during the
thirty-six hours he had spent in that horribly constrained position
that at the first step he took all the nerves of his body quivered as
if they were wrung. He uttered a cry and fell gasping on the heather,
mastered at last by the terrible pain.

Night was coming on. Listen as he might, Jean Oullier could hear no
sound. The thought came to him that this night, now beginning to wrap
the world in its shadows, would be his last. Again he commended his
soul to God, praying him to watch over the two children he had loved
so well, and who, but for him, would long ago have been orphaned
through their father's indifference. Then, determined to neglect no
chances, he dragged himself by his hands, or rather crept, in the
direction where the sun had set, which he knew to be that of the
nearest dwellings.

He had gone in this way nearly a mile when he reached a little hill,
whence he could see the lights in a few lonely houses scattered on the
moor. Each of them was to him a pharos, beckoning to life and safety;
but, in spite of all his courage, his strength now deserted him and he
could do no more. It was sixty hours since he had eaten anything. The
stumps of the brambles and the gorse, cut down in the haying season
and sharpened by the scythe, had torn his hands and chest, and loss of
blood from these wounds still further weakened him.

He allowed himself to roll into a ditch by the wayside; determined to
go no farther, but to die there. Intense thirst possessed him, and he
drank a little water which was stagnant in the ditch. He was so weak
that his hand could scarcely reach his mouth; his head seemed
absolutely empty. From time to time he fancied he heard in his brain a
dull, lugubrious roar, like that of the sea making a breach over a
ship and about to engulf it; a sort of veil seemed to spread before
his eyes, and behind that veil coursed myriads of sparks, which died
away and sparkled again like phosphorescent gleams.

The unfortunate man felt that this was death. He tried to shout, not
caring whether enemies or friends came to his relief; but his voice
died away in his throat, and he scarcely heard himself the hoarse cry
which he managed to emit.

Thus he remained for over an hour, in a dying condition. Then, little
by little, the veil before his eyes thickened and took prismatic
tints; the humming in his brain had strange modulations, and for a
time he lost consciousness of all about him.

But his powerful being could not be annihilated without a further
struggle; the lethargic stillness in which he remained for some time
allowed the heart to regulate its pulses, the blood to circulate less
feverishly. The torpor in which he now lay did not lessen the
acuteness of his senses. Presently he heard a sound which his
huntsman's ear did not mistake for a single instant. A step was coming
across the heather, and that step he knew to be a woman's.

That woman could save him! Torpid as he was, Jean Oullier understood
it. But when he tried to call or make a movement to attract her
attention he was like a man in a trance, who sees the preparations for
his funeral and is unable to arrest them; he perceived with terror
that nothing remained of him but his intelligence, and that his body,
completely paralyzed, refused to obey him. As the hapless being nailed
in his coffin makes frantic efforts to burst the iron barrier which
parts him from the world, so Jean Oullier strained at every spring
which Nature puts at the service of man's will to conquer matter. In
vain.

And yet, the steps were coming nearer; each minute, each second made
them more distinct, more unmistakable to his ear. He fancied that
every pebble they displaced rolled to his heart; his agony from the
multiplicity of his abortive efforts grew intense; his hair rose on
his head; an icy sweat stood on his brow. It was worse and more cruel
than death itself, for death feels nothing.

The woman passed.

Jean Oullier heard the thorns on the briers catch and scrape her dress
as if even they wished to stop her; he saw her shadow lying dark upon
the bushes; then she passed away, and the sound of her steps was lost
in the sighing of the wind among the reeds.

The unfortunate man believed he was doomed; and the moment hope
abandoned him the awful struggle he had fought against himself came to
an end. He recovered calmness and mentally prayed to God, commending
his soul to Him.

This prayer so absorbed him that it was not until he heard the noisy
breathing of a dog, which passed its head through the bushes scenting
an emanation, that he noticed the coming of an animal. He turned, with
an effort, not his head, that was impossible, but his eyes in the
direction of the creature, and there saw a cur gazing at him with
frightened but intelligent eyes.

Catching Jean Oullier's gaze the animal retreated to a little distance
and began to bark. At this instant Jean Oullier fancied that he heard
the woman calling to her dog; but the creature did not choose to leave
its post, continuing to bark. It was a last hope,--a hope that was not
balked.

Tired of calling to her dog, and curious to know what excited it, the
woman retraced her steps. Chance, or Providence, willed that this
woman should be the widow of Pascal Picaut. As she neared the bushes
she saw a man; stooping over him she recognized Jean Oullier.

At first she thought him dead; then she saw his eyes, unnaturally wide
open, fixed upon her. She laid her hand upon the huntsman's heart and
felt it beating; she lifted him to a sitting posture, threw a little
water on his face, and poured a few drops through his clenched teeth.
Then--as if through contact with a living being he recovered contact
with life itself--Jean Oullier felt the enormous weight which lay upon
him lightening; warmth returned to his torpid limbs; he felt its glow
steal softly to each extremity; tears of gratitude welled from his
eyelids and rolled down his sunken cheeks; he caught the woman's hand
and carried it to his lips, wetting it with tears.

She, on her side, was greatly moved. Philippist as she was, the good
woman highly esteemed the old Chouan.

"Well, well," she said, "don't take on so, my Jean Oullier! It is all
natural, what I am doing! I'd do as much for any Christian; and all
the more for you, who are a man after God's own heart!"

"That doesn't prevent--" said Jean Oullier.

He could say no more, his breath failed him.

"Doesn't prevent what?" asked the widow.

Oullier made an effort.

"Doesn't prevent--that I owe you my life," he said.

"Oh, nonsense!" exclaimed Marianne.

"It is as I say. Without you, I should have died."

"Without my dog, Jean. You see it isn't me, but the good God you have
to thank." Then noticing with horror that he was covered with blood,
"Why, you are wounded!" she exclaimed.

"Oh, no, nothing but scratches. My worst trouble is that I have
dislocated my ankle; and besides, I haven't eaten anything for nearly
three days. It is chiefly weakness that is killing me."

"Good gracious! but see here, I was just carrying dinner to some men
who are getting litter for me on the moor. You shall have their soup."

So saying, the widow put down the basket she was carrying, untied the
four corners of a cloth in which were several porringers full of soup
and bouilli smoking hot. She gave several spoonfuls to Jean Oullier,
who felt his strength returning as every mouthful of the warm and
succulent broth got down into his stomach.

"Ah!" he said; and he breathed noisily.

A smile of satisfaction crossed the grave, sad face of the widow.

"Now," she said, sitting down opposite to him, "what are you going to
do? Of course you know the red-breeches are after you?"

"Alas!" said Jean Oullier; "I have lost all power with my poor leg. It
will be months before I can roam the woods as I must to escape a
prison. What I had better do," he added with a sigh, "is to get to
Maître Jacques; he will give me a corner in some of his burrows, where
I can stay till my leg is well."

"But your master?--and his daughters?"

"The marquis won't go back yet awhile to Souday; and he is right."

"What will he do, then?"

"Probably cross the channel with the young ladies."

"That's a pretty idea of yours, Jean Oullier, to go and live among
that crew of bandits who follow Maître Jacques! Fine care they'll take
of you!"

"They are the only ones who can take me in without being compromised."

"How about me? You forget me, and that isn't nice of you, Jean."

"You?"

"Yes, me!"

"But you forget the ordinance."

"What ordinance?"

"About the penalties incurred by those who harbor Chouans."

"Pooh! my Jean; such orders are not issued for honest folk, but for
scoundrels!"

"Besides, you hate Chouans."

"No; it is only brigands I hate, whichever side they are. They were
brigands who killed my poor Pascal, and on those brigands I'll avenge
his death if I can. But you, Jean Oullier, your cockade, be it white
or tricolor, is that of an honest man, and I'll save you."

"But I can't walk a step."

"That's no matter. Even if you could walk, Jean, I'd be afraid to take
you to my house by daylight,--not that I fear for myself; but ever
since the death of that young man I fear treachery. Get back under
those bushes; hide as best you can; wait till dark, and I'll come
back with a cart and fetch you. Then, to-morrow, I'll go for the
bone-setter at Machecoul; he'll rub his hand over the nerves of your
foot, and in three days you'll run like a rabbit."

"Hang it! I know that would be best, but--"

"Wouldn't you do as much for me?"

"You know, Marianne, I'd go through fire and water for you."

"Then don't say another word. I shall be back after dark."

"Thank you; I accept your offer. You may be very sure you are not
helping an ungrateful man."

"It is not to get your gratitude I am doing it, Jean Oullier; but to
fulfil my duty as an honest woman."

She looked about her.

"What are you looking for?" asked Jean.

"I was thinking if you tried to get farther back among the bushes you
would be safer than in this ditch."

"I think it is impossible," said Oullier, showing his ankle, now
swelled to the size of a man's head, and his torn hands and face.
"Besides, I am not badly off here; you passed close by these bushes
and did not suspect they hid a man."

"Yes, but a dog might pass and smell you out, just as mine did.
Remember, my Jean, the war is over, and the days of denunciation and
vengeance will begin, if they have not already begun."

"Bah!" said Jean Oullier, "we must leave something for the good God to
do."

The widow was no less of a believer than the old Chouan. She gave him
a piece of bread, cut an armful of ferns with which she made him a
bed, and then, after carefully raising the branches of the briers and
brambles about him, and satisfying herself that the eye of no passer
would detect him, she departed, exhorting him to patience.

Jean Oullier settled himself as comfortably as he could, offered a
fervent thanksgiving to the Lord, munched his bread, and presently
went to sleep in that heavy sleep which follows great prostration.

He must have been lying there several hours when the sound of voices
woke him. In the species of somnolence which followed the state of
torpor he had been in, he fancied he heard the name of his young
mistresses; suspicious as all men of his stamp are in the matter of
their affections, he fancied some danger must be threatening either
Bertha or Mary, and the thought was like a lever, which lifted in a
second the torpor of his mind. He rose on his elbow, gently moved the
brambles which made a thick rampart before him, and looked through
them into the road.

It was dark, but not dark enough to prevent him from seeing the
outline of two men who were sitting on a fallen tree on the other side
of the road.

"Why didn't you continue to follow her, as you recognized her?" said
one of them whom, from his strong German accent, Jean Oullier judged
to be a stranger in these regions.

"Ha! damn it!" said the other. "She-wolf as she is, I never thought
her so wily; but she gave me the slip, fool that I was."

"You might have been certain that the one we were after was in that
group of peasant-women, and that Mary de Souday only stayed behind to
meet and detain you."

"As for that, you are right enough; for when I asked that same group
of women where the young girl was they said that she and her companion
had lagged behind and left them on the road."

"What did you do then?"

"Hang it! I put up the pony at an inn, and hid myself at the farther
end of Pirmile and waited for them."

"In vain, I suppose."

"In vain,--for more than two hours."

"They must have taken a cross-road and entered Nantes by the other
bridge."

"Probably."

"It is very unfortunate. Who knows if such a piece of luck will ever
happen to you again? Perhaps you may never find her now."

"Oh, yes. I shall. Let me alone for that."

"How will you do it?"

"Oh!--as my neighbor the Marquis de Souday, or my friend Jean Oullier
would say--'God wants her soul;' and I have at home just the
bloodhound we need for the hunt."

"Bloodhound?"

"Yes, a regular bloodhound. There is something the matter with one of
his front paws, but as soon as that is well I'll put a chain round his
neck and he'll take us straight in the direction we want to go,
without any trouble to us, except taking care he does not pull too
hard on the chain and break it in his hurry to get there."

"Come, stop joking; these are serious matters."

"Joking! what do you take me for? Do you suppose I joke in presence of
the fifty thousand francs you have promised me?--for you really did
say fifty thousand, didn't you?"

"You ought to be sure of it, for you have made me tell you a score of
times."

"I know that; but I am never tired of hearing it, any more than I
shall be tired of fingering the louis when I get them."

"Deliver us the person we want, and you shall have them."

"Bless me! I hear those yellow-boys chinking in my ears,--dzing!
dzing!"

"Meantime, tell me what you mean by a bloodhound."

"Oh! I'd tell you willingly, but--"

"But what?"

"Give and take, you know."

"What do you mean by 'give and take'?"

"Well, as I told you the other day, I wish to oblige the government,
partly because I respect it, and partly because I like to harass the
nobles and all that belong to them--for I hate 'em all. But, all the
same, while obliging the government of my choice, I should be glad to
see the color of its money,--for, don't you see, thus far I have given
it much more than I receive. Besides, how do I know that if the
government lays hold of that person for whom they offer her weight in
gold, how do I know, I say, that they will pay what they promised me,
or rather promised you?"

"You are a fool."

"I should be a fool if I did not say what I am saying to you now. I
like to make myself secure; and if I must speak frankly, I don't see
much security in this affair."

"You run the same risks that I do. I have received from an eminent
person the promise of one hundred thousand francs if I succeed."

"One hundred thousand francs! That's very little to have come so far
to get. Come, own that it is two hundred thousand, and that you give
me a quarter of it; because I am on the spot and don't have to travel
for the money as you do. Two hundred thousand francs! You are pretty
lucky! A good round sum and rings well. So be it, I'll have confidence
in the government; but, let me ask, why should I have it in you? How
can I be sure you won't slip off with the money when the government
pays it? And if you should, where's the court or the judge before whom
I could sue you, I'd like to know?"

"My good sir, political associates must trust each other; faith signs
their contract."

"Is that why they are so wonderfully well kept? Frankly, I'd prefer
another signature."

"Whose?"

"Yours, or that of the minister with whom you are dealing."

"Well, we'll try to satisfy you."

"Hush!"

"What?"

"Don't you hear something?"

"Yes; some one is coming this way. I think I hear the wheels of a
cart."

The two men rose at once, and by the light of the moon, which was then
shining, Jean Oullier, who had not lost a single word of the
conversation, saw their faces. One of the men was a stranger to him;
the other proved to be Courtin,--a fact he knew already by the tones
of the farmer's voice and the mention he had made of Michel and the
"she-wolves."

"Let us go," said the stranger.

"No," replied Courtin; "I've a number of things to say to you. Let us
hide in this bush till the cart has gone by, and then we can finish
our business."

They walked toward the ditch. Jean knew he was lost; but, unwilling to
be caught like a hare on its form, he rose to his knees, and pulled
his knife from his belt. It was blunt, to be sure, but in a hand to
hand struggle could still be of use. He had no other weapon and
supposed the two men to be unarmed. But Courtin, who had seen a man's
form rise in the bush and heard the rustle of the reeds and brambles,
made three steps backward, seized his gun hidden behind the fallen
tree, cocked one barrel, lifted the weapon to his shoulder, and fired.
A stifled cry followed the explosion.

"What have you done?" cried the stranger, who seemed to think
Courtin's action rather too expeditious.

"See! see!" replied Courtin, trembling and very pale; "a man was
watching us."

The stranger went to the bushes and parted the branches.

"Take care! take care!" said Courtin; "if it is a Chouan and he is not
quite dead, he'll attack you."

So saying, Courtin, with his other barrel cocked, held himself ready
to fire at a safe distance.

"It is a peasant," said the stranger, "but I think he is dead."

So saying, he took Jean Oullier by the arm and dragged him out of the
ditch. Courtin, seeing that the man was motionless and apparently
dead, ventured to approach.

"Jean Oullier!" he cried out, recognizing the Vendéan, "Jean Oullier!
My faith! I never expected to kill a man, but since it was to be, it
is a grand thing it was he instead of another. That, I can truly say,
deserves to be called a lucky shot."

"Meantime," said the stranger, "here comes the cart."

"Yes, it is at the top of the hill, for the horse is trotting. Come,
there's no time to lose; we had better be off. Is he really dead?"

"He seems so."

"Very good; forward then."

The stranger dropped Jean Oullier's arm, and the head fell back upon
the ground with the heavy thud of a deadweight.

"Yes, yes, he's dead, sure enough!" said Courtin. Then, not daring to
go nearer, he pointed his finger at the body. "There," said he, "that
secures us our pay better than any signature; that dead body is worth
two hundred thousand francs to us."

"How so?"

"He was the only man who could get that bloodhound I told you about
away from me. I thought he was dead. I was mistaken. Now that I know
it with my own eyes, we are safe. Forward! forward!"

"Yes, for here comes the cart."

The vehicle was now not a hundred steps from the body. The two men
sprang into the bushes and disappeared in the darkness, while the
widow Picaut, who was coming for Jean Oullier, alarmed by the shot,
ran forward to the place where she had left him.

XXIV.

MAÎTRE COURTIN'S BATTERIES.

A few weeks had sufficed to bring about a radical upsetting of the
lives of all those personages who, from the beginning of this
narrative, have successively passed under the eyes of the reader.

Martial law was proclaimed in the four departments of La Vendée. The
general who commanded them issued a proclamation inviting the
country-people to give in their submission, promising to receive it
with indulgence. The attempt at insurrection had so miserably failed
that the greater part of the Vendéans abandoned all hope for the
future. A few of them, who were openly compromised, followed the
advice of their own leaders, given when they disbanded them, and gave
up their arms. But the civil authorities would not accept this
capitulation; they seized the offered arms and arrested their owners.
A goodly number of these confiding persons were thrown into prison,
and this impolitic severity paralyzed the pacific intentions of those
who with greater prudence were awaiting events.

Maître Jacques owed to these proceedings a large increase in the
number of his troop; he made so much, and made it so cleverly, out of
the conduct of his adversaries, that he finally gathered about him a
body of men large enough to still hold out in the forests while the
rest of La Vendée disarmed itself.

Gaspard, Louis Renaud, Bras-d'Acier, and other leaders put the sea
between them and a stern government. The Marquis de Souday alone
could not resolve upon that step. Ever since he had parted from
Petit-Pierre--that is, ever since Petit-Pierre had left him--the
unfortunate gentleman had completely lost the jovial good-humor with
which, as a matter of honor, he had, up to the last moment, opposed
the gloomy views of his co-leaders; but as soon as duty no longer
forced him to be gay, the marquis dropped to the lower extreme and
became, as we may say, sad unto death. The defeat at Chêne not only
wounded him in his political sympathies, but it knocked over to their
foundations all the castles in Spain he had been so gleefully
erecting. He now saw in this partisan existence, which his imagination
had been endowing with romantic charm, things he had never dreamed
of,--reverses which overwhelmed him, obscure poverty, the mean and
trivial privations of an exile's life. He reached a point,--even he,
who so recently had thought life in his little castle insufferably
insipid,--he reached a point at which he regretted the good, pleasant
evenings which the caresses and chatter of his girls made so
pleasant,--above all, he missed his gossip with Jean Oullier; and he
was so unhappy over the latter's continued absence that he made
inquiries about his huntsman's fate with a solicitude not in any way
customary with him.

The marquis was in this frame of mind when he one day encountered
Maître Jacques loitering about the environs of Grand-Lieu and watching
the movements of a column of soldiers. The Marquis de Souday had never
had much liking for the master of "rabbits," whose first act of
discipline had been to defy his authority. The independent spirit
displayed by Maître Jacques had always seemed to the old gentleman a
fatal example set to the Vendéans. Maître Jacques, on the other hand,
hated the marquis, as he hated all whose birth or social position gave
them naturally the position of leaders; and yet he was so touched by
the misery to which he saw the old gentleman reduced in the cottage
where, after Petit-Pierre's departure, the marquis had taken refuge,
that he offered to hide him in the forest of Touvois; promising,
besides the good cheer which always reigned in his little camp, and
which he proposed to share with him, some amusement in occasional
frays indulged in with the soldiers of King Louis-Philippe. Needless
to say that the marquis always bluntly called that king "Philippe."

It was the last consideration we have mentioned which determined
Monsieur de Souday to accept Maître Jacques' proposals. He burned to
avenge the ruin of his hopes, and to make some one pay for his
disappointments, for the annoyance his separation from his daughters
caused him, and for the grief he felt at Jean Oullier's disappearance.
He accordingly accompanied the lord of the burrows, who, from being
his subordinate--or rather his insubordinate--now became his
protector; and the latter, really touched by the simplicity and
good-nature of the marquis, showed him much more considerate attention
than his rough exterior and ways of life would seem to promise.

As for Bertha, the day after her retreat to Courtin's house, and as
soon as she recovered some strength, she plainly perceived that to be
under the same roof with the man she loved, far from the protection of
her father, and without Jean Oullier, who could in a way replace him,
was, to say the least of it, an impropriety; and, in spite of the fact
that Michel was wounded, might be interpreted in a way to injure her
reputation. She therefore left the farmhouse and installed herself
with Rosine in the Tinguy cottage. This was about three quarters of a
mile distant from Courtin's house, where she went daily to give Michel
all the care of a sister, and the delicate attentions of a loving
woman.

The tenderness, devotion, and self-abnegation of which Bertha gave
Michel so many proofs touched the young man deeply; but as they did
not in any degree affect his feelings for Mary, his situation became
more and more difficult and embarrassing. He dared not think of the
despair he might bring into the heart of the young girl to whom he
owed his life. Nevertheless, little by little, a gentle resignation
did succeed the bitter and violent repulsion he had felt at first, and
without habituating himself to the idea of the sacrifice Mary demanded
of him, he replied by smiles, which he tried to make affectionate, to
the attentions which Bertha showered on him; and when she left his
bedside the sigh that escaped him, and which she interpreted as meant
for her, alone testified to his inward feelings.

If it had not been for Courtin, who always came to his room as soon as
Bertha had disappeared through the trees of the garden, and sitting
beside him talked of Mary, Michel's tender and impressionable soul
might have ended in resigning itself to the necessities of the
situation, and in accepting the fate they made for him. But Courtin
talked to his young master so incessantly of Mary, he showed so
earnest a wish to see him happy according to his heart's desire, that
Michel, as the wound in his arm healed and his strength returned, felt
his inward wound reopening, and his gratitude to Bertha disappearing
before the image of her sister.

Courtin was doing a work analogous to that of Penelope; he undid at
night that which Bertha, with so much care, had done by day. When he
brought the young baron to his house the latter's feebleness precluded
all necessity of asking pardon for his former conduct; and now,
having, as we have heard him tell, got possession of Michel's secret,
he managed, by protestations of devotion to his interests and by
cleverly encouraging the young man's love for Bertha's sister, to worm
himself back entirely into his master's confidence. Michel had
suffered as much from not being able to tell his woes as from the woes
themselves. Courtin seemed to be so sympathizing, he flattered his
dreams so pleasantly, he seemed to admire Mary so truly, that, little
by little, he led Michel to betray, if not to confess, what had passed
between him and the sisters.

Courtin was very careful, however, not to assume a position hostile to
Bertha. He managed, cleverly enough, to make her think he was devoted
to the idea of her marriage with his young master. When they met away
from Michel he always spoke to her as though to his future mistress;
and he did this so well that Bertha, knowing nothing of his
antecedents, was constantly talking to Michel of the great devotion of
his farmer, whom she called "our good Courtin."

But no sooner was he alone with Michel than he entered, as we have
said, into all the latter's secret feelings. He pitied him; and
Michel, under the influence of that pity, allowed himself to tell his
farmer the incidents of his relation to Mary. Courtin constantly
repeated to him, "She loves you;" insinuating that he, Michel, ought
to force Mary with a gentle violence, for which she would certainly be
grateful, to follow the dictates of her own heart. He even went beyond
Michel's own hopes and assured him that as soon as he was well and
communications were once more open, he could so arrange matters that,
without ingratitude to Bertha, she could be brought to renounce, of
herself, the projected marriage.

Michel's convalescence did not progress as rapidly as Courtin desired.
He saw, with deep anxiety, the days go by without affording any clue
as to Petit-Pierre's actual hiding-place; and he restlessly awaited
the moment when he could let loose his young master on Mary's
traces,--for, of course, the reader has understood that Michel was the
"bloodhound" he had talked of using.

Bertha, relieved of all anxiety about Michel's wound, had made, with
Rosine, several trips into the forest of Touvois to see her father in
his present refuge. Two or three times after such excursions Courtin
had led the conversation to persons concerned in the insurrection in
whom the sisters would probably take an interest; but Bertha remained
impenetrable; and the farmer was too well aware that the topic was
dangerous, and that the slightest imprudence on his part would
speedily awaken suspicion, to press such inquiries. Still, as Michel
grew better and stronger, he urged him, whenever they were alone
together, to come to a determination; offering to take a letter at any
time to Mary and bring back her answer, doing his best to make it
favorable.

This state of things lasted six weeks. At the end of that time Michel
was almost well; his wound had healed and his strength returned. The
neighborhood of the post which the general had established at La
Logerie prevented the young man from showing himself during the
daytime; but as soon as it was dark he walked about the orchard
leaning on Bertha's arm. These evening promenades annoyed Courtin,
who, so long as Bertha and Michel talked together in the house, could
overhear what they said by eavesdropping; and one day he told them
positively that their nocturnal rambles must cease. On being asked
why, he produced a judgment by default which condemned Michel de la
Logerie to death.

This communication produced but little effect on Michel, but Bertha
was terror-stricken. She almost flung herself at the young man's feet,
and begged his pardon for having enticed him into this fatal position;
and that night when she left the farmhouse she was in a state of
pitiable agitation.

The next day she came early. All night she had dreamed dreadful
dreams, and they followed her waking. She saw Michel discovered,
arrested, shot! Two hours earlier than usual she was at the farmhouse.
Nothing had happened; nothing seemed to make that day more alarming
than other days. It passed as usual,--full of charm mingled with
anguish for Bertha; full of melancholy internal aspirations for
Michel.

Evening came,--a beautiful summer's evening. Bertha was leaning
against a little window looking out into the orchard; she was watching
the sunset beyond the great trees of the forest of Machecoul, the tops
of which were undulating like waves of verdure. Michel was sitting on
his bed breathing in the soft odors of the coming night. Suddenly they
heard the wheels of a carriage coming up the avenue.

The young man darted to the window. Both saw a calèche entering the
courtyard. Courtin ran to the carriage, hat in hand; a head looked
out,--it was that of the Baronne de la Logerie.

Michel, on seeing his mother, felt a cold chill run through his veins;
it was evident that she had come for him. Bertha questioned him with
her eyes to ask what she ought to do. Michel pointed to a dark
corner,--a sort of closet or recess without a door,--where she might
hide, and hear all without being seen herself. He thought he should
gather strength from her secret presence. Five minutes later the
stairs creaked under his mother's step.

Bertha had rushed to her hiding-place and Michel had seated himself
near the window, as if he had neither seen nor heard anything. The
door opened and the baroness appeared.

Perhaps she had come with the intention of being harsh and stern as
usual; but on seeing Michel by the paling light, pale himself as the
twilight, she abandoned all severity, and opening her arms, cried
out:--

"Oh, my unhappy child! have I found you?"

Michel, who did not expect this reception, was greatly moved; and he
flung himself into his mother's open arms crying:--

"Oh, mother,--mother! My good mother!"

She, too, was greatly changed; traces were plainly to be seen upon her
face of incessant tears and sleepless nights.

XXV.

MADAME LA BARONNE DE LA LOGERIE, THINKING TO SERVE
HER SON'S INTERESTS, SERVES THOSE OF PETIT-PIERRE.

The baroness sat down, or rather, fell into a chair, drawing Michel to
his knees before her, and taking his head, which she pressed to her
lips. At last the words which she seemed unable to bring out came to
her.

"Is it possible that you are here in this place, not a hundred steps
away from the château, which is full of soldiers?"

"The nearer I am to them, mother," replied Michel, "the less they'll
look for me here."

"But don't you know what has taken place in Nantes?"

"What has taken place there?"

"The military courts have passed sentence after sentence."

"That only signifies to those they catch," said Michel, laughing.

"It signifies to every one," said his mother; "for those who are not
taken may be taken at any moment."

"Not when they are hiding in the house of a mayor well-known for his
Philippist opinions."

"You are none the less--"

The baroness stopped, as if her mouth refused to utter the words.

"Go on, mother!"

"You are none the less condemned--"

"Condemned to death; I know that."

"What! you know it, unhappy boy, and you stay here quietly?"

"I tell you, mother, that as long as I am with Courtin I'm quite
safe."

"Then he has been kind to you, has he, that man?"

"He has been simply a second providence. He found me wounded and dying
of hunger; he brought me home, and since then he has fed and hidden
me."

"I must own I have distrusted him."

"Then you are wrong, mother."

"Maybe so. But talk of our own affairs, my dear child. No matter how
well hidden you may be, you cannot stay here."

"Why not?"

"Because a mere chance, the slightest imprudence would betray you."
Michel shook his head. "You don't want me to die of terror, do you?"
said his mother.

"No no; I will listen to you."

"Well, I shall die of terror if you stay in France."

"But, mother, have you reflected on the difficulties of flight?"

"Yes; and I have surmounted them."

"How so?"

"I have chartered a small Dutch vessel which is now lying in the river
opposite to Couéron. Get on board of her and go. God grant that you
are strong enough for the journey." Michel did not answer. "You will
go to England," continued his mother. "You will leave this cursed land
which drank your father's blood; say you will, my son! So long as you
stay here I cannot have an easy moment; I fancy at all hours I see the
hand of the executioner stretched out to tear you from my arms." Still
Michel kept silence. "Here," continued the baroness, "is a letter to
the captain; and here too is an order for fifty thousand francs to
your credit in England or America. Wherever you are, write to me, so
that I may follow and join you. But what is the matter? Why don't you
answer me?"

The fact is, Michel received this proposal with an insensibility which
almost amounted to stupor. Go away? why, that was to part from Mary!
At the mere idea of that separation his heart was so wrung that he
fancied he would rather face the death to which he was condemned.
Since Courtin had assisted in reviving his passion, he had in his
heart conceived new hopes, and without saying a word of them to his
farmer, he thought day and night on the means of getting to her. He
could not endure the idea of once more renouncing her; and instead of
replying to his mother as she developed her plan, he was simply
strengthening his determination to be Mary's husband. Hence the
silence which, naturally, made the baroness uneasy.

"Mother," said Michel at last, "I do not answer you because I cannot
answer as I wish."

"How do you mean, as you wish?"

"Listen to me, mother," said the young man, with a firmness of which
at any other time she would have thought him, and perhaps he might
have thought himself, incapable.

"You don't refuse to go, I hope?"

"I don't refuse to go," said Michel, "but I put conditions to my
going."

"Conditions where it concerns your life, your safety? Conditions
before you consent to relieve your mother's agony?"

"Mother," said Michel, "since we last saw each other I have suffered
much, and consequently I have learned much. I have learned, above all,
that there are moments which decide the whole future happiness or
misery of our lives. I am now in one of those moments, mother."

"And you mean to decide for my misery?"

"No; I shall speak to you as a man, that is all. Do not be surprised
at that; I was thrown, a child, into the midst of these events, and I
have come out of them a man. I know the duties I owe my mother; those
duties are respect, tenderness, gratitude,--and those duties I will
never evade. But in passing from youth to manhood, mother, horizons
open and broaden the farther we go; there we find duties, succeeding
those of youth, not exclusively to our family, but also to society.
When a man reaches that stage in his life, though he still loves his
mother, he must inevitably love another woman, who will be to him the
mother of his children."

"Ah!" exclaimed the baroness, starting back from her son with an
impulse that was stronger than her will.

"Yes, mother," said the young man, rising, "I have given that love;
another love has replied to mine; our lives are indissolubly united;
if I go, I will not go alone."

"You will go with your mistress?"

"I will go with my wife, mother."

"Do you suppose that I shall give my consent to that marriage?"

"You are free not to give your consent, mother, but I am free not to
leave this place."

"Oh, wretched boy!" cried the baroness; "is this my reward for twenty
years of care, and tenderness, and love?"

"That reward, mother," said Michel, his firmness increased by the
knowledge that another ear was listening to his words, "you have in
the respect I bear you, and the devotion of which I will give you
proofs on every occasion. But true maternal love is not a usurer; it
does not say, 'I will be twenty years thy mother in order to be thy
tyrant;' it does not say, 'I will give thee life, youth, strength,
intelligence, in order that all those powers shall be obedient to my
will.' No, mother, true maternal love says: 'While thou wert feeble I
supported thee; while thou wert ignorant I taught thee; while thou
wert blind I led thee. To-day thou art strong and capable; make thy
future life, not according to my will, but thine own; choose one among
the many paths before thee, and wherever it may lead, love, bless,
reverence the mother who made and trained thee to be strong;' that is
the power of a mother over her son, as I see it; that is the respect
and the duty which he owes to her."

The baroness was speechless; she would sooner have expected the skies
to fall than to hear such firm and argumentative language from her
son. She looked at him in stupefaction.

Proudly satisfied with himself, Michel looked at her calmly, with a
smile upon his lips.

"So," she said, "nothing will induce you to give up this folly?"

"Say rather that nothing will induce me to break my word."

"Oh!" cried the baroness, pressing her hands upon her eyes, "unhappy
mother that I am!"

Michel knelt beside her.

"I say to you: blessed mother you will be on the day you make the
happiness of your son!"

"What is there so seductive about those _wolves?_" cried the baroness.

"By whatever name you call the woman I love," said Michel, "I shall
reply to you: she has every quality that a man should seek in a wife;
and it is not for you and me, mother, who have suffered so much from
calumny, to seize, as readily as you have done, on the calumnies told
of others."

"No, no, no!" cried the baroness, "never will I consent to such a
marriage!"

"In that case, mother," said Michel, "take back those cheques and the
letter to the captain of the vessel; they are useless to me, for I
will not leave this place."

"What else can you do, you miserable boy?"

"Oh, that's simple enough. I'd rather die than live separated from her
I love. I am cured. I am able to shoulder a musket. The remains of the
insurrectionary army are collected in the forest of Touvois under
command of the Marquis de Souday. I will join them, and fight with
them, and get myself killed at the first chance. This is the second
time death has missed me," he added with a pallid smile. "The third
time his aim may be true and his hand steady."

The young man laid the letters and cheques on his mother's knees. In
his tones and gestures there was such resolution and firmness that his
mother saw that she cherished in vain the hope of changing him. In
presence of that conviction her strength gave way.

"Well," she said, "be it according to your will, and may God forget
that you have forced your mother to yield to you."

"God will forget it, mother; and when you see the happiness of your
son you will forget it yourself."

The baroness shook her head.

"Go," she said, "marry, far away from me, a stranger I do not know and
have never seen."

"I shall marry, I hope, a woman whom you will know and appreciate,
mother; and that great day of my happiness will be blessed by your
sanction. You have offered to join me wherever I go; wherever that may
be I shall expect you, mother."

The baroness rose and made a few steps toward the door.

"Going without a word of farewell, without a kiss, mother? Are you not
afraid it may bring me evil?"

"My unhappy boy, come to my arms, to my heart!"

And she said the words with that maternal cry which, sooner or later,
must come from a mother's heart. Michel pressed her tenderly to his
breast.

"When will you go, my child?" she said.

"That must depend on her, mother."

"As soon as possible, will you not?"

"To-night, I hope."

"You will find a peasant's dress below in the carriage. Disguise
yourself as best you can. It is twenty-four miles from here to
Couéron. You could get there by five in the morning. Don't forget the
vessel's name,--the 'Jeune Charles.'"

"Don't be anxious, mother. The moment I know my end is happiness I
shall take every precaution to reach it."

"As for me, I shall go back to Paris and use all my influence to get
that fatal sentence revoked. But you--I entreat you, and I repeat
it--take care of your life, and remember that my life is wrapped up in
yours."

Mother and son again kissed each other, and Michel took his mother to
the door. Courtin, as a faithful servitor, was keeping watch below.
Madame de la Logerie begged him to accompany her to the château.

When Michel, after locking the door, turned round he saw Bertha, with
a smile of happiness on her lips, and a halo of love about her head.
She was waiting the moment to throw herself into his arms. Michel
received her in them; and if the little room had not been dark she
must have seen the embarrassment on the young baron's face.

"And now," she said, "nothing can part us; we have my father's
consent, and now your mother's."

Michel was silent.

"Shall we start to-night?"

Still Michel said nothing.

"Well," she said, "why don't you answer me?"

"Because nothing is less sure than our departure," he replied.

"But you promised your mother to go to-night."

"I told my mother it depended on _her_."

"That is, on _me_," said Bertha.

"What!" exclaimed Michel, "would Bertha, true royalist and so devoted
to the cause, leave France without thinking of those she leaves behind
her?"

"What can you mean?" asked Bertha.

"I mean something grander and more useful to the country than my own
escape, my personal safety," said the young man.

Bertha looked at him in astonishment.

"I mean the escape and safety of Madame," added Michel.

Bertha gave a cry; she began to understand.

"Ah!" she ejaculated.

"That vessel my mother has chartered for me can take from France not
only you and me, but the princess, your father, and," he added in a
lower voice, "your sister."

"Oh, Michel, Michel!" cried the young girl, "forgive me for not
thinking of that! Just now I loved you; now I admire you! Yes, yes,
you are right; Providence itself inspired your mother; yes, I will
forget all the hard and cruel things she said of me, for I see in her
an instrument of God sent to our succor to save us all. Oh, my friend,
how good you are!--more than that, you are grand for having thought of
it."

The young man stammered unintelligible words.

"Ah!" continued Bertha, in her enthusiasm, "I knew you were the
bravest and most loyal of men; but to-day you have gone beyond my
hopes and expectations. Poor child! wounded, condemned to death, he
thinks of others before he thinks of himself! Ah, friend, I was happy,
now I am proud in my love!"

If the room had been lighted Bertha must have seen the flush on
Michel's cheek; he knew what his disinterestedness really was. It is
true that after obtaining his mother's consent to marry the woman he
loved, Michel had really dreamed of something else,--namely, the idea
of rendering to Petit-Pierre the greatest service the most devoted
follower could do for her at that moment, and afterward avow all and
ask her, as a reward for that service, to procure for him Mary's hand.
We can readily imagine his shame and confusion of face in Bertha's
presence, and why, to all these demonstrations of the young girl the
baron, cold in spite of himself, replied merely:--

"Now that all is arranged for us, Bertha, we have no time to lose."

"No," she said, "you are right. Give your orders. Now that I recognize
the superiority not only of your heart but of your mind, I am ready to
obey."

"Well," said Michel, "we must part here."

"Why so?" asked Bertha.

"Because you must go to the forest of Touvois and notify your father
of what has happened, and bring him away with you. From there you must
get to the bay of Bourgneuf, where the 'Jeune Charles' shall stop and
pick you up. I shall go to Nantes and tell the duchess."

"You, in Nantes! Do you forget that you are condemned to death and
that the authorities are watching for you? It is I who must go to
Nantes and you to Touvois."

"But the 'Jeune Charles' expects me, Bertha, and in all probability
the captain would obey no one but me; seeing a woman in place of a man
he might suspect some trap and throw us into inextricable
difficulties."

"But just reflect on the dangers you run in Nantes."

"On the contrary, it may be, if you think of it, Bertha, the very
place where I should run the least. They will never suppose that,
being condemned to death in Nantes, I should enter the town which
condemned me. You know very well that there are times when the
greatest boldness is the greatest safety. This is one of those times;
and you must let me do as I choose."

"I told you I would obey you, Michel; I obey."

And the proud and beautiful young girl, submissive as a child, awaited
the orders of the man who, thanks to an appearance of devotion, had
just acquired almost gigantic proportions in her eyes.

Nothing was simpler than the decision they had made and its mode of
execution. Bertha gave Michel the address of the duchess in Nantes and
the different passwords by which he could gain admittance to her. She
herself, dressed in Rosine's clothes, was to reach the forest of
Touvois. Michel, of course, was to wear the peasant's costume brought
to him by his mother. If nothing occurred to interfere with these
arrangements the "Jeune Charles" would be able to sail at five o'clock
on the following morning, carrying Petit-Pierre away from France, and
with her the last vestiges of civil war.

Ten minutes later Michel was astride of Courtin's pony, saddled and
bridled by himself, and taking leave, by a wave of his hand, of
Bertha, who returned to the Tinguy cottage, from which she intended to
start immediately by a cross-road toward the Touvois forest.

[Illustration: CATHEDRAL OF NANTES.]

XXVI.

MARCHES AND COUNTER-MARCHES.

In spite of the adornment of wind-galls and spavin, with which age and
toil had favored Maître Courtin's pony, that brave beast showed energy
enough in the amble which served him for a trot to bring Michel into
Nantes before nine o'clock at night. His first stopping-place was to
be the tavern of the Point du Jour.

He had hardly crossed the pont Bousseau before he began to look about
him for the said tavern. Recognizing its sign,--a star lengthened by a
ray of the most beautiful yellow ochre painter ever used,--he stopped
his pony, or rather the pony of Maître Courtin, before a wooden trough
where the horses of the wagoners, who wanted to halt without
unharnessing, were watered.

No one appeared at the door of the inn. Forgetting the humble clothes
which he wore, and remembering only the alacrity with which the
servants at La Logerie welcomed his arrival, Michel rapped impatiently
on the trough with the heavy stick he held in his hand. At the sound a
man in his shirt-sleeves came out of the courtyard and advanced to
Michel; he wore on his head a blue cotton cap pulled down to his eyes.
Michel fancied that what he saw of the face was not unknown to him.

"The devil!" cried the man in a grumbling tone; "are you too much of a
lord, my young _gars_, to take your horse to the stable yourself?
However, no matter; you shall be served as well as any."

"Serve me as you please, but answer a question."

"Ask it," said the man, folding his arms.

"I want to see Père Eustache," added Michel, sinking his voice.

Low as the tone was, the man showed signs of annoyance; he looked
furtively about him, and though there was no one to be seen but a few
children who were gazing with their hands behind their backs in naïve
curiosity at the new-comer, he took the horse hastily by the bridle
and led him into the courtyard.

"I told you I wanted to see Père Eustache," said Michel, getting off
the pony as soon as the man in the blue cap had led him to the shed
which served as stable to the hôtel Point du Jour.

"I know that," said the latter. "I heard it, confound you; but I don't
keep your Père Eustache in my oat-bin. Besides, before I tell you
where to find him I'd like to know where you come from."

"The South."

"Where are you going?"

"To Rosny."

"Very good; then you must go to the church of Saint-Sauveur, and there
you will find the man you want. Go; and try not to speak so loud,
Monsieur de la Logerie, when you talk in the street--if you want to
gain the object of your journey."

"Ah, ha!" cried Michel, somewhat astonished; "so you know me?"

"I should think so!" said the man.

"I must have that horse taken back to its home."

"It shall be done."

Michel put a louis into the man's hand, who seemed delighted with the
fee and made him many offers of service; then he boldly went out into
the town. When he reached the church of Saint-Sauveur the sexton was
in the act of shutting the gates. The lesson the young baron had just
received at the gate of the inn bore fruits; Michel waited cautiously
and looked about him before putting any questions.

Four or five beggars, before leaving the church porch, where they had
asked alms all day of the faithful, were kneeling beneath the organ to
say their evening prayer. No doubt Père Eustache was among them; for
besides two or three women with their cotton capes, patched with
various colors, thrown over their heads, there were three male
beggars, each with a holy-water sprinkler in his hand. Either of the
three might be the man Michel was in search of; luckily he knew the
sign of recognition. He took the branch of holly that was fastened in
his hat, which Bertha had told him was the sign by which Père Eustache
would know him, and let it drop before the door. Two of the beggars
passed without taking the least notice of it; the third, who was a
little old man, thin and weakly, whose enormous nose projected boldly
beyond a black silk cap, stopped when he saw the holly on the
pavement, picked it up, and looked about him uneasily. Michel issued
from behind the pillar which concealed him.

Père Eustache (for it was he) cast a sidelong look at the young man;
then, without a word, he walked toward the cloister. Michel understood
that the holly was not a sufficient sign to the distrustful giver of
holy water; after following for about ten yards, he hastened his steps
and accosted him, saying:--

"I am from the South."

The beggar stopped.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"To Rosny," replied Michel.

The beggar turned round and retraced his steps; this time he went
toward the town. A look from a corner of his eye told Michel it was
all right. The latter then let his guide pass him and followed him at
a distance of five or six paces. They returned past the portal of the
church, and soon after, having entered a dark and narrow alley, the
beggar stopped for a few seconds before a low door placed in the wall
of a garden; then he continued his way.

Michel was about to follow him; but the beggar made him a sign as if
to point out the little door, and rapidly disappeared. The young man
then saw that Père Eustache had slipped the holly branch he had picked
up through the iron ring that served as a knocker.

So this was the end of his journey. He raised the knocker and let it
fall. At the sound a small wicket made in the door itself opened and a
man's voice was heard asking what was wanted. Michel repeated the
passwords, and he was shown into a room on the ground-floor, where a
gentleman, whom he recognized as having seen at the château de Souday
on the evening when General Dermoncourt ate the supper prepared for
Petit-Pierre, and seen again, gun in hand, before the fight at Chêne,
was quietly reading a newspaper, sitting before a large fire with his
feet on the fender, wrapped in his dressing-gown.

In spite of his very pacific appearance and occupation, a pair of
pistols lay within reach of his hand on a table where there were also,
laid out for use, pens, ink, and paper. The gentleman recognized
Michel at once and rose to receive him.

"I think I have seen you in our ranks, monsieur," he said.

"Yes, monsieur," replied Michel, "the evening before the fight at
Chêne."

"And the day of the fight?" asked he of the dressing-gown, smiling.

"I was fighting at La Pénissière, where I was wounded."

The gentleman bowed.

"Will you have the goodness to tell me your name?" he said.

Michel told his name; the gentleman in the dressing-gown consulted a
pocket-book, gave signs of satisfaction, and turning to the young man
asked:--

"Will you now tell me what has brought you?"

"The wish to see Petit-Pierre, and do her a great service."

"Pardon me, monsieur; but no one can see the person of whom you speak,
at least not so easily. You are indeed one of us; I know that you may
be relied on so far; but you will readily understand that all going
and coming about a retreat which has hitherto been able to keep its
secret successfully, would soon attract the attention of the police.
Have the kindness, therefore, to tell me your plans, and I will see
that you receive an answer."

Michel then related what had passed between himself and his mother;
how she had chartered a vessel for his escape, and how the idea had
occurred to him that it might be used to put Petit-Pierre in safety.
The man in the dressing-gown listened with ever-increasing interest,
and as soon as the young baron had given full information he
exclaimed:--

"It really seems as though Providence had sent you. It is
impossible--no matter what precautions we take to conceal the place
where Petit-Pierre is hidden--it is really impossible to escape the
police investigations much longer. For the good of the cause, for
Petit-Pierre's own sake and for ours, it is much better that she
should leave the country; and as the difficulty of chartering a vessel
is thus removed, I will at once see Petit-Pierre, explain the
circumstances, and receive her orders."

"Shall I go with you?" asked Michel.

"No; your peasant's dress beside me would immediately attract the
attention of the police spies, by whom we are surrounded. What inn are
you stopping at?"

"The Point du Jour."

"That is where Joseph Picaut is hostler; there is nothing to fear
there."

"Ah!" exclaimed Michel, "I knew his face was not unknown to me; but I
thought he lived in the open country between the river Boulogne and
the forest of Machecoul!"

"You were right; he is only a tavern hostler as occasion demands. Wait
there for me. I will go to you in two hours from now,--either alone,
or accompanied by Petit-Pierre,--alone, if Petit-Pierre rejects your
proposal; with her, if she accepts."

"Are you perfectly sure of that man Picaut?" asked Michel.

"Yes, as we are of ourselves. If there is any fault to find with him
it is that he is too zealous. Remember that since Petit-Pierre has
been in La Vendée more than six hundred peasants have known at
different times of her various hiding-places; and the noblest claim of
those poor people to honor, is that not one, poor as he was, thought
of betraying her. Let Joseph know that you expect friends, and that he
must be on the watch for them. If you merely say to him the words,
'Rue du Château, No. 3,' you will obtain from him, and all connected
with the inn, the most absolute and also the most passive obedience."

"Have you any other advice to give me?"

"Perhaps it may be prudent for the persons who will accompany
Petit-Pierre to leave the house where she is hidden singly, and go
singly to the tavern of the Point du Jour. Ask them to give you a room
with a window looking on the quay; have no light in your room, but
keep the window open."

"You have forgotten nothing?"

"Nothing. Adieu, monsieur, or rather, au revoir! If we succeed in
reaching your vessel safely you will have done an immense service to
the cause. As for me, I am in continual fear. They say enormous sums
have been offered for the betrayal of the princess, and I tremble lest
some one may yet be tempted to sacrifice her."

Michel was ushered out; but instead of taking him by the door through
which he had entered, they took him through an entrance which opened
on another street. Thence he rapidly crossed the town and returned to
the quay. When he reached the tavern of the Point du Jour he found
that Joseph Picaut had engaged a boy to take Courtin's pony back to
the farmhouse as Michel had requested.

On entering the stable Michel made Joseph a sign, which the latter
understood perfectly; he sent the boy away, postponing the return of
the horse till the next day.

"You said you knew me," remarked Michel as soon as they were alone.

"I did more, Monsieur de la Logerie; I called you by your name."

"Well, I'm not sorry to know that we have equal advantages in that
respect. I know your name; it is Joseph Picaut."

"I don't say it isn't," said the peasant, with a sly look.

"Are you to be trusted, Joseph?"

"That depends on who trusts me,--blues and reds, no; whites, yes."

"Then you are white?"

Picaut shrugged his shoulders.

"If I were not, should I be here,--I who am condemned to death as you
are? That's so; they have done me the honor of a sentence by default.
Yes, you and I are equal before the law now."

"And you are here--"

"As hostler, neither more nor less."

"Then take me to the master of the inn."

Picaut woke up the inn-keeper, who was in bed. The latter received
Michel with some distrust; and the young man, feeling there was no
time to lose, decided on striking the great blow, and said
deliberately the five words:--

"Rue du Château, No. 3."

The words were scarcely heard by the inn-keeper before his distrust
disappeared and his whole manner changed. From that moment he and his
house were at Michel's disposal. It was now Michel's turn to make
inquiries.

"Have you other travellers in the house?"

"Only one."

"Of what kind?"

"The very worst,--a man to fear."

"You know him, then?"

"It is the mayor of La Logerie, Courtin, a vile cur."

"Courtin!" exclaimed Michel. "Courtin here! Are you sure?"

"I don't know him; but Picaut says it is he."

"When did he get here?"

"About fifteen minutes ago."

"Where is he?"

"He has just gone out. He got something to eat and went off
immediately, telling me he should not be in till late,--not before two
in the morning. He said he had business in Nantes."

"Does he know you knew him?"

"I think not; unless he recognized Joseph Picaut just as Picaut
recognized him. But I doubt if he did, for he stood in the light and
Joseph kept in the shade."

Michel reflected a moment.

"I don't think Courtin is as bad as you suppose him to be," he said;
"but never mind, it is as well to distrust him, and on no account must
he know of my presence in your inn."

Picaut, who had hitherto been standing on the threshold of the door,
here came forward and joined in the conversation.

"Oh!" he said, "if he is likely to trouble you, say so; we can settle
him so that he shall know nothing, or if he does know anything he
shall be made to hold his tongue. I have old scores against him which
I've long wanted a pretext to--"

"No, no!" cried Michel, hastily, "Courtin is my farmer. I am under
obligations to him which make me anxious that no harm shall happen to
him; besides," he hastened to add, seeing the frown on Picaut's brow,
"he is not what you think he is."

Joseph Picaut shook his head; but Michel did not notice the gesture.

"Don't trouble yourself," said the inn-keeper. "If he comes in I'll
look after him."

"Very good. As for you, Joseph, take the horse on which I came. I want
you to do an errand. By the bye, Courtin must not see that horse in
the stable; he would certainly recognize it, inasmuch as it is his own
beast."

"What next?"

"You know the river, don't you?"

"There's not a corner of the left bank I've not shot over. I know less
of the right."

"That's all right; it is the left bank you'll have to follow."

"Follow where?"

"To Couéron. Opposite to the second island, between the two old
wrecks, you will see a vessel called the 'Jeune Charles.' Though at
anchor its foretopsail will be set; you'll know it by that."

"Trust me to know it."

"Take a boat and row out to her. They'll call to you, 'Who's there?'
Answer, 'Belle-Isle en Mer.' Then they'll let you go aboard. You'll
give the captain this handkerchief, just as it is,--that is to say,
knotted at three corners,--and you will tell him to be all ready to
weigh anchor at one o'clock to-night."

"Is that all?"

"Yes--or rather, no, it is not all. If I am satisfied with you,
Picaut, you shall have five pieces of gold such as the one I gave you
to-night."

"Well, well," said Joseph Picaut, "leaving out the chance of being
hung, it is not such a bad business; and if I can only get a shot now
and then at the Blues, or revenge myself on Courtin, I sha'n't regret
Maître Jacques and his burrows. What next?"

"How do you mean?"

"Why, after I have done the errand?"

"Then you will hide somewhere on the bank of the river, and wait for
us; whistle to let us know where you are. If all goes well imitate a
cuckoo; if on the contrary you see anything that ought to make us
uneasy, give the owl's cry."

"Ha! Monsieur de la Logerie," said Joseph, "I see you've been well
trained. All you've ordered is clear, and seems to me well arranged.
It is a pity, though, you haven't a better horse to put between my
legs; otherwise the matter could be quickly done."

Joseph Picaut departed on his mission. The inn-keeper then took Michel
to a poor-looking room on the first floor, which served as an annex to
the dining-room, and had two windows opening on the main-road; then he
put himself on the watch for Courtin.

Michel opened one of the windows as agreed upon with the gentleman in
the dressing-gown; after which he sat down on a stool, placing himself
so that his head could not be seen from the road he was watching.

XXVII.

MICHEL'S LOVE AFFAIRS SEEM TO BE TAKING
A HAPPIER TURN.

Michel, under his apparent composure, was really in a state of extreme
anxiety. He was about to meet Mary; and, at the mere idea his breast
tightened, his heart swelled, his blood coursed in leaps along his
veins; he felt himself trembling with emotion. He formed no hopes as
to what the result might be, but the firmness which, contrary to all
his habits, he had shown in presence of his mother and also of Bertha
had answered so well that he now resolved to be equally firm with
Mary. He saw very plainly that he had come to a crisis in this
singular situation, and that eternal happiness or irreparable misery
would result from his present conduct.

He had been on the watch about an hour and a half, following anxiously
with his eyes all the human forms which seemed to be approaching the
little inn, looking to see if they came toward the door, feeling
wretched when they passed it and his hopes vanished, thinking minutes
eternities, and wondering whether his heart would not burst in his
bosom when he was actually in Mary's presence.

All of a sudden he saw a shadow coming from the direction of the rue
du Château, walking rapidly, skirting the house, and making no sound
with its motions. By the clothing he recognized a woman; but it could
not, of course, be Petit-Pierre, or Mary, for it was not to be
supposed that either would venture there alone.

And yet, it seemed to the baron as if the woman were looking up at the
house trying to recognize it; next he saw her stop before the inn, and
then he heard the three little raps, the signal, struck on the door.
With one bound he sprang from his post of observation to the
staircase, rushed hastily down, opened the door, and in the woman,
closely wrapped in a mantle, he recognized Mary.

Their two names were all the young pair dared to say when they found
themselves face to face; then Michel seized the young girl by the arm,
guided her through the darkness, and took her to the chamber on the
first floor. But scarcely had they entered it, when, falling on his
knees, he burst forth:--

"Oh, Mary, Mary! is it really you? Am I not dreaming? I have dreamt so
often of this blessèd moment, so often have I tasted this infinite joy
in imagination only, that I fancy I am still the plaything of a dream.
Mary, my angel, my life, my love, oh! let me hold you to my heart!"

"Michel, my friend," said the young girl, sighing to feel she could
not conquer the emotion that now seized upon her, "I, too, am happy
that we meet again. But tell me, poor, dear friend, you have been
wounded, have you not?"

"Yes, yes; but it was not my wound that made me suffer; it was the
misery of being parted from all I love in this world. Oh, Mary!
believe me, death was deaf and obstinate, or it would have come at my
call."

"Michel, how can you say such things? How can you forget all that my
poor Bertha has done for you? We have heard all; and I have only loved
and admired my dear sister the more for the devotion she has proved to
you at every instant."

But at Bertha's name Michel, who was resolved not to let Mary impose
her will upon his any longer, rose abruptly and walked about the room
with a step which betrayed his emotion. Mary saw what was passing in
his soul and she made one last effort.

"Michel," she said, "I ask you, I conjure you, in the name of all the
tears I have shed to your memory, speak to me only as though to a
sister; remember that you are soon to become my brother."

"Your brother! I, Mary?" said the young man, shaking his head. "As for
that, my decision is made, and firmly made. Never, never, will I be
your brother, I swear it!"

"Michel, do you forget that you once swore otherwise?"

"I did not swear it; no! you wrung the promise from me, you wrung it
cruelly; you took advantage of the love I bear you to compel me to
renounce it. But all that is within me rises against that promise;
there's not a fibre in my body that does not refuse to keep it. And I
here say to you, Mary, that for two months, ever since we have been
parted, I have thought of you only! Buried in the blazing ruins at La
Pénissière and near to death, I thought of you only! Wounded with a
ball through my shoulder, which just missed my heart, I thought of you
only! Dying of hunger, weariness, and weakness, I thought of you
only--of you alone! Bertha is my sister, Mary; you are my beloved, my
precious treasure; and you, Mary, you _shall_ be my wife!"

"Oh, my God! how can you say it, Michel; are you mad?"

"I was for a moment, Mary--when I thought I could obey you. But
absence, grief, despair, have made another man of me. Count no longer
on the poor, weak reed which bent at your breath; whatever you may say
or do, you shall be mine, Mary!--because I love you, because you love
me, because I will no longer lie to God or to my own heart."

"You forget, Michel," said Mary, "that my resolutions do not change as
yours do. I swore to a course of conduct, and I shall keep my oath."

"So be it; then I will leave Bertha forever; Bertha shall never see me
again!"

"My friend--"

"Seriously, Mary, for whose sake do you suppose I am here now?"

"You are here to save the princess, to whom we are all devoted, body
and soul."

"I am here, Mary, to meet you. Don't think more of my devotion to the
princess than it deserves. I am devoted to you, Mary, and to no other.
What inspired in my mind the thought of saving Petit-Pierre? My love
for you! Should I have thought of it, think you, if it had not been
that in saving her I should see you? Don't make me either a hero or a
demigod; I am a man, and a man who loves you ardently and is ready to
risk his head for you! Why should I care, otherwise, for these
quarrels of dynasty against dynasty? What have I to do with the
Bourbons of the elder branch or the Bourbons of the younger
branch,--I, whose past has nothing to do with either of them; I,
who have not a single memory connecting me with theirs? My opinions
are--you; my beliefs are--you. If you were for Louis Philippe, I
should be for Louis Philippe. You are for Henri V. and I am for Henri
V. Ask for my blood and I shall say, 'There it is, take it!' but don't
ask me to lend myself any longer to an impossible state of things."

"What do you mean to do, then?"

"Tell Bertha the truth."

"The truth! impossible! you will never dare to?"

"Mary, I declare to you--"

"No, no!"

"Yes, I declare to you that I shall do it. Every day I am shaking off
the swaddling-clothes of my weak youth. There's a vast distance
already between me and that child you met in the sunken road,
scratched and weeping with fear at the very name and thought of his
mother. It is to my love that I owe this new strength. I have borne,
without blenching, a look which formerly made me bow my head and bend
my knees. I have told all to my mother, and my mother has replied to
me, 'I see you are a man; do as you will!' My will is to consecrate my
life to you; but I also will that you shall be mine. See, therefore,
in what a senseless struggle you have plunged us. I, the husband of
Bertha! let us suppose it for a moment; why, there could be no greater
misery on earth than that poor creature would endure, not to speak of
mine. They told me tales in my infancy of Carrier's 'republican
marriages,' when living bodies were tied to dead ones and flung into
the Loire. That, Mary, would be our marriage, Bertha's and mine; and
you, you would stand by and see our agony! Mary, would you be glad of
your work then? No, I am resolved; either I will never see Bertha
again, or the first time that I do see her I will tell her how my
stupid timidity misled Petit-Pierre, and how courage has always failed
me until now to speak the truth; and then--then--no, I will not tell
her that I do not love her, but I will tell her that I love you."

"Good God!" cried Mary, "but don't you know, Michel, that if you do
that she will die of it?"

"No, Bertha will not die of it," said the voice of Petit-Pierre, who
had entered the room behind them without their hearing her. The two
young people turned round hurriedly with a cry. "Bertha," continued
Petit-Pierre, "is a noble and courageous girl, who will understand the
language you propose to address her, Monsieur de la Logerie, and who
will also know how to sacrifice her happiness to that of the sister
she loves. But you shall not have the pain of telling her. It is I who
did the wrong,--or rather, who made the mistake,--and it is I who will
repair it; begging Monsieur Michel," she added, smiling, "to be in
future a little more explicit in his confidences."

At the first sound of Petit-Pierre's voice, which had startled them
into a cry, the lovers hastily stepped apart from each other; but the
princess caught them by the arm, drew them once more together, and
joined their hands.

"Love each other without remorse!" she said. "You have both been more
generous than any one has the right to expect of our poor human race.
Love each other without stint! for blessed are they who have no other
ambition in this world."

Mary lowered her eyes, but as she lowered them her hand pressed
Michel's. The young man knelt at the feet of the little peasant lad.

"It needs all the happiness you order me to take, to console me for
not dying for you," he said in a spasm of gratitude.

"Oh, don't talk of being killed or dying! Alas! I see how useless it
is to be killed or to die. Look at my poor Bonneville! What good did
all his great devotion do me? No, Monsieur de la Logerie, live for
those you love; and you have given me the right to place myself among
them! Live for Mary, and--I will take upon myself to declare that Mary
will live for you!"

"Ah! madame," cried Michel, "if all Frenchmen had seen you as I have
seen you, if they knew you as I know you--"

"I should have some chance of returning in triumph--especially if they
were lovers! However, let us, if you please, talk of other things;
before dreaming of future triumphs we must think of present retreat.
See if our friends have arrived. I must blame you, my brave sentinel,
for being so absorbed in Mademoiselle Mary that you failed to make me
the concerted signal; and I might have waited in the street till
morning if I had not heard your voice through the window; happily, you
had left the door open and I was able to get in."

As Petit-Pierre uttered this reproach in a laughing tone two other
persons who were to accompany her in her flight arrived; but after a
short consultation it was decided that her safety might be endangered
by the presence of too many persons, and they stayed behind.
Petit-Pierre, Michel, and Mary started alone.

The quay was deserted; the pont Rousseau seemed absolutely solitary.
Michel led the way. They crossed the bridge without incident. Michel
took a path along the bank; Petit-Pierre and Mary followed him,
walking side by side. The night was splendid,--so splendid that they
feared to continue along this open way. Michel proposed to take the
road to Pèlerin, which ran parallel with the river, but was less
exposed than the path along the bank.

Thanks to the moonlight, they could see the river from time to time,
like a broad and brilliant silver sheet, marked here and there with
wooded islets, their tree-tops clearly defined against the sky. This
clearness of the night, though it had its inconveniences, had on the
other hand, some advantages. Michel, who served as guide, was sure of
not losing his way; and, as they walked along, they could even see the
schooner itself at intervals.

When they had passed, or rather gone round the village of Pèlerin, the
young baron hid the duchess and Marie in a rocky hollow of the shore,
and going to a little distance along the bank he gave the whistle
which was to signal Joseph Picaut.

As Joseph did not reply with the owl's cry,--the cry of
alarm,--Michel, who, up to that time had been very anxious, felt more
easy. He felt sure that, as he received no answer, the Chouan would
soon come to him.

He waited five minutes; nothing stirred. He whistled again, more
sharply than before; still nothing answered, no one came. He thought
he might have been mistaken as to the place of meeting, and he hurried
along the bank. But no! a hundred steps farther took him past the isle
of Couéron; and there was no other island within sight where a vessel
could lie,--yet the vessel was not visible.

It certainly was the spot agreed upon, and he returned upon his steps.
The vessel must be within sight where he had first stopped; but even
so, he could not explain to himself Joseph Picaut's absence.

An idea came to him. Had the enormous sum promised to whoever would
deliver up the person passing under the name of Petit-Pierre tempted
the Chouan, whose cast of countenance had not impressed him favorably?
He communicated his suspicions to Petit-Pierre and Mary, who now
joined him.

But Petit-Pierre shook her head.

"It is not possible," she said. "If that man had betrayed us we should
have been arrested before now; besides, that doesn't explain the
absence of the vessel."

"You are right. The captain was to send a boat ashore, and I don't see
it."

"Perhaps it is not yet time."

Just then the church clock at Pèlerin struck two, as though it was
ordered to make answer to her words.

"There!" said Michel, "it is two o'clock!"

"Was there any fixed hour with the captain?"

"My mother could only act on probabilities, and she told him it might
be as late as five o'clock."

"He had, then, no reason to be impatient, for we have got here three
hours too soon."

"What shall we do?" asked Michel. "My responsibility is so great I
dare not act by myself."

"We must take a boat and look for the ship. As the captain is aware we
know his anchorage, very likely he expects us to go to him."

Michel went a few hundred feet toward Pèlerin and found a boat made
fast to the shore. Evidently, it had been lately used, for the oars,
which were lying in the bottom of it, were still wet. He came back
with the news to his companions, asking them to go back into their
hiding-place while he crossed the river.

"Do you know how to row?" asked Petit-Pierre.

"I own to you," replied Michel, blushing for his ignorance, "that I am
not very good at it."

"Then," said Petit-Pierre, "we will go with you. I will steer the
boat; many a time I have done that in the bay of Naples for
amusement."

"And I'll help him to row," said Mary. "My sister and I often row over
the lake of Grand-Lieu."

All three embarked. When they reached the middle of the river
Petit-Pierre, looking forward in the direction of the current, cried
out:--

"There she is! there she is!"

"Who? What?" exclaimed Mary and Michel together.

"The ship! the ship! There, don't you see?"

And Petit-Pierre pointed down the river in the direction of
Paimb[oe]uf.

"No," said Michel, "that can't be the ship!"

"Why not?"

"Because it is sailing away from us!"

Just then they reached the extremity of the island. Michel jumped
ashore, helped his two companions to land, and ran with all speed to
the other side.

"It is our vessel!" he cried, returning. "To the boat! to the boat,
and row as fast as we can!"

All three sprang again into the boat; Mary and Michel strained at the
oars while Petit-Pierre took the helm. Helped by the current the
little boat flew along rapidly; there was still a chance of overtaking
the schooner if she kept on her present course.

But presently a black shadow came between their eyes and the lines of
the masts and cordage standing out against the sky; she had hoisted
her mainsail. Soon another bit of canvas, the foretopsail, rose into
the air; the jib followed; and then the "Jeune Charles," profiting by
the breeze which was steadily rising, hoisted her other sails, one by
one.

Michel took the second oar from Mary's tired hands and bent to the
thwarts like a convict on the galleys. Despair had seized him; for in
that second of time he had seen all the consequences which would
follow on the loss of the schooner. He began to shout and hail her;
but Petit-Pierre stopped him, exhorting him to prudence.

"Ah!" she cried, her gayety surmounting all vicissitudes of fortune,
"Providence evidently does not choose that I shall leave this glorious
land of France!"

"God grant it may be Providence!" said Michel.

"What do you mean by that?" asked Petit-Pierre.

"I fear there is some horrible machination under all this."

"Nonsense, my poor friend; it is only a bit of ill-luck. They mistook
the day or the hour, that's all. Besides, how do we know whether we
could have slipped through the cruisers at the mouth of the Loire?
All's for the best, perhaps."

But Michel was not convinced by Petit-Pierre's reasoning; he continued
to lament; talked of throwing himself into the river and swimming to
the schooner, which was now gently widening the distance and beginning
to disappear in the mists on the horizon. It was, in fact, with much
difficulty that Petit-Pierre succeeded in calming him; perhaps she
might not have done so without Mary's help.

Three o'clock was now ringing from the steeples at Couéron; in another
hour it would be daylight. There was no time to lose. Michel and Mary
took up the oars; they regained the shore and left the boat about
where they found it. It then became a question whether they should
return to Nantes. This being decided upon, it was most important to
get there before daybreak.

Suddenly Michel, as they walked along, stopped and struck his
forehead.

"I'm afraid I have committed a great folly," he said.

"What folly?" asked the duchess.

"I ought to have returned to Nantes by the other bank."

"Pooh! all roads are safe if you follow them cautiously; besides, what
should we have done with the boat?"

"Left it on the other shore."

"So that the poor fisherman to whom it belongs would have lost a whole
day in looking for it! No, no! better take more trouble ourselves than
snatch the bread out of the mouth of some poor fellow who has little
enough as it is."

They reached the pont Rousseau. Here Petit-Pierre insisted that Michel
should let her return to the house alone in company with Mary; but
Michel would not consent. Perhaps he was too happy in the sense of
Mary's presence; for she, under the influence of Petit-Pierre's
promise, replied (with sighs, it is true, but still she replied) to
the tender words her lover said to her. For this reason, perhaps, he
positively refused to leave them, and all they could induce him to do
was to walk behind them, at some distance.

They had just crossed the place du Bouffai when Michel, as he turned
the corner of the rue Saint-Sauveur, felt certain that he heard a step
behind him. He turned and saw a man, who, perceiving that he was
noticed, darted hastily into a doorway. Michel's first idea was to
follow him; but he reflected that if he did so he should lose sight of
Petit-Pierre and Mary. He therefore hurried on and overtook them.

"We are followed!" he said to Petit-Pierre.

"Well, let them follow us!" said the duchess, with her usual serenity.
"We have plenty of ways of evading them."

Petit-Pierre signed to Michel to follow her up a cross-street, where,
after taking about a hundred steps, they reached the end of the little
alley which Michel had once before taken, and where he had recognized
a door by the branch of holly hung there by Père Eustache.

Petit-Pierre lifted the knocker and struck three blows at varying
intervals. At this signal the door opened as though by magic.
Petit-Pierre made Mary enter the courtyard and then she entered
herself.

"Good!" said Michel. "Now I will see if that man is still watching
us."

"No, no!" cried Petit-Pierre, "you are condemned to death. If you
forget it, I don't; and as you and I are running the same danger, you
will be good enough to take the same precautions. Come in--quick!"

During this time the man whom Michel had seen reading his paper
the evening before, appeared on the portico, wearing the same
dressing-gown and apparently half asleep. He raised his arms to heaven
on seeing Petit-Pierre.

"Never mind! never mind!" said the latter, "don't lose time in
lamentation. It is all a failure, and we are followed. Open the door,
my dear Pascal!"

He turned to the half-open door behind him.

"No, not the house door," said Petit-Pierre, "the garden door.
In ten minutes the house will be surrounded; we must make for the
hiding-place at once!"

"Follow me, then."

"We will follow. So sorry to disturb you, my poor Pascal, at such an
early hour; and all the more distressed because my visit will force
you to come too, if you don't want to be arrested."

The garden door was now open. Before passing through, Michel stretched
out his hand to take Mary's. Petit-Pierre saw the action and gently
pushed the girl into the young man's arms.

"Come," she said, "kiss him, or, at any rate, let him kiss you! Before
me, it is quite permissible; I stand to you as a mother, and I think
the poor lad has fully earned it. There! Now go your way, Monsieur de
la Logerie, and we will go ours; but remember that the care of my own
interests will not prevent me from looking after yours."

"When may I see her again?" said Michel, timidly.

"It will be dangerous, I know that," replied Petit-Pierre; "but after
all, they say there's a God who protects both lovers and drunkards,
and if so, I'll rely on him. You shall pay one visit at least to the
rue du Château, No. 3. I intend, if I can, to return your Mary to
you."

So saying, Petit-Pierre gave Michel a hand, which he kissed
respectfully; then Petit-Pierre and Mary turned in the direction of
the upper town, while Michel took his way back toward the pont
Rousseau.

XXVIII.

SHOWING HOW THERE MAY BE FISHERMEN AND FISHERMKN.

Maître Courtin had been very unhappy in mind during the whole evening
Madame de la Logerie had compelled him to pass with her. By gluing his
ear to the door he had heard every word the baroness had said to her
son, and he knew, therefore, of the scheme of the schooner.

Michel's departure would, of course, upset all his projects for the
discovery of Petit-Pierre; consequently, he was little desirous of the
honor the baroness did him in taking him home with her. He was, in
fact, most anxious to get back to the farmhouse. He hoped, by evoking
the image of Mary, to prevent, or at least delay, the flight of his
young master; for if the latter departed he lost, of course, the
thread by which he expected to penetrate the labyrinth in which
Petit-Pierre was hidden.

Unluckily for him, as soon as Madame de la Logerie reached the château
she struck another vein of ideas. In taking Courtin from the farmhouse
her only idea had been to hide her son's departure and protect him
from the farmer's curiosity; but on reaching the château she found the
house, occupied for the last few weeks by a band of soldiers, in such
deplorable disorder that she forgot, in presence of a devastation
which assumed to her eyes the proportions of a catastrophe, all her
natural distrust of Courtin, and she kept him with her as the
recipient and echo of her lamentations. Her despair, expressed with
the energy of conviction, prevented Courtin from leaving her, without
some decided pretext, and therefore delayed his return to the
farmhouse.

He was too shrewd not to suspect that the baroness had brought him to
keep him away from her son; but her despair was so genuine at the
sight of her broken china, shattered mirrors, greasy carpets, and her
salon transformed into a guard-room and adorned with primitive but most
expressive designs, that he began to doubt his first suspicion, and to
think that if his young master had really not been cautioned against
him it would be an easy matter to join him before he could board the
vessel.

It was nine o'clock before the baroness, after shedding a last tear
over the filthy defacements of the château, got into her carriage and
Courtin was enabled to give the order to the postilion to drive on:
"Road to Paris!" No sooner had he done so than he turned round rapidly
and ran with all his might toward the farmhouse.

It was empty; the servant told him that Monsieur Michel and
Mademoiselle Bertha had been gone two hours, and had taken the road to
Nantes.

Courtin at once thought of following them, and ran to the stable to
get his pony,--that, too, had gone! In his hurry he had forgotten to
ask the servant by what manner of locomotion his young master had
started. The recollection of his pony's extremely slow method of
progression reassured him somewhat; but, at any rate, he only stopped
in his own house long enough to get some money and the insignia of his
dignity as mayor; then he started bravely afoot in quest of him whom
by this time he regarded as a fugitive and almost as the embezzler of
a hundred thousand francs, which his imagination had already
discounted through the person of Mary de Souday's lover.

Maître Courtin ran like one who sees the wind whirling away his
bank-notes; in fact, he went almost as fast as the wind. But his haste
did not prevent him from stopping to make inquiries of every one he
passed. The mayor of La Logerie was innately prying at all times, and
on this occasion, as may well be supposed, he was not backward with
his questions.

At Saint-Philbert-de-Grand-Lieu, he was told that his pony had been
seen about half-past seven o'clock that evening. He asked who rode it;
but he got no satisfactory answer on that point,--the inn-keeper, of
whom he inquired, having taken notice only of the obstinacy of the
animal in refusing to pass the tavern sign (a branch of holly and
three apples saltierwise) where his master usually baited him on the
way to Nantes.

A little farther on, however, the farmer was luckier; the rider was
described to him so exactly that he could have no doubt about his
being the young baron; and he was also told that the traveller was
alone. The mayor, a prudent man if ever there was one, supposed that
the two young people had parted company out of prudence, meaning to
rejoin each other by different roads. Luck was evidently on his side;
the pair were parted, and he knew, if he could only meet Michel alone,
the game was won.

He felt so sure that the young baron had not deviated from the
road and was now in Nantes that when he reached the inn of the
Point-du-Jour he did not trouble himself to ask the inn-keeper for
further information, which, by the bye, he doubted if the man would
give him. He stopped only long enough to eat a mouthful, and then,
instead of following Michel into Nantes, he turned back over the pont
Rousseau and then to the right, in the direction of Pèlerin. The wily
farmer had his plan.

We have already explained the hopes which Courtin had founded on
Michel. Mary's lover would sooner or later betray to him, for some
personal end, the secret hiding-place of the woman he loved; and as
that beloved woman was living with Petit-Pierre, Michel's betrayal of
Mary's retreat would also betray the duchess. But if Michel contrived
to escape, all Courtin's hopes went with him. Consequently, at any
cost Michel must not escape. Now, if Michel did not find the "Jeune
Charles" at her anchorage Michel would be forced to remain.

As for Madame de la Logerie, she being well on the road to Paris, it
would be some days at least before she could hear that her son had not
sailed, and could take other measures to remove him from La Vendée.
Courtin was confident that this delay would suffice him to obtain from
Michel the clue he sought.

The only difficulty was that he did not know in what way to reach the
captain of the "Jeune Charles," the name of the schooner which he had
heard the baroness tell to Michel; but--without dreaming of his
likeness in this to the greatest man of antiquity--Courtin resolved to
run for luck.

Luck did not escape him. When he reached the top of the hill above
Couéron he saw, above the poplar-trees on the islet, the masts of the
schooner; the foretopsail was hoisted and was flapping to the breeze.
Undoubtedly, it was the vessel he was in search of. In the lessening
twilight, which was beginning to make all things indistinct, Maître
Courtin, glancing along the shore, saw at about ten paces from him a
fishing-rod held horizontally over the river with a line at the end,
and a cork at the end of the line which floated on the current.

The rod seemed to come from a small hillock, but the arm that held it
was invisible. Maître Courtin was not a man to remain in ignorance of
what he wanted to know; he walked straight to the hillock and round
it; there he discovered a man crouching in a hollow between two rocks,
absorbed in contemplation of the swaying of his float at the will of
the current.

The man was dressed as a sailor,--that is, he wore trousers of
tarred-cloth and a pea-jacket; on his head was a species of
Scotch-cap. A few feet from him the stern of a boat, fastened by its
bow to the shore, swayed gently to the wash of the water. The
fisherman did not turn his head as Courtin approached him, although
the latter took the precaution to cough, and make his cough
significant of a desire to enter into conversation. The fisherman not
only kept an obstinate silence, but he did not even look Courtin's
way.

"It is pretty late to be fishing," remarked the mayor of La Logerie at
last.

"That shows you know nothing about it," replied the fisherman, with a
contemptuous grimace. "I think, on the contrary, that it is rather too
early. Night is the time it is worth while to fish; you can catch
something better than the young fry at night."

"Yes; but if it is dark how can you see your float?"

"What matter?" replied the fisherman, shrugging his shoulders. "My
night eyes are here," he added, showing the palm of his hand.

"I understand; you mean you feel a bite," said Courtin, sitting down
beside him. "I'm fond of fishing myself; and little as you think so, I
know a good deal about it."

"You? fishing with a line?" said the other, with a doubtful air.

"No, not that," replied Courtin. "I depopulate the river about La
Logerie with nets."

Courtin dropped this hint of his locality, hoping that the fisherman,
whom he took to be a sailor stationed there by the captain of the
schooner to take Monsieur Michel de la Logerie on board, would catch
it up; but he was mistaken; the man gave no sign of recognizing the
name; on the contrary he remarked coolly:--

"You boast of your talent for the great art of fishing, but I don't
believe in it."

"Pray why?" asked Courtin. "Have you the monopoly?"

"Because you seem to me, my good sir, to be ignorant of the first
principle of that art."

"And what may that principle be?" asked Courtin.

"When you want to catch fish avoid four things."

"What are they?"

"Wind, dogs, women, and chatterers. It is true, I might say three,"
added the man in the pea-jacket, philosophically, "for women and
chatterers are one."

"Pshaw! you'll soon find out that my chattering, as you call it, is
not out of season, for I am going to propose to you to earn a couple
of francs."

"When I've caught half a dozen fish I shall have earned more than a
couple of francs, and amused myself into the bargain."

"Well, I'll go as far as four, or even five francs," continued
Courtin; "and you will have the chance to do a service to your
neighbor, which counts for something, doesn't it?"

"Come," said the fisherman, "don't beat round the bush; what do you
want of me?"

"I want you to take me on board your schooner, the 'Jeune Charles,'
the masts of which I see over there beyond the trees."

"The 'Jeune Charles,'" said the sailor, reflectively, "what's the
'Jeune Charles'?"

"Here," said Maître Courtin, giving the fisherman an oil-skin hat he
had picked up on the shore, on which appeared the words, in gilt
letters: "LE JEUNE CHARLES."

"Well, I admit you must be a fisherman, my friend," said the sailor.
"The devil take me if your eyes are not in your fingers, like mine;
otherwise you never could have read that in the darkness! Now, then,
what have you to do with the 'Jeune Charles'?"

"Didn't I mention something just now that struck your ear?"

"My good man," said the fisherman, "I'm like a well-bred dog; I don't
yelp when bitten. Heave your own log and don't trouble yourself about
my keel."

"Well, I am Madame la Baronne de la Logerie's farmer."

"What of it?"

"I am sent by her," said Courtin, growing more and more audacious as
he went on.

"What of that?" asked the sailor, in the same tone, but more
impatiently. "You come from Madame de la Logerie; well, what have you
got to say for her?"

"I came to tell you that the thing is a failure; it is all discovered,
and you must get away as fast as you can."

"That maybe," replied the fisherman; "but it doesn't concern me. I am
only the mate of the 'Jeune Charles;' though I do know enough of the
matter to put you aboard and let you talk with the captain."

So saying, he tranquilly wound up his line and threw it into the boat,
which he pulled toward him. Making a sign to Courtin to sit down in
the stern, he put twenty feet between him and the shore with one
stroke of the oars. After rowing five minutes he turned his head and
found they were close alongside the "Jeune Charles," which, being in
ballast, rose some twelve feet above them out of the water.

At the sound of oars a curiously modulated whistle came from the
schooner, to which the mate replied in somewhat the same manner. A
figure then appeared in the bows; the boat came up on the starboard
side and a rope was thrown to it. The man with the pea-jacket climbed
aboard with the agility of a cat, then he hauled up Courtin, who was
less used to such nautical scrambling.

XXIX.

INTERROGATORIES AND CONFRONTINGS.

When, to his great joy, the mayor of La Logerie found himself safely
on the deck of the vessel, he saw a human form whose features he could
not distinguish, so hidden were they in a thick woollen muffler which
was wound around the collar of an oil-skin coat; but whom, by the
respectful attitude of the cabin-boy, who had summoned him on deck,
Courtin took to be the captain of the schooner himself.

"What's all this?" said the latter, addressing the mate and swinging
the light of a lantern, which he took from the cabin-boy, full in the
face of the new-comer.

"He comes from you know who," replied the mate.

"Nonsense!" returned the captain. "What are your eyes good for if they
can't tell the difference between the cut of a young fellow of twenty
and an old hulk like that?"

"I am not Monsieur de la Logerie, that's a fact," said Courtin. "I am
only his farmer and confidential man."

"Very good; that's something, but not all."

"He has ordered me--"

"In the name of all the porpoises! I don't ask what he ordered you,
you miserable land-lubber," cried the captain, squirting a black jet
of saliva,--an action which somewhat hindered the explosion of his
evident wrath. "I tell you that's something, but not all."

Courtin looked at the captain with an amazed air.

"Don't you understand,--yes or no?" demanded the latter. "If no,
say so at once, and you shall be put ashore with the honors you
deserve,--and that's a good taste of the cat-o'-nine-tails round your
loins."

Courtin now perceived that in all probability Madame de la Logerie had
agreed with the captain of the "Jeune Charles" on a password, or sign
of recognition; that sign he did not know. He felt he was lost; all
his plans crumbled to naught, his hopes vanished; besides which,
caught in a trap like a fox, he would appear in the young master's
eyes when he came aboard for what he really was. His only way of
escape from the luckless position he had put himself into was to
pretend that simplicity of a peasant which sometimes amounts to idiocy
and to empty his face of all intelligence.

"Hang it, my dear gentleman," he said, "I don't know a thing more,
myself. My good mistress said to me, says she: 'Courtin, my good
friend, you know the young baron is condemned to death. I've arranged
with a worthy sailor to get him out of France; but we've been
denounced by some traitor. Go and tell this to the captain of the
"Jeune Charles," which you'll find at anchor opposite Couéron, behind
the islands!' and I came just as hard as I could, and that's all I
know."

Just then a vigorous "Ahoy!" was given from the bows of the vessel and
diverted the captain's mind from the violent reply he was doubtless
about to make. He turned to the cabin-boy, who, lantern in hand and
mouth open, was listening to the conversation between his master and
Courtin.

"What are you doing there, you shirk, booby, whelp?" cried the
captain, accompanying his words with a pantomine which--thanks to the
rapid evolutions of the young aspirant to a broad pennant--touched him
only on the fleshy parts, though it sent him whirling into the
gangway. "Is that how you mind your work?" Then, turning to the mate
he added: "Don't let any one aboard without knowing him."

But the words were hardly out of his mouth before then new-comer,
using the rope which had hoisted Courtin, and which was still hanging,
appeared on deck. The captain picked up the lantern which the
cabin-boy had dropped in his skurry, and which, providentially, was
not extinguished; and then, light in hand, he advanced to his visitor.

"By what right do you come aboard my vessel without hailing me, you!"
cried the angry captain, seizing the stranger by the collar.

"I came aboard because I have business with you," replied the other,
with the confident air of a man who is sure of his facts.

"What is it, then? Out with it, quick!"

"Let go of me, first. You may be sure I sha'n't get away, as I came of
my own accord."

"Ten thousand millions of whales!" cried the captain, "holding you by
the collar doesn't choke the words in your throat, does it?"

"But I can't talk when I'm embarrassed!" said the new-comer, without
showing the least timidity at the tone of his questioner.

"Captain," said the mate, intervening, "it seems to me, _sacredié!_
that you are mistaken. You ask the fellow who is backing and filling
to show his colors, and you are tying the halliards of the other when
he wants to run his up."

"True," said the captain, loosening his hold of the new-comer, whom
our readers of course know to be Jean Picaut, Michel's real messenger.

The latter now felt in his pocket, pulled out the handkerchief given
to him by Michel, and offered it to the captain, who carefully
unfolded it and counted the three knots with as much particularity as
though they were so much money. Courtin, to whom no one was paying
attention, watched the whole scene and lost nothing of it.

"Good!" said the captain; "you are all right. We'll talk presently;
but first, I must get rid of that fellow aft. You, Antoine," he added,
addressing the mate, "take this one to the steward's pantry and give
him a quantum of grog."

The captain returned aft and found Courtin sitting on a coil of rope.
The mayor of La Logerie held his head in his hands as if he were
paying not the slightest attention to the scene forward. He seemed
stupefied, whereas, as we know, he had not lost a word of the
conversation between the captain and Joseph Picaut.

"Oh, do have me put ashore, captain!" he said, as soon as he saw the
latter approaching him. "I don't know what's the matter with me; but
for the last few minutes I have felt very ill--as if I were going to
die!"

"Pooh! if you are like that in a river swell you'll have a hard time
of it before we cross the line!"

"Cross the line? good God!"

"Yes, my fine fellow; your conversation strikes me as so agreeable
that I sha'n't part company with you. You'll stay aboard of me during
the little trip half round the world I'm bound for."

"Stay aboard! what, here?" cried Courtin, feigning more terror than he
really felt. "And my farm, and my good mistress, what'll become of
them?"

"As for the farm, I'll engage to show you such sights in foreign lands
that you can make it a model farm when you get back. And as for your
good mistress, I'll replace her advantageously."

"But why, monsieur? What makes you take this sudden resolution to
carry me off? Just think, if my stomach turns with this river swell,
as you call it, I sha'n't be fit for anything all the way!"

"That will teach you to fool the captain of the 'Jeune Charles,'
lubberly thief that you are!"

"But how have I offended you, my worthy captain?"

"Come," said the officer, apparently resolved to cut short the
dialogue, "answer plainly; it is your only chance to escape going to
the sharks. Who sent you here?"

"I told you," cried Courtin, "it was Madame de la Logerie! and when I
tell you that I am her farmer, it is as true as it is that there's a
God in heaven!"

"But," said the captain, "if Madame de la Logerie sent you, she must
have given you something by which you could be recognized,--a note, a
letter, a scrap of paper. If you have nothing to show, you don't come
from her; and if you don't come from her, you are a spy!--in which
case, beware! The moment I'm sure of it, I'll treat you as spies
should be treated!"

"Ah! my God!" cried Courtin, pretending to be more and more terrified;
"I can't allow myself to be so suspected. There, take these; they are
letters to me which I happen to have about me; they'll show you I
really am Courtin, as I told you; and there's my scarf, as mayor of La
Logerie. My God! what can I do to convince you I speak the truth?"

"Your mayor's scarf!" cried the captain. "How is it, you rascal, that
if you are a public functionary under oath to the government, how is
it, I say, that you are aiding and abetting a man who has borne arms
against the government, and is now condemned to death?"

"Ah! my dear monsieur, that's because I am so attached to my masters
that my feelings for them are stronger than my sense of duty.
Well,--if I must tell you,--it was in my capacity as mayor that I knew
the plan was betrayed, and that you were to be boarded to-night. I
told Madame de la Logerie of the danger; and it was then she said to
me: 'Take that handkerchief and find the captain of the "Jeune
Charles"--'"

"She gave you a handkerchief?"

"Yes, upon my word!"

"Where is it?"

"In my pocket."

"Fool, idiot, jackass, give it to me!"

"Give it to you?"

"Yes."

"Oh, I'm willing,--there it is!"

And Courtin slowly drew a handkerchief from his pocket.

"Give it me, you dog!" cried the captain, snatching the handkerchief
from Courtin's hand and convincing himself by a rapid examination that
the three knots were really there.

"But, you stupid brute, you idiot, beast!" continued the captain,
"didn't Madame de la Logerie tell you to give me that handkerchief?"

"Yes, she told me," replied Courtin, making his expression of face as
vacant as possible.

"Then why didn't you give it to me?"

"Hang it!" said Courtin; "when I was hoisted on to the deck I saw you
blowing your nose with your fingers, and I said to myself, 'Bless me!
if the captain does that he won't need a handkerchief.'"

"Ha!" said the captain, scratching his head, with remains of doubt in
his mind, "either you are a clumsy trickster or a downright imbecile.
In either case, as there is more chance of your being imbecile, I
prefer to settle on that. Now, tell me over again what you are here
for, and what the person who sent you told you say to me."

"Well, here's word for word what my good mistress said to me:
'Courtin,' says she, 'I know I can trust you, can't I?' 'Yes, that you
can,' says I. 'Well,' says she, 'you must know that my son, whom
you've watched over, and nursed, and hidden in your house at the risk
of your life, is to escape to-night on board of the "Jeune Charles."
But, as I have heard, and as you have told me yourself, the plan is
discovered. You have only just time to go and tell the worthy captain
that he must not wait for my son, but had better sail away as fast as
he can, or he will be arrested this very night for aiding and abetting
the escape of a political prisoner--and also, for other things.'"

Maître Courtin added the conclusion of his speech, presuming from the
general appearance of the captain of the "Jeune Charles" that he might
have other peccadilloes on his conscience than the one in question.
Perhaps the mayor's astute mind was not mistaken, for the worthy
sailor was somewhat pensive for a few moments.

"Come," he said at last, "follow me."

The farmer passively obeyed; the captain took him to his own cabin,
put him in, and double-locked the door. A few minutes later Courtin,
who was in darkness and not a little uneasy at the turn that matters
were taking, heard a tramp of footsteps on the deck which presently
approached the cabin door. The door was unlocked, the captain entered
first; he was followed by Joseph Picaut, behind whom came the mate,
bearing a lantern.

"Ah, _ça!_" cried the captain of the 'Jeune Charles,' "now we'll get
at the bottom of this matter! We'll unravel the thread which seems to
me pretty well tangled up, or, by the hull of my ship, I'll brush the
shoulders of both of you with the cat-o'-nine-tails till the devil
himself would pity you!"

"As for me, captain, I have said all I have to say!" exclaimed
Courtin.

Picaut quivered at the sound of that voice; he had not yet seen his
enemy, and was not aware that he was on board the vessel. He made one
step forward to convince himself.

"Courtin!" he cried, "the mayor of La Logerie! Captain, if that man
knows our secret, we are lost!"

"Who is he, then?" demanded the captain.

"A traitor, a spy, a sneak!"

"The devil he is!" cried the captain. "You needn't tell it me fifty
times before I believe it; for there's something sly and false in the
fellow's face which doesn't a bit suit me."

"Ha!" continued Joseph Picaut, "you are not mistaken. He's the
damnedest cur and lowest scum in the whole Retz district!"

"What have you got to say to that, come now?" said the captain to
Courtin.

"He can't say anything; I defy him!" continued Picaut.

Courtin was silent.

"Well, well, I see I shall have to take strong measures to make you
speak, my fine fellow!" said the captain, who, thereupon, pulled from
his bosom a little silver whistle hanging to a silver chain, and
produced therefrom a prolonged and piercing sound. At the signal two
sailors entered the cabin.

At sight of them a diabolical smile crossed Courtin's face.

"Good!" said he; "that's just what I wanted before speaking."

Taking the captain by the arm he led him to a corner of the cabin and
said a few words in his ear.

"Is that true, actually true?" asked the captain.

"Easy enough to prove it!" replied Courtin.

"You are right there," said the captain.

At a word from him the mate and the two sailors seized Joseph Picaut,
pulled off his jacket and tore open his shirt. The captain then came
up to him and gave him a smart blow on the shoulder. Instantly the two
letters branded on the Chouan when he went to the galleys were visible
on his rugged skin.

Picaut had been so suddenly and violently seized and handled by the
three men that he had no time to defend himself in the first instance;
but he no sooner perceived the object of the assault than he made the
most desperate efforts to escape the clutches by which he was held; of
course, however, he was mastered by the triple strength against him
and could only roar with rage and blaspheme.

"Lash his hands and feet!" cried the captain, judging of the man's
honesty by the tell-tale certificate on his shoulder, "and down with
him to the hold between two hogsheads!" Then, turning to Maître
Courtin, who gave a sigh of relief, "I beg your pardon, my worthy
mayor," he said, "for confounding you with a scoundrel of that kind;
but don't be uneasy, I'll guarantee that if any one sets fire to your
barn within the next three years it won't be that fellow's hand that
applies the match!"

Then, without losing a moment he went on deck, and Courtin, to his
great satisfaction, heard him call all hands to get the vessel under
way.

Once convinced of the danger he was in, the worthy sailor seemed in so
great a hurry to put as much space as possible between the law and
himself, that he excused himself to the mayor of La Logerie without
even the civility of offering him a glass of brandy, shoved him into
the boat with a hasty good-bye, and left him to find his way to the
shore as best he could.

Maître Courtin rowed as directly to the bank as the current would let
him; and just as the boat's keel touched the sandy shore he saw the
"Jeune Charles" slowly moving as sail after sail was hoisted to the
breeze.

Courtin then hid himself in the same nook of the rocks where he had
found the mate of the vessel fishing, and there he waited.

But not for long; he had hardly been there half an hour before Michel
arrived, and he saw, to his great astonishment, that neither of the
two women who accompanied him was Bertha. A moment later, and he
discovered that they were Mary and Petit-Pierre.

Then, indeed, he congratulated himself on the success of his trick, so
wonderfully seconded by chance, and he now bent all his mind to profit
by the rare good luck which providence had bestowed upon him.

It will readily be understood that he never lost sight of Michel,
Mary, and Petit-Pierre as long as they waited on the shore, and that
when the three embarked in the boat to overtake the ship, he watched
them with his eyes every inch of their way; that he saw them return
and land, and followed them back to Nantes with such precautions that
the three fugitives were wholly unaware they were spied upon.

And yet, cautious as Courtin was, it was actually he whom Michel had
caught sight of at the corner of the place du Bouffai; it was he who
followed the trio to the house which he saw them enter.

When the door into the courtyard closed after them, and they
disappeared from sight, he was certain that he now knew the duchess's
hiding-place. He passed before the door, and as he did so, he drew
from his pocket a bit of chalk and made a cross upon the wall beside
it; then, certain that he had the fish in his net, he felt he had only
to draw it in and put his hand on a hundred thousand francs.

XXX.

WE AGAIN MEET THE GENERAL, AND FIND HE IS
NOT CHANGED.

Maître Courtin was not a little excited. As the last of the three
persons he had followed from Couéron disappeared into the courtyard a
vision danced before his eyes, such as he had seen that night on the
moor returning from Aigrefeuille,--a vision that seemed to him the
most beautiful of all possible visions: he saw before his dazzled eyes
the sparkling of a pyramid of coins, casting their adorable gold
reflections into the far, far future.

Only, the pyramid was double the size of the one he had then seen: for
his first thought on finding the fish in his net was that he should be
a monstrous fool if he let that mysterious man at Aigrefeuille share
in the benefits of his catch. He resolved on the spot not to let him
know of the discovery, but to go himself straight to the authorities
of Nantes and reveal the matter to them. To do him justice, however,
it must be said that Maître Courtin did think, in this first flush of
his hopes, of his young master, and of the fact that he was about to
deprive him of liberty, perhaps of life; but he instantly smothered
that sentiment of untimely remorse, and, in order not to let his
conscience send forth another such cry, he began to run with all his
might toward the Prefecture.

He had hardly gone fifty yards before, just as he turned the corner of
the rue du Marché, a man, running from the opposite direction, bolted
against him and knocked him to the wall. Courtin gave a cry, not of
pain, but amazement, for the man was no other than Monsieur Michel de
la Logerie, whom he thought he had left safely behind the green door
he had carefully marked with a white cross.

His stupefaction was so great that Michel would certainly have noticed
it had he not himself been so preoccupied; but at the moment he was
only delighted to see a man he thought to be his friend, and who, as
he believed, might now be of use to him.

"Oh, Courtin!" he cried, "tell me, did you come down the rue du
Marché?"

"Yes, Monsieur le baron."

"Then you must have met a man running away."

"No, Monsieur le baron."

"Why, yes, you must! It is impossible that you did not see him,--a man
who seemed to be on the watch for some one?"

Maître Courtin reddened; but he instantly recovered himself.

"Wait! stop! yes, I did," he said, suddenly resolving to profit by
this unexpected chance of averting all suspicion from himself. "There
was a man walking in front of me, but I saw him stop at that green
door you see down there."

"That's it!" cried Michel, forgetting everything except his desire to
discover the man who had followed them. "Courtin, will you give me a
proof of your fidelity and devotion? I positively must discover that
man. Which way do you think he went?"

"That way," replied Courtin, pointing to the first street his eyes
lighted on.

"Come on, then, and follow me."

Michel started to run in the direction Courtin had pointed out; but
the latter, as he followed, began to reflect. For an instant he
thought of leaving his master to run where he liked, and going himself
about the business he was engaged in; but the next instant he thought
otherwise and congratulated himself heartily for not following his
first idea.

It was evident to his mind that the house had two issues; and as
Michel had discovered they were watched, both must have been used to
throw the pursuer off the scent. Petit-Pierre had probably gone out as
Michel did, by another door. Michel must surely know, by this time,
the real retreat where Mary lived with Petit-Pierre; he would
therefore stay by Michel, from whom he could undoubtedly obtain the
information he wanted; whereas he might lose all by pushing matters
too hastily. He therefore resigned himself to the loss of his expected
catch and possessed his soul in patience.

He hastened his pace, and rejoined Michel.

"Monsieur le baron," he said, "I must remind you to be cautious. It is
getting to be daylight; the streets will soon be full of people, and
they will all look at you if you run in this way with your clothes all
wet and muddy. If we meet a police-agent he will certainly think it
suspicious and arrest you; and what will your mother say then? She has
given me so many cautions about you!"

"My mother? why, she thinks me at sea, on my way to England!

"Were you going away?" asked Courtin, with the most innocent air in
the world.

"Yes; didn't she tell you so?"

"No, Monsieur de la Logerie," replied the farmer, giving an expression
of deep and bitter sadness to his countenance, "no. I see that, in
spite of all I have done for you, the baroness distrusts me; and I
tell you that cuts me to the heart as a ploughshare cuts into the
ground."

"Oh, nonsense! don't trouble about that, my good Courtin; but your
change of front has been rather sudden and needs explanation. In fact,
when I think of that night you cut the girths of my horse's saddle, I
ask myself why you have become so kind and attentive and devoted."

"Oh, hang it, Monsieur Michel! that's easy told. At that time I was
fighting for my political opinions; now that all danger of
insurrection is over, and I am certain the government I love can't be
overthrown, I don't see anything in Chouans and _she-wolves_ but
friends of my master; and it makes me sorry to be so little
understood."

"Well," said Michel, "I am going to give you a proof that I appreciate
your return to better ideas by confiding to you a secret I believe you
have already guessed. Courtin, it is probable that the new Baronne de
La Logerie will not be the one who, till now, people think it is."

"You mean you won't marry Mademoiselle de Souday?"

"Quite the contrary; only, my wife's name may be Mary, and not
Bertha."

"Ah, I'm glad for you! for you know I helped that on as much as I
could; and if I didn't do more it was because you wouldn't let me. Ah,
_ça!_ have you seen Mademoiselle Mary since you came to Nantes?"

"Yes, I have seen her; and the few minutes I spent with her sufficed,
I hope, to secure my happiness," cried Michel, giving way to the
intoxication of his joy. Then he added: "Are you obliged to go back to
La Logerie to-night?"

"Monsieur le baron ought to feel that I am at his service," replied
Courtin.

"Very good; then you shall see her yourself, Courtin; for to-night I'm
to meet her again."

"Where?"

"Where I met you just now."

"Oh, that's good!" said Courtin, his face brightening with a
satisfaction equal to that on Michel's own face. "That's good! you
don't know how happy I am to have you marry according to your own
likings. Faith! if your mother consents, you are right enough to take
the one you love. You see, now, I gave you good advice."

And the worthy farmer rubbed his hands as though he were on a pinnacle
of satisfaction.

"My good Courtin," said Michel, touched by his farmer's sympathy,
"where shall I find you this evening?"

"Where you please."

"Didn't you put up, as I did, at the Point du Jour?"

"Yes, Monsieur le baron."

"Well, then, we can pass the day there. To-night you can go with me
when I meet Mary, and keep watch for us."

"But," said Courtin, much embarrassed by a proposal which interfered
with all his plans, "I've got a good deal to do in town."

"Well, I'll go with you; it will help me to kill time."

"No, that won't do; my business as mayor will take me to the
Prefecture, and you mustn't go there. No, do you go back to the inn
and keep quiet, and to-night at ten o'clock I'll be on hand to
start,--you as happy as a king, and I very glad of your happiness."

Courtin was most anxious to be rid of Michel for the present. The idea
of gaining the whole reward for the capture of Petit-Pierre so filled
his mind that he was determined not to leave Nantes without knowing
the exact amount offered, and laying some plan to obtain it all
himself and not divide it with any one.

Michel yielded to Courtin's reasoning, and giving a glance at his
muddy clothing he decided to take leave of him then and there and go
back to the tavern.

As soon as his young master had left him Courtin made his way to the
quarters of General Dermoncourt. He gave his name to the orderly, and
after a few minutes' delay he was shown into the presence of the man
he came to see.

The general was a good deal dissatisfied with the turn matters were
taking; he had sent to Paris plans of pacification, somewhat like
those which had succeeded so well under General Hoche. These plans had
not been approved; the general saw the civil authority encroaching
everywhere on the powers which martial law assigned to the military
alone; and his susceptibilities as an old soldier, wounded at every
turn, together with his patriotic feelings, made him deeply
dissatisfied.

"What do you want?" he said to Courtin, looking him over from head to
foot.

Courtin bowed as low as he was able.

"General," he said, "perhaps you remember the fair at Montaigu?"

"_Parbleu_, as if it were yesterday! and especially the night after
it. Ha! that expedition would have been a success, and I might have
strangled the insurrection at its birth if a scoundrelly keeper hadn't
inveigled one of my troopers. By the bye, what was that man's name?"

"Jean Oullier."

"What became of him?"

Courtin could not help turning pale.

"He died," he said.

"The best thing he could do, poor devil; and yet, I'm sorry too,--he
was a brave fellow."

"If you remember the man who defeated the affair, general, it seems
strange you have forgotten the one who helped you with information."

The general looked at Courtin.

"Jean Oullier was a soldier, a comrade, and soldiers remember each
other; the rest--I mean spies and informers--they forget as soon as
possible."

"Very well," said Courtin. "Then I shall have to refresh your
memory, general, and tell you that I am the man who informed you of
Petit-Pierre's hiding-place."

"Oh, are you?" said the general. "Well, what do you want to say now?
Speak out, and briefly!"

"I want to do you exactly the same service over again."

"As for that, times are changed, my good friend. We are no longer
among the sunken roads of the Retz region, where a tiny foot, a fair
skin, and a soft voice are remarkable because they are rare in the
country. Here, all the women look like great ladies; and a score of
men of your kind have been to me to sell their mare's-nests. My
soldiers have been kept on the _qui-vive_ all the time; we have
searched a dozen different places, and all to no purpose."

"General, I have a right to expect you to put faith in me, because the
information I gave you first was correct."

"Upon my word," muttered the general, in a low tone, "it would be
rather pleasant to discover, all by myself, what that man from Paris
with his squads of spies, and sneaks, and pimps, and criminal and
detective police can't find out. Are you sure of what you say?" he
continued, raising his voice.

"I am sure that within twenty-four hours I shall know the street and
the number of the house--"

"Then come and see me."

"But, general, I should wish to know--Courtin stopped.

"Know what?" asked the general.

"I have heard talk of reward, and I wish to know--"

"Ah, true!" said the general, looking at Courtin with sovereign
contempt. "I forgot, though you are a public functionary, that you are
one of those who don't neglect their private interests."

"You said yourself, general, that we were the ones that were soonest
forgotten."

"And you want money to take the place of public gratitude? Well,
that's logical. So, then, you don't give, my worthy mayor, you sell,
you traffic, you trade in human flesh; and to-day, having something to
sell, you come to what you think the best market,--is that it?"

"You have said it. Oh, don't feel embarrassed, general, business is
business; and I am not ashamed to attend to mine!"

"So much the better; but I'm not the man you ought to go to. They've
sent down a gentleman from Paris who is specially charged to attend to
this matter. When you can lay hands on your prey, you had better go to
him and sell it."

"So I will, general. But," continued Courtin, "as I did you such a
service that first time, don't you feel inclined to give me some
reward?"

"My good fellow, if you think I owe you anything I am ready to pay it.
Speak out! I'm listening."

"It will be all the easier because I don't ask much."

"Go on."

"Tell me the sum the government has promised to the man who delivers
Petit-Pierre into your hands."

"Fifty thousand francs, perhaps; I didn't pay much attention to it,
any way."

"Fifty thousand francs!" exclaimed Courtin, stepping back as if he had
been struck. "Why, fifty thousand francs is nothing!"

"I agree with you there; it isn't worth while to be infamous for such
a sum as that. But you can say that to those it concerns; as for you
and me, we have done with each other, I think. Take yourself away.
Good-day to you!"

And the general, resuming the work he had laid aside to receive
Courtin, paid not the slightest attention to the bows and civilities
with which the mayor of La Logerie endeavored to make a proper
retreat.

The latter departed far less satisfied in mind than he was when he
entered. He had no doubt whatever that the general knew correctly the
exact amount of the reward, and he could not reconcile what he had
just heard with what the mysterious man at Aigrefeuille had told
him,--unless it might be that the said mysterious man was the agent
sent by the government from Paris. He now gave up all idea of acting
without him, and he resolved, while practising the utmost caution, to
let him know as soon as possible what had happened.

Until now the man had come to Courtin; but the farmer had his address,
and was directed to write to him if anything important occurred.
Courtin did not write; he went in person. After a good deal of trouble
he managed to find, in the lowest quarter of the town, at the farther
end of a damp and muddy blind alley full of the sordid booths of
rag-pickers and old-clothes men, a tiny shop, where, following certain
directions, he asked for Monsieur Hyacinthe. He was told to go up a
ladder, and was then shown into a small room, much cleaner and more
decent than might have been expected from the general appearance of
this lair.

There he found the man from Aigrefeuille, who received him far better
than the general had done; and with whom he had a long conference.

XXXI.

COURTIN MEETS WITH ANOTHER DISAPPOINTMENT.

If the day seemed long to Michel, to Courtin its length was
intolerable; he thought that night would never come. And though he
felt he ought to keep away from the rue du Marché and the adjacent
streets, it was impossible to avoid airing his impatience in their
neighborhood.

When evening came, mindful of his engagement with Michel, he returned
to the tavern of the Point du Jour. There he found Michel awaiting him
eagerly. As soon as the young man saw him he exclaimed:--

"Ah, Courtin, I am thankful to see you. I have discovered the man who
followed us last night."

"Hein! what? what did you say?" asked Courtin, making, in spite of
himself, a step backward.

"I have discovered him, I tell you!"

"But the man--who is he?" asked Courtin.

"A man in whom I felt sure I might trust; and you would have trusted
him too in my position,--Joseph Picaut."

"Joseph Picaut!" repeated Courtin, feigning astonishment.

"Yes."

"Where did you meet him?"

"At this inn, where he is hostler, or rather, where he is playing the
part of hostler."

"Why did he follow you? You can't have had the imprudence to tell him
your secret? Ah, young man, young man!" exclaimed Courtin; "they may
well say youth and imprudence go together. A former galley-slave!"

"That's the very reason. Don't you know why he was sent to the
galleys?"

"Damn it, yes! for highway robbery."

"But it was in the time of the great war. However, that's neither here
nor there. I gave him an errand to do."

"If I were to ask you what errand, you'd think me inquisitive; and yet
it is my real interest in you that makes me ask, and nothing else."

"Oh! I have no reason for concealing the matter from you. I sent him
to let the captain of the 'Jeune Charles' know that I should be on
board at three o'clock in the morning. Well, no one has since seen
Picaut or the horse--and, by the bye," added the young baron,
laughing, "the horse was your pony, my poor Courtin; your pony, which
I took from the farm and rode to Nantes."

"Oh! oh!" exclaimed Courtin, "then Sweetheart is--"

"Sweetheart is probably lost to you forever."

"Perhaps he has gone back to his stable," said Courtin, who, even in
presence of the grand financial horizon which was opening before him,
felt a profound regret for the twenty or twenty-five pistoles at which
he valued his pony.

"Well, what I want to tell you is, that if, as I suppose, Joseph
Picaut followed us he must now be on the watch about the
neighborhood."

"What object has he?" inquired Courtin. "If he wanted to deliver you
up nothing could have been easier than to bring the gendarmes here."

Michel shook his head.

"No,--do you say no?"

"I say it is not I whom he is after, Courtin; it is not on my account
he watched us yesterday."

"Why so?"

"Because the price on my head would not pay him for his treachery."

"But whom else can he be spying on?" said the farmer, calling up all
the vacant simplicity he was capable of imprinting on his face and
accent.

"A Vendéan leader whom I was anxious to save while making my own
escape," replied Michel, beginning to perceive whither Courtin's
questions were leading him,--though he was not sorry to admit the
latter into half his secret in order to use him when occasion came.

"Ah, ha!" exclaimed Courtin; "and you think he has discovered the
hiding-place of the Vendéan leader? That would be a misfortune,
Monsieur Michel."

"No; he only got to the outworks, as it were; but I am afraid, now
that he is once on the scent, he may have better luck this time."

"This time,--how do you mean?"

"Why, to-night, if he watches us, he will find out I have a meeting
with Mademoiselle Mary."

"_Mordieu!_ you're right."

"And that makes me very uneasy," said Michel.

"But I shall be on the watch; and if you are followed I'll whistle in
time for you to get away."

"And you?"

Courtin laughed.

"Oh! I--I don't risk anything. My opinions are well-known, thank God;
and in my capacity as mayor I can have all the dangerous companions I
choose."

"Evil is good sometimes," said Michel, laughing in his turn. "But
listen, what time is that?"

"Striking nine from the clock at Bouffai."

"Then, come on, Courtin."

Courtin took his hat, Michel his, and they both went out and were soon
at the corner where Michel had met his farmer the night before. The
latter stood with his right to the rue du Marché and his left toward
the alley into which opened the green door he had marked with a cross.

"Stay there, Courtin," said Michel. "I'll wait at the farther end of
this alley; I don't know which way Mary means to come. If she passes
you, direct her toward me; if she comes my way, do you move up nearer
to us, so as to be ready in case of need."

"Don't trouble about that," said Courtin, as he settled himself on the
watch.

Courtin was now at the summit of happiness; his plan had completely
succeeded. In one way or another he was certain to come in contact
with Mary; Mary was the intimate attendant on Petit-Pierre; he would
fellow Mary when she left Michel, and he had no doubt that the
young girl, unconscious of being tracked, would herself betray the
hiding-place of the princess by going there.

Half-past nine o'clock ringing from all the belfries in Nantes
surprised Courtin in the midst of these reflections. Their metallic
vibrations were hardly stilled before he heard a light step coming up
on his right; he went in that direction, and saw a young peasant-woman
wrapped in a mantle and carrying a package in her hand, whom he
recognized to be Mary. The young girl, seeing a strange man apparently
on the watch, hesitated. Courtin went up to her and made her recognize
him.

"It is all right, Mademoiselle Mary," he said, replying to her
relieved gesture; "but I'm not the one you are looking for, am I? You
want Monsieur le baron; well, there he is, waiting for you down
there."

And he pointed with his finger to the alley. The girl thanked him with
a gesture of her head and moved hastily away in the direction given
her. As for Courtin, convinced that the interview would be a long one,
he sat down, philosophically, on a milestone, prepared to wait. From
that milestone, however, he could keep the two young people in
sight while dreaming of his coming fortune, which now seemed a
certainty,--for he held in Mary one end of the thread that would lead
him through the labyrinth; and this time, he vowed, the thread should
not break.

But he had scarcely begun to set up the scaffolding of glorious dreams
on the golden clouds of his imagination, when the two young people,
after exchanging a few sentences, returned in his direction. They
passed in front of him; the young baron had Mary on his arm and was
carrying the little package the farmer had lately seen in Mary's hand.
Michel nodded to him.

"Ho, ho!" thought Courtin, "is it going to be as easy as this? There's
absolutely no credit in it." And he followed the lovers on a sign from
Michel, keeping at a short distance behind them.

Presently, however, he began to feel a slight uneasiness. Instead of
going to the upper town, where Courtin felt instinctively that the
princess was hidden, the pair turned down toward the river. The farmer
followed their movements with deep anxiety. Soon, however, he began to
fancy that Mary had some errand in that direction, and that Michel was
only accompanying her.

Nevertheless, his anxiety again deepened when, on turning the corner
of the quay, he saw the young pair making straight for the tavern of
the Point du Jour, which they presently entered. Unable to restrain
himself any longer he ran hastily forward and overtook the baron.

"Ah, here you are,--just in time!" said Michel.

"What is it?" asked the spy.

"Courtin, my dear fellow, I'm the happiest man on earth!"

"Why so?"

"Quick! saddle me two horses!"

"Two horses?"

"Yes."

"And Mademoiselle Mary? don't you mean to take her back?"

"No, Courtin, I shall carry her off!"

"Where?"

"To Banl[oe]uvre; where we shall make some plan to get away together."

"But will Mademoiselle Mary desert--"

Courtin stopped short; he was about to betray himself. But Michel was
much too happy and excited to be distrustful.

"Mademoiselle Mary will not desert any one, my dear Courtin; we are to
send Bertha in her place. Don't you see that I can't be the one to
tell Bertha I do not love her?"

"Then who will tell her?"

"Don't trouble yourself about that, Courtin; somebody will tell her.
Now, quick! saddle those horses!"

"Have you any horses here?"

"No, none of my own; but there are always horses, don't you
understand, for those who travel for the good of the cause."

And Michel pushed Courtin toward the stable, where, in fact, two
horses were munching their oats as if awaiting the young people.

Just as Michel was putting the saddle on the second horse the master
of the inn came down, followed by Mary.

"I come from the South and am going to Rosny," Michel said to him,
continuing to saddle one of the horses, while Courtin was saddling,
but more slowly, the other. Courtin heard the password, but did not
comprehend it.

"Very good," said the master of the inn, nodding his head in sign of
intelligence.

Then, as Courtin seemed rather behindhand, he helped him to saddle the
other horse and rejoin Michel.

"Monsieur Michel," said Courtin, making a last effort, "why go to
Banl[oe]uvre instead of to La Logerie? You would be more comfortable
at my house."

Michel questioned Mary by a look.

"Oh! no, no, no!" she said. "Remember, my dear friend," she whispered,
"that Bertha will be certain to return there to get news of us, and to
know why the vessel was not at the place agreed upon; and I wouldn't
for all the world see her before the friend you know of speaks to her.
I think I should die of shame and grief if I saw her just now."

At Bertha's name, which he overheard, Courtin raised his head as a
horse raises his to the sound of trumpets.

"Mademoiselle does not want to go to La Logerie?" he said.

"But, Mary," said Michel, hesitating.

"What?" asked the girl.

"Who will give your sister the letter that summons her to Nantes?"

"As for that," said Courtin, "it isn't hard to find a messenger. If
there is anything you want said or done, Monsieur Michel, I'll
undertake it."

Michel hesitated; but he, like Mary, dreaded Bertha's first outbreak
of anger. Again he looked at Mary; she replied with an assenting sign.

"Then we will go to Banl[oe]uvre; and you must take the letter," said
Michel, giving Courtin a paper. "If you have anything to say to us,
Courtin, you will find us there for the present."

"Ah, poor Bertha! poor Bertha!" said Mary, springing on her horse.
"How shall I ever console myself for my happiness?"

The two young people were now in their saddles; they made a friendly
sign to the master of the inn; Michel commended the letter once more
to Courtin's care, and then they both rode away from the tavern of the
Point du Jour.

At the end of the pont Rousseau they came near riding over a man who,
in spite of the heat of the weather, was wrapped in a sort of mantle
which almost hid his face. This sombre apparition alarmed Michel; he
quickened his horse's pace and told Mary to do the same. After going
about a hundred yards Michel turned round. The stranger had stopped,
and, in spite of the darkness, was watching them.

"He is looking at us!" said Michel, feeling instinctively that they
had just passed some great danger.

After the unknown man had lost sight of the riders he continued his
way to Nantes. At the door of the Point du Jour he stopped, looked
about him as if in search of some one, and saw a man reading a letter
by the light of a lantern. He went up to the man, who, at the sound of
his steps, looked round.

"Ah, it's you!" said Courtin. "Faith, you've just missed getting here
too soon; a minute earlier and you would have found yourself in
company you wouldn't have liked."

"Who were those two young people who nearly knocked me over on the
bridge?"

"The very ones I mean."

"Well, what's the news,--good, or bad?"

"Both; but more good than bad."

"Is it to be to-night?"

"No; the affair is postponed."

"You mean failed, blunderer!"

Courtin smiled.

"It is true that luck has been against me since yesterday; but no
matter! we must be satisfied with walking, not running, that's all.
Though to-day is a failure, in view of immediate results, I wouldn't
take twenty thousand francs for it."

"Ah, ha! you are sure of that?"

"Yes, very sure. The proof is that I've got hold of something
already."

"What?"

"This," said Courtin, showing the letter he had just unsealed and
read.

"A letter?"

"A letter."

"What's in it?" said the man in the cloak, putting out his hand to
take the paper.

"One moment. We will read it together. I prefer to hold it, because it
is intrusted to me for delivery."

"Well, let us read it," said the man.

They both went up to the lantern and read as follows:--

Come to me as soon as possible; you know the passwords.
Your affectionate
PETIT-PIERRE.

"To whom is that letter addressed?" asked the man in the cloak.

"To Mademoiselle Bertha de Souday."

"Her name is not on the cover, nor at the bottom of the page."

"Because a letter might be lost."

"And you are commissioned to deliver that letter?"

"Yes."

The man gave a second glance at the paper.

"The writing is certainly hers," he said. "Ah! if you had only allowed
me to accompany you we should have her by this time."

"What does that matter, if you are sure of her later?"

"Yes, true. When shall I see you again?"

"Day after to-morrow."

"Here, or in the country?"

"At Saint-Philbert-de-Grand-Lieu; that is half way between Nantes and
my house."

"I hope next time you won't stir me up for nothing."

"I promise you that."

"Try to keep your word; I keep mine. Here's the money. See, I hold it
ready, so that you may not have to wait for it."

He opened his wallet and showed the farmer, complacently, a mass of
bank-bills amounting probably to a hundred thousand francs.

"Oh," said Courtin, "only paper!"

"Paper, of course, but signed 'Garat;' that is a good signature."

"No matter," said Courtin; "I prefer gold."

"Well, gold you shall have," said the other, replacing the portfolio
in his pocket and crossing his mantle over his coat.

If the pair had not been so engrossed in their conversation they would
have seen that a peasant had climbed the wall between the street and
the courtyard by the help of a cart which stood outside, and was
listening to what they said, and gazing at the bank-notes with an air
which implied that in Courtin's place he would have been quite
satisfied with Garat's signature.

"Very good; then the day after to-morrow at Saint-Philbert," repeated
the man in the cloak.

"Day after to-morrow."

"What time?"

"Evening, of course."

"Say seven o'clock. The first comer will wait for the other."

"But you'll bring the money?"

"You mean the gold? yes."

"All right."

"Do you expect to bring the matter to conclusion then?"

"I hope to. It costs nothing to hope."

"Day after to-morrow, at Saint-Philbert, seven o'clock," muttered the
peasant on the wall, letting himself gently down into the street.
"We'll be there." Then he added with a laugh that sounded terribly
like the grinding of teeth: "When a man is branded he ought to earn
his label."

XXXII.

THE MARQUIS DE SOUDAY DRAGS FOR OYSTERS
AND BRINGS UP PICAUT.

Bertha, who had left the farmhouse at La Logerie at the same time as
Michel, reached, her father after a tramp of about two hours. She
found him extraordinarily depressed and utterly disgusted with the
hermit's life he was leading in Maître Jacques' warren, though the
latter had arranged it for his personal comfort and installed him
safely in it.

From a feeling that was purely chivalrous, Monsieur de Souday had not
been willing to leave the country so long as Petit-Pierre was in it,
and in danger. Therefore, when Bertha came to him with the news of the
duchess's probable departure, the old Vendéan gentleman resigned
himself, though without heartiness, to follow the advice of General
Dermoncourt and depart for the third time to foreign lands.

He and his daughter left the forest of Touvois at once. Maître
Jacques, whose hand was now nearly well, though it lacked two fingers,
wished to accompany them to the coast and assist in their embarkation.

It was midnight when the three travellers, following the high-road
from Machecoul, reached the heights above the valley of Souday. As the
marquis looked at the four weathercocks on his four towers, which were
shimmering in the moonlight above the sea of verdure which surrounded
them, he sighed. Bertha heard him and came nearer to his side.

"What is it, father?" she said. "What are you thinking of?"

"Of many things, my poor child," he answered, shaking his head.

"Don't take gloomy thoughts into your head, father. You are still
young and vigorous; you'll see the house again some day."

"Yes," said the marquis, with another sigh, "but--" he stopped, half
choking.

"But what?" asked Bertha.

"I shall never see my poor Jean Oullier again."

"Alas!" said the girl.

"Oh, house,--poor house!" said the marquis; "how empty you will seem
to me without him!"

Though there was really more of egotism than attachment to his
faithful servant in the marquis's regret, if Jean Oullier could have
heard that lament it would certainly have touched him deeply.

Bertha resumed the subject.

"Do you know, father," she said, "I can't help fancying, though I am
sure I don't know why, that our poor friend, in spite of all they say,
is not dead. It seems to me that if he were really dead I should have
wept more for him; a secret hope, which I can't explain, comes and
stops my tears."

"That's odd," interrupted Maître Jacques; "but I have just the same
feeling. No, Jean Oullier is not dead; and I have something better
than presumption to go upon,--I saw the body they said was his, and I
couldn't recognize it."

"Then what has become of him?" asked the marquis.

"Faith, I don't know!" replied Maître Jacques; "but I keep expecting
every day to get news of him."

The marquis sighed again. At this moment they were passing through an
angle of the forest. Perhaps he was thinking of the hecatombs of game
he and his faithful keeper had piled beneath those verdant arches,--a
sight, alas! he might never see again. Perhaps the few words said by
Maître Jacques had opened his heart to a renewed hope of recovering
his old friend. The latter supposition is the more probable, for he
urged the master of rabbits to make most particular inquiries about
Jean Oullier's fate, and to let him know the result.

When they reached the seashore the marquis would not wholly conform to
the plan laid down by Michel and Bertha for his embarkation. He feared
that if they followed the shore along the bay of Bourgneuf, as agreed
upon, they might draw the attention of the coast-guard cutter to the
schooner; nothing would induce him to incur the reproach of
compromising Petit-Pierre's safety for personal considerations, and he
decided that the proper thing to do was for himself and daughter to go
out to sea and meet the "Jeune Charles."

Maître Jacques, who had friends and accomplices everywhere, soon found
a fisherman who was willing, for the consideration of a few louis, to
take them in his boat to the schooner. The little craft was drawn up
on the shore. The marquis and Bertha, instructed by Maître Jacques,
who was familiar with all smuggling man[oe]uvres, slipped into it and
escaped the eyes of the custom-house officers who watched the coast.
An hour later the tide floated the boat; the owner and his two sons,
who served as crew, got into her and put out to sea.

As it still wanted half an hour till daybreak, the marquis did not
wait till the boat was in the offing to come out of his hiding-place
in the little deck cabin, where he was even more cribbed and confined
than in Maître Jacques' burrow. As soon as the fisherman saw him he
began to ask questions.

"You say, monsieur, that the vessel you expect is coming from the
mouth of the Loire?"

"Yes," replied the marquis.

"At what hour was she to leave Nantes?"

"From three to five this morning," said Bertha.

The fisherman consulted the wind.

"The wind is southwest," he said; "the tide was high at three o'clock.
We ought to meet them between eight and nine; it will take them four
hours to get here. Meantime, in order not to attract attention from
the coast-guard, we had better throw over some drag-nets and make a
pretence of fishing, to explain our being here."

"Make a pretence!" cried the marquis; "why, I should like to fish in
good earnest! All my life I have wanted the opportunity for that
sport; and faith, as I can't hunt in Machecoul this year, it is a fine
compensation which Heaven sends me,--too fine to miss it!"

In spite of Bertha's cautions--for she feared her father's great
height might attract attention--the marquis began to work with the
fisherman at once.

The net was thrown out and allowed to drag for some time at the bottom
of the sea; but before long, the Marquis de Souday, who had valiantly
hauled on the ropes to bring the net to the surface, was as delighted
as a child with the shining mass of eels, turbot, plaice, skate, and
oysters which came up palpitating from the depths of the sea. He at
once forgot his griefs, his hopes, his memories; he forgot Souday and
the forest of Machecoul, the marches of Saint-Philbert, the great
moors; and with them he forgot wild-boars, deer, foxes, hares,
partridges, and snipe, and thought only of the shining population with
smooth or scaly skins which each throw of the net produced before his
eyes.

Daylight came.

Bertha, who till then had sat in the bows absorbed in thought,
watching the waves as they parted at the prow of the little vessel and
floated away in two phosphorescent furrows,--Bertha now climbed on a
coil of rope to examine the horizon.

Through the morning mists, thicker at the mouth of the river than
elsewhere, she could see the tall masts and spars of several vessels;
but none of them carried the blue pennant by which they were to
recognize the "Jeune Charles." She observed this to the fisherman, who
assured her, with an oath, that it was impossible for the schooner, if
she left Nantes during the night, to have made the open sea already.

The marquis did not give the worthy fisherman and his men much time
for discussion, for he was so pleased with his taste of their trade
that he allowed no spare time between the throws of the net; and any
little pause that occurred he filled up with questions to the old
sailor on the rudiments of nautical science.

It was in the course of this instructive conversation that the
fisherman requested him to observe that by throwing the net as a drag
they were forced to make long tacks, and that this method of
proceeding would end by leading them astray from their post of
observation. But the marquis, with that careless indifference which
was the basis of his character, paid no attention to the skipper's
argument, and continued to fill the hold of the boat with the products
of the haul.

The morning went by. It was ten o'clock, and still no vessel
approached them. Bertha became very uneasy; she mentioned her fears to
her father several times, and at last with so much urgency that the
marquis could do no less than consent to go nearer to the mouth of the
river. He profited by the man[oe]uvre, however, to make the old sailor
teach him how to haul his wind,--that is to say, how to trim his sails
so as to make as slight an angle with the keel as the rigging would
allow. They were in the most tangled part of the demonstration when
Bertha uttered a cry.

She had just seen at a few hundred feet from the boat a large vessel
with all sail spread, to which she had hitherto paid no attention, as
it did not fly the promised signal, and was now partly hidden by the
jib of the boat.

"Look out! look out!" she cried; "there's a ship coming down upon us!"

The fisherman saw in an instant the danger that threatened them, and
springing to the helm he wrenched it from the hand of the marquis,
then, without observing that he knocked the latter flat on the deck,
he managed to get the boat round to windward of the ship, which was
close upon them. Rapid as the man[oe]uvre was, he could not prevent a
slight collision; the boom of the lugger's mainsail grazed the side of
the schooner with a loud noise, her gaff was entangled for a moment
with the latter's bowsprit; the boat heeled over, shipped a sea, and
if the skipper's rapid man[oe]uvre had not enabled him to catch the
wind, she might not have righted as rapidly as she did, or perhaps not
have righted at all.

"The devil take that damned coaster!" cried the old fisherman.
"Another minute and we should have gone to the bottom in exchange for
the fish we've just caught!"

"Go about! go about!" cried the marquis, exasperated by his fall.
"After him! the devil take me if I don't board him and ask the captain
what he means by such insolence!"

"Do you expect me," said the old sailor, "with my one sail and two
poor jibs, to overhaul a craft of that kind? Look at his canvas, the
villain!--every stitch set! And see how it draws!"

"Yet we must overtake him!" cried Bertha, running aft. "It is the
'Jeune Charles!'"

And she showed her father a broad, white band at the stern of the
other vessel on which could be read, in letters of gold. "LE JEUNE
CHARLES."

"Faith, you are right, Bertha!" cried the marquis. "Go about, my
friend, go about! But why doesn't he carry the signal agreed upon with
Monsieur de la Logerie? And why, instead of steering for the bay of
Bourgneuf, is he heading east?"

"Perhaps some accident has happened," said Bertha, turning pale.

"God grant it may not be to Petit-Pierre!" muttered the marquis.

Bertha admired her father's stoicism, but in her heart she murmured:
"God grant it may not be to Michel!"

"Never mind!" said the marquis, "we must find out what all this
means."

The lugger had meantime gone about, and again catching the wind, began
to move rapidly through the water; this man[oe]uvre on a vessel of her
size could be done so quickly that the schooner, in spite of her
volume of sail, did not get far in advance. The fisherman was able to
hail her.

The captain appeared on the poop.

"Are you the 'Jeune Charles' from Nantes?" asked the skipper of the
boat, making a trumpet of his two hands.

"What's that to you?" answered the captain of the schooner, whose good
humor did not seem to be restored by the certainty of having evaded
the clutches of the law.

"I have folks aboard for you!" cried the fisherman.

"More messengers! A thousand devils! I tell you if you bring me any
more such fellows like those I have had this night, I'll run you down,
you old oyster-dredger, before I let 'em aboard!"

"No, they are passengers! Aren't you looking out for passengers?"

"I'm looking out for a good wind to take me round Cape Finisterre!"

"Let me come alongside," said the fisherman, at Bertha's suggestion.

The captain of the "Jeune Charles" looked at the sea, and not
perceiving between himself and the coast anything to warrant
apprehension, and desirous, moreover, to know if the passengers asking
to come aboard were those for whom his vessel was chartered, he did as
the fisherman requested, hauled down his foresail and mainsail and
brought-to his vessel sufficiently to throw a line to the lugger and
bring her alongside.

"Now, then!" cried the captain, leaning over his bulwarks, "what's all
this about?"

"Ask Monsieur de la Logerie to come and speak to us," said Bertha.

"Monsieur de la Logerie is not aboard of me," replied the captain.

"But," returned Bertha, in a troubled voice, "at any rate, you have
two ladies, haven't you?"

"Ladies or passengers, I haven't any," said the captain; "except a
rascal in irons down in the hold, where he is cursing and swearing fit
to take the masts out of the ship and make the bulkhead he's lashed to
tremble."

"Good God!" cried Bertha, trembling herself. "Do you know if any
accident has happened to the persons who were to embark on your ship?"

"Faith, my pretty young lady," said the captain, "if you would tell me
what all this means you would oblige me greatly; for the devil is in
it if I can make out anything about it. Last night two men came on
board, both from Monsieur de la Logerie, with two different messages:
one ordered me to sail at once; the other told me to stay where I was.
One of these men was an honest farmer,--a mayor, I think, for he
showed me a bit of a tricolor scarf. It was he who told me to up
anchor and be off as fast as I could. The other, who wanted me to
stay, was an old galley-slave. I put faith in the most respectable of
the two, for, after all, his advice was safest, and I came away."

"My God!" exclaimed Bertha, "it must have been Courtin; some accident
has happened to Monsieur de la Logerie!"

"Do you want to see the other man?" asked the captain.

"What man?" said the marquis.

"The one I've got below in irons. You may recognize him, and then we
shall get at the truth of this business,--though it is too late now to
do any good."

"Too late to get away,--yes, that may be," said the marquis; "but not
too late to save our friends if they are in any peril. Show us the
man!"

The captain gave an order, and a few seconds later Joseph Picaut was
brought on deck. He was still chained and bound; but, in spite of his
bonds, he had no sooner caught sight of the coast of La Vendée, which
he thought he was fated never to see again, than, without reckoning
distance, or the impossibility of swimming, bound as he was, he tried
to escape his captors and fling himself into the sea.

This happened on the starboard side forward, so that the passengers in
the lugger, which was now to leeward near the stern of the vessel,
could not see what happened; but they heard Joseph Picaut's cry and
knew that a struggle of some kind was taking place on the schooner.
The fisherman pushed his boat along the side of the ship, and they
then saw Joseph Picaut struggling in the grasp of four men.

"Let me jump into the water!" he was shouting. "I'd rather die at once
than rot in that hole!"

He might possibly have succeeded in flinging himself overboard if he
had not at that instant recognized the faces of the Marquis de Souday
and Bertha, who were looking up at him in amazement. "Ah, Monsieur le
marquis! ah, Mademoiselle Bertha!" cried Picaut; "you will save me,
won't you? It is for executing Monsieur Michel's orders that this
brute of a captain treats me as he does; and the lies of that
scoundrel Courtin are at the bottom of it."

"Now, then, I want to know the truth about all this," interposed the
captain. "If you can relieve me of that blaspheming fellow I shall be
glad enough; for I'm not bound for either Botany-Bay or Cayenne."

"Alas!" said Bertha, "it is all true, captain. I don't know what
motive the mayor of La Logerie could have had to send you to sea
without your passengers; but it is very certain that this man is the
one who told you the truth."

"Unbind him, then! Ten thousand cat-o'-nine-tails! let him go hang
where he pleases! Now, as for you, what do you want? Are you coming
with me, or are you not? It won't cost any more to take you or leave
you. I was paid in advance; and to ease my conscience I'd rather like
to take somebody."

"Captain," said Bertha, "isn't it possible to go back up the river and
let our friends embark to-night as they meant to do last night?"

"Impossible!" replied the captain, shrugging his shoulders. "Think of
the custom-house officers and the river-police! No, no; a plan
postponed is a plan defeated. Only, I say again, if you wish to use my
vessel to get over to England, I am at your service, and it shall cost
you nothing."

The marquis looked at his daughter, but she shook her head.

"Thank you, captain, thanks," replied the marquis. "It is impossible."

"Then we had better part company at once," said the captain. "But
before we do so, let me ask you to do me a service."

"What is it?"

"It is about a little note of hand which I will give you, duly signed,
requesting you to draw my share of it when you draw your own."

"I'll do anything to please you, captain," said the marquis, affably.

"Very good; then add one hundred lashes on the back of the fellow who
fooled me last night, in addition to your own."

"It shall be done," replied the marquis.

"If he has any strength to bear them after he has paid what he owes to
me," said a voice.

At the same instant a heavy body fell into the water, and the head of
Joseph Picaut was seen about ten paces off, its owner swimming
vigorously to the lugger. Once freed of his irons, the Chouan,
fearful, no doubt, that some unforeseen circumstance should detain him
on the vessel, had plunged head foremost over the schooner's bulwark.

The skipper and the marquis gave him each a hand, and Joseph Picaut
clambered into the boat. He was scarcely there before he shouted:--

"Monsieur le marquis, tell that old whale up there that the brand on
my shoulder is a cross of honor!"

"Yes, captain, that's true!" cried the marquis. "This peasant was sent
to the galleys for doing his duty in the days of the Empire,--his duty
as we see it, I mean; and though I don't wholly approve of the means
he took, I can declare to you that he has not deserved the treatment
you gave him."

"Very well," said the captain, "that's all right. Once, twice, thrice,
will you come aboard, or will you not?"

"No, captain, thank you."

"Then good-bye, and better luck."

So saying, the captain signed to the helmsman, the schooner paid off
into the wind, the sails were squared again, and the vessel sailed
rapidly away, leaving the lugger stationary.

While the old fisherman was working his boat to shore, Bertha and her
father held counsel together. In spite of Picaut's explanations (and
those explanations were brief, the Chouan having only seen Courtin at
the moment when he was seized and bound) they could not understand the
motives of the mayor of La Logerie. His conduct, however, was plain
enough, and seemed to them extremely suspicious,--although, as Bertha
now told her father, he had shown a true devotion to Michel during his
illness, and had often expressed to her the utmost attachment to his
young master. The marquis, however, was strongly of opinion that his
present tortuous behavior concealed some scheme that was not only
dangerous to Michel's safety, but to that of their other friends.

As for Picaut, he declared plainly that he lived and breathed for
vengeance only, and that if Monsieur de Souday would give him a suit
of sailor's clothes to replace those which were torn from his back in
the struggles he had gone through, he would start for Nantes the
instant he touched land.

The marquis, convinced that Courtin's treachery was in some way
connected with Petit-Pierre, wished to go to the town himself; but
Bertha, who believed that Michel, finding the escape a failure, would
return to the farmhouse at La Logerie, where he would expect her to
join him, persuaded her father to put off entering Nantes till he
could get some more definite information.

The fisherman landed his passengers at the Pornic point. Picaut, for
whose benefit the skipper's son had given up his spencer and his
oilskin cap, started across country in a bee-line for Nantes, swearing
in every key that Courtin had better look out for himself. But before
leaving the marquis he begged him to tell Maître Jacques all the
particulars of his adventure, feeling quite certain that the master of
the warren would fraternally assist in his revenge.

It was thus that, thanks to his knowledge of localities, he was able
to reach Nantes about nine that evening; and going, naturally, to his
old post at the Point du Jour, he overheard a part at least of the
conversation between Courtin and the mysterious individual of
Aigrefeuille, and saw the money, or rather the bank-bills, which
Courtin did not regard as valuable until they were changed into coin.

As for the marquis and his daughter, it was not until nightfall that
they ventured, notwithstanding Bertha's impatience, to start for the
forest of Touvois; and it was not without actual grief of heart that
the old gentleman thought of the happy morning he had spent among the
fishes, reflecting that it would have no morrow, and that he was
fatally condemned to live, for an indefinite time, like a rat in his
hole.

XXXIII.

THAT WHICH HAPPENED IN TWO DWELLINGS.

Maître Jacques was not mistaken in his presentiments; Jean Oullier was
living. The ball which Courtin had fired at random into the bush--on
chance, as it were--had entered his breast; and when the widow Picaut
(the wheels of whose cart had alarmed Courtin and his companion)
reached him, she felt sure she was lifting a dead body. With a
charitable sentiment, very natural to a peasant-woman, she did not
choose that the body of a man for whom her husband had always, in
spite of their political differences, expressed the utmost respect,
should be left as food for the buzzards and jackals; she was
determined that the good Vendéan should lie in holy ground, and she
therefore placed him on her cart to take him home.

Only, instead of hiding him in the cart, as she had intended doing,
she now laid him on it uncovered, and several of the peasants whom she
met on the way stopped to look at and touch the bloody remains of the
Marquis de Souday's old keeper. In this way the news of Jean Oullier's
death was spread about the canton; and this was how the marquis and
his daughters heard of it, and why Courtin,--who, the next day, wanted
to make sure that the man he most feared was no longer living to
terrify him,--why Courtin had been deceived and misled like the rest.

It was to the old cottage where she had formerly lived with her
husband that Marianne Picaut now took the body. Since Pascal's death
she had, in her loneliness, removed to the inn kept by her mother at
Saint-Philbert. The cottage was nearer to Machecoul, Jean Oullier's
parish, than the inn; to which, had he been living, she intended to
take him and keep him safely concealed till he was well.

Just as the cart reached the open crossway we have often mentioned,
one road of which led to the dwelling of the two Picaut brothers, it
met a man on horseback following the road to Machecoul. This man, who
was no other than our old acquaintance, Monsieur Roger, the doctor at
Légé, questioned some of the little ragamuffins who, with the
persistency and curiosity of their age, were following the cart. When
the doctor heard that it contained the body of Jean Oullier, he left
his present direction and followed the cart to the Picaut dwelling.

The widow placed Jean Oullier on the bed where Pascal Picaut and the
poor Comte de Bonneville had lain side by side. While thus busy in
doing him the last offices, and wiping the blood and dust which
covered his face and matted his hair, the widow suddenly looked up and
saw the doctor.

"Alas! dear Monsieur Roger," she said, "the poor _gars_ is beyond your
help, more's the pity. There are so many left on this earth who are
not worth their salt that it is doubly sad when one like Jean Oullier
is carried off before his time."

The doctor made the widow tell him all she knew of Jean Oullier's
death. The presence of her sister-in-law and the children and women
who had followed the cart out of curiosity, prevented the widow from
relating how she had met him and left him a few hours earlier, full of
life, except for his broken ankle; and how, returning after dark, she
heard a pistol-shot and the footsteps of men who were running away,
having no doubt murdered him. She merely said that coming from the
moor she had found the body on the road.

"Poor, brave man!" said the doctor. "But after all, better such a
death--the death of a soldier--than the fate that awaited him had he
lived. He was seriously compromised, and if taken, they would have
sent him, no doubt, to the cells on Mont Saint-Michel."

As he said the words the doctor went nearer to the body and
mechanically took the inert arm to lay it over the breast; but his
hand had no sooner come in contact with the flesh than the doctor
started.

"What is it?" asked the widow.

"Nothing," replied the doctor, coldly. "The man is dead and only needs
the last offices."

"Why did you bring his body here?" said the wife of Joseph Picaut,
angrily. "We shall have the Blues down upon us! You know what happened
the first time, and can judge by that."

"What does that signify to you," said the widow, "as neither you nor
your husband live here any longer?"

"It is the very reason we don't live here," replied Joseph's wife. "We
are afraid the Blues may be after us and destroy the little property
that is left."

"You would do well to have him recognized before you bury him,"
interrupted the doctor; "and if that will be any trouble to you I'll
undertake to remove the body to the château of the Marquis de Souday,
whose physician I am." Then, seizing a moment when the widow passed
close beside him, he whispered, "Get rid of these people." This was
easy to do, as it was then near midnight. As soon as they were alone
the doctor said, going close up to Marianne:--

"Jean Oullier is not dead."

"Not dead?" she cried.

"No. I said nothing before those people, because, in my opinion, it is
of the utmost consequence that no one shall come here and disturb you
in the care I am sure you will give him."

"God bless you!" said the good woman, joyfully. "If I can help to cure
him you may count on me; I'll do it with the greatest happiness, for I
shall never forget the friendship my poor husband felt for him.
Neither shall I cease to remember that though I was then working
against him and his, Jean Oullier wouldn't let me die by the hand of a
murderer."

Then, having carefully closed all the shutters and the door of her
room, the widow lighted a fire, heated water, and while the doctor
examined the wound and tried to discover what, if any, vital organs
were involved, she said good-bye to a few old gossips still lingering
about the house, saying she was on her way back to Saint-Philbert.
Then at the first turn of the road she darted into the woods and
returned to the cottage by way of the orchard.

She listened at Joseph Picaut's part of the house; it was closed and
she heard no sound. Evidently her sister-in-law and the children had
returned to the hiding-place in which they lived while the husband and
father continued to keep up, under Maître Jacques, the partisan
warfare.

Marianne re-entered her own part of the house by the back door. The
doctor had finished dressing the wound: the signs of life in the body
were becoming more and more evident. Not only the heart, but the
pulses too were beating; and on putting a hand before the lips the
breath could be distinctly felt. The widow listened joyfully to what
the doctor told her.

"Do you think you can save him?" she asked.

"That's in God's hands," replied the doctor. "All I can say is that no
vital organ is involved, but the loss of blood has been enormous; and
I have also found it impossible to extract the ball."

"But," said Marianne, "I have heard that men can be cured and live to
old age with a ball in the body."

"So they can," replied the doctor. "But now, how are you going to
manage?"

"I did mean to take the poor fellow to Saint-Philbert and hide him
there till he died or recovered."

"You can't do that now," said the doctor. "He must have been saved by
what we call a clot, which has plugged the artery. The slightest
jar now would prove fatal. Besides, in your mother's inn at
Saint-Philbert, with so many going and coming, you could never conceal
his presence."

"Good God! do you believe that in such a state they would have the
cruelty to arrest him?"

"They would not put him in prison, of course; but they would take him
to some hospital, and as soon as he recovers they would try him, and
condemn him either to death or to the galleys. Jean Oullier is one of
those obscure leaders who are so dangerous through their influence on
the body of the people that the government will be pitiless toward
him. Why don't you confide in your sister-in-law? Jean Oullier and she
hold the same opinions."

"You heard what she said?"

"That's true. I see you can't have much confidence in her pity. And
yet, God knows, she of all people ought to be merciful to her
neighbor, for if her husband were taken it might go far worse with him
than with Jean Oullier."

"Yes, I know that," said the widow, in a gloomy voice. "Death is upon
them all."

"Well," said the doctor, "the question is, can you hide him here?"

"Here? Yes, of course I can; he will even be safer here than
elsewhere, because the house is thought to be empty. But who would
take care of him?"

"Jean Oullier is not a girl or a baby," replied the doctor. "Two or
three days hence, after the fever subsides, he can be left alone all
day; and I'll promise you to visit him at night."

"Very good; and I'll be here all the time I can without exciting
suspicion."

Marianne, with the doctor's help, carried the wounded man into the
stable adjoining her room; she bolted the door carefully, placed her
own mattress on a pile of straw, and then, appointing to meet the
doctor there the following night, and knowing that the sick man would
need only a little fresh water at first, she threw herself on a heap
of straw beside him and waited patiently till he showed some signs of
returning life, either by words or even by a sigh.

The next day she showed herself at Saint-Philbert; and when asked
about Jean Oullier, replied that she had followed the advice of her
sister-in-law, and fearing to be molested, had taken the dead body
back to the moor where she had found it. Then she returned to her
house on pretence of putting it in order. The following evening she
again closed it carefully and went back to Saint-Philbert before dark,
so that all the town might see her. But no sooner was it really night
than she returned to Jean Oullier.

She nursed him in this way for three days and nights, shut up with him
in the stable, fearing to make the slightest noise that might betray
her presence; and though at the end of those three days Jean Oullier
was still in the state of torpor which follows great physical
commotions and loss of blood, the doctor advised her to stay at home
during the day and return to him only at night.

Jean Oullier's wound was so severe that he really hung for a fortnight
between life and death; fragments of his clothing carried in by the
ball remained in the wound, where they kept up the inflammation, and
it was not till Nature herself eliminated them that the doctor, to the
widow's great joy, declared him out of danger. The good woman's care
redoubled as soon as she felt he would recover; and though her patient
was still weak and could hardly articulate more than a few words, and
the signs were few of his being any better, she never failed to spend
the night beside him and supply all his wants, taking at the same time
the utmost precautions.

In spite of all drawbacks, however, no sooner were the foreign
substances expelled from the wound, and a steady and healthful
suppuration set up, than he made rapid strides to recovery. As his
strength returned he began to worry greatly about those he loved; and
he now implored the widow to bring him some news of the Marquis de
Souday, Bertha, Mary, and even Michel,--Michel, who had actually
triumphed over the old Vendéan's antipathies and conquered a place,
however small, in his affections. Marianne did as he requested, and
made some inquiries of the royalist travellers who stopped at her
mother's inn; and she was soon able to relieve Jean Oullier's mind by
telling him that his friends were all living and well; that the
marquis was in the forest of Touvois, Bertha and Michel at Courtin's
farmhouse, and Mary, in all probability, at Nantes.

But the widow had no sooner uttered the name of Courtin than a total
change came over her patient's face; he passed his hand across his
forehead as if to clear his thought, and rose in his bed for the first
time without assistance. Friendship and tenderness had occupied his
first returning thoughts; hatred and thoughts of vengeance now filled
his hitherto empty brain, and over-excited it with all the more
violence because it had been torpid so long.

To her terror, Marianne Picaut heard Jean Oullier again uttering
phrases he had cried out in his fever, and which she had then taken
for delirium; she heard him mingle Courtin's name with accusations of
treachery and murder and of fabulous sums paid for some crime. Talking
thus, her patient became violently excited; with flashing eyes, and in
a voice trembling with emotion he implored her to go and find Bertha
and bring her to his bedside. The poor woman believed his excitement
was caused by a return of the fever, and was all the more uneasy
because the doctor had told her that he should not return for two
nights. She nevertheless promised the patient to do as he requested.

On this promise Jean Oullier calmed down, and little by little,
overcome with the violence of the emotions he had just passed through,
he went to sleep.

The widow, sitting on the straw beside the bed, and conscious of her
own fatigue, felt her eyes closing and sleep overtaking her in spite
of herself, when, all of a sudden she heard, or fancied she heard,
some unusual sound in the courtyard. She listened attentively; it was
certainly a man's step on the pavement which surrounded the pile of
manure which lay in the yard of the two dwellings. Presently a hand
unfastened the latch of the adjoining door, and Marianne heard a
voice, which she recognized as that of her brother-in-law, cry out:
"This way, this way!" and then the steps went up to Joseph's house.

Marianne knew that the house was empty; this nocturnal visit of her
brother-in-law excited her curiosity. She did not doubt it concerned
some scheme of violence such as all Chouans cherish traditionally, and
she resolved to listen.

She softly raised the shutter of a hole through which the cows, when
in the stable, poked their heads to eat the provender laid for them on
the floor of the room itself. Through this narrow opening she crawled
into her own room; then she climbed noiselessly up the ladder on which
the Comte de Bonneville had met his death, entered the garret, which,
as we know, was common to the two houses, and there, with her ear to
the floor above her brother-in-law's room, listened attentively.

She came into the midst of a conversation already begun.

"Did you see the sum?" said a voice which was not completely unknown
to her, though she could not recall the owner of it.

"As plain as I see you," replied Joseph Picaut. "It was all in
bank-bills; but he insisted on having it in gold."

"So much the better! for bills, I must say, don't attract me much; it
is difficult to get them taken in country places."

"I tell you he is to have gold."

"Good! and where are they to meet?"

"At Saint-Philbert, to-morrow night. You have plenty of time to
collect your _gars_."

"My _gars!_ are you crazy? How many did you say they were?"

"Two; that villain and his companion."

"Well, then, two against two; that's the right kind of war, as Georges
Cadoudal of glorious memory used to say."

"But you have only one hand now, Maître Jacques."

"That doesn't matter, if the one hand is a good one. I'll settle the
strongest of the pair."

"No, no! that's not in the agreement!"

"What do you mean?"

"I want the mayor for myself."

"You are exacting!"

"Oh, the villain! it will be little enough satisfaction for all he has
made me suffer."

"If they have the money you say they have, there'll be enough to
compensate you, even if he had sold you on the shambles like a negro.
Twenty-five thousand francs! You are not worth all that, my good
fellow, I know!"

"Perhaps not; but revenge is what I am after, and I've long wanted to
get my hand on him, the damned cur. It was he who caused--"

"Caused what?"

"No matter; I know."

Joseph Picaut's meaning was unintelligible to every one except
Marianne. She was certain that the recollection in the Chouan's mind
related to the killing of her poor husband, and a shudder ran through
her frame.

"Well," said Joseph's companion, "you shall have your man. But, before
undertaking the matter, will you swear that all you have said is true,
and that it is really a government agent on whom I am to lay hands?
Otherwise, you understand, the affair won't suit me."

"The devil! Do you suppose any private man is rich enough to make
presents like that to such a villain? Besides, those fifty thousand
francs are only on account; I heard that plainly."

"And you couldn't find out what they were paying such a large sum
for?"

"No, but I can guess."

"Tell me."

"It is my opinion, Maître Jacques, that in ridding the earth of that
pair of rascals we shall be killing two birds with one stone,--a
private matter first, and a political stroke next. But don't be
uneasy; I'll know more by to-morrow night, and let you know."

"_Sacredié!_" exclaimed Maître Jacques; "you make my mouth water. Look
here! I retract my word; you can only have your man if I leave a bit
of him!"

"Leave a bit of him! what do you mean?"

"Why, before you settle with him I want my share in the conversation."

"Pooh! do you suppose you could get his secret out of him?"

"Yes, if he is once my prisoner."

"He's a sly one!"

"Nonsense. You, who knew the old days, don't you remember how we used
to make 'em speak,--those who didn't want to?" said Maître Jacques,
with a dangerous look.

"Ha, yes! how we roasted their paws! Faith, you are right; that will
serve my vengeance better still," replied Joseph Picaut.

"And then we shall find out why and wherefore the government sends
those little gifts of fifty thousand francs, on account, to a country
mayor. That knowledge may be worth more to us than the gold we
pocket."

"Hey! gold has its value, especially to us who are old offenders and
likely to leave our heads on the place du Bouffai. With my share, that
is, twenty-five thousand francs, I can get away and live elsewhere."

"You shall do as you like. But come! tell me exactly where your pair
are to meet; it is important not to miss them."

"At the inn of Saint-Philbert."

"Then that's all right. Isn't that inn kept by your sister-in-law, or
pretty nearly? She shall have her share; it will be in the family."

"Oh, no, no!" cried Joseph. "In the first place she is not one of
ours; and besides, she doesn't speak to me since--"

"Since what?"

"My brother's death, there! since you force me to tell you."

"Ah, ha! so it was true, what they said, that if you did not strike
the blow, you at least held the candle?"

"Who said that,--who said that?" shouted Joseph Picaut. "Name him,
Maître Jacques, and I'll hack him into pieces like that stool!" And
suiting the action to the word, he dashed the stool on which he was
sitting to the stone hearth and shivered it to fragments.

"Quiet! quiet!" said Maître Jacques; "what's all that to me? You know
I never meddle in family affairs. Come back to our own business. You
were saying?"

"I was saying, don't mix the matter up with my sister-in-law."

"Then it must be settled in the open country. But where? They'll be
sure to come by different roads."

"Yes, but they will go away together. In order to get home, the mayor
will have to take the road to Nantes as far as the Tiercet."

"Well, then, let's ambush by the road to Nantes among the reeds; it is
a good hiding-place. For my part, I've made more than one good stroke
just there."

"So be it. Where shall we meet? I shall leave here to-morrow, before
daylight," said Joseph.

"Well, then, meet me at the Ragot crossways in the forest of
Machecoul," said the master of warrens.

Joseph agreed to the place and promised to be there. The widow heard
him offer Maître Jacques a night's lodging under his roof; but the old
Chouan, who had his burrows in every forest of the canton, preferred
those asylums to all the houses in the world, if not for comfort, at
least for security.

He departed therefore, and all was silent in Joseph's part of the
house.

Marianne returned to her stable and found Jean Oullier fast asleep;
she did not wake him. The night was far advanced,--so advanced that
she had only time to get back to Saint-Philbert before daylight. After
arranging, as usual, everything that her patient might want during the
morrow, she left the stable through the window.

As she walked thoughtfully along, the hatred she felt to her
brother-in-law, because of her firm conviction that he had shared in
the death of Pascal, and her deep desire for vengeance, which the
loneliness and sufferings of her widowhood made daily more imperious,
came over her. It seemed to her that heaven, by calling her
providentially to the discovery of Joseph's secret intention of crime,
put itself on her side; she believed she would be serving its designs
(while satisfying her hatred) in preventing the accomplishment of this
crime and the ruin and death of those she considered innocent. Her
first idea had been to denounce Maître Jacques and Joseph either to
the police or to those they intended to attack; but she now renounced
that scheme and resolved to be herself, and all alone, the
intermediary between fate and the victims of the intended crime.

XXXIV.

COURTIN FINGERS AT LAST HIS FIFTY THOUSAND FRANCS.

Petit-Pierre's letter to Bertha had not told Courtin much, except that
Petit-Pierre was in Nantes and awaited Bertha. As to her hiding-place
and the means of reaching it, the letter left him in the dark.

He did, however, possess an important piece of information in his
knowledge of the house with two entrances, through which Michel, Mary,
and the duchess had undoubtedly passed. For a moment he thought of
continuing his method of spying, and of following Bertha when, in
obedience to Petit-Pierre's injunction, she should seek the princess
in Nantes; and he also thought of discounting to his profit the
distress of the girl's mind when she should discover the true
relations of Michel and her sister. But the farmer had now come to
doubt the efficacy of the means he had hitherto employed; he felt he
might lose, without recovery, his last chance of success, if accident
or the vigilance of those he watched were to baffle once more his
sagacity and cunning. He therefore decided to try another means and
take the initiative.

Was the house which opened on the nameless alley to which we have
several times taken the reader, and also on the rue du Marché,
actually inhabited? If so, who lived there? Through that person, or
persons, might it not be possible to reach Petit-Pierre? Such were the
questions which reflection placed before the mind of the mayor of La
Logerie.

In order to solve them it was necessary that he should stay in Nantes;
and Maître Courtin at once resolved to give up returning to his farm,
where it was very probable that Bertha had already gone to meet Michel
on learning of the failure of his attempt to escape. He therefore
boldly decided on his new course.

The next day, at ten o'clock in the morning, he knocked at the door of
the mysterious house; but instead of presenting himself at the door on
the alley, he went to that on the rue du Marché,--his intention being
to convince himself that the two doors gave entrance to the same
house.

When the person who answered the knock had satisfied himself through a
little iron grating that the person knocking was alone, he opened, or
rather half-opened the door. The two heads now came face to face.

"Where do you come from?" asked the man inside.

Taken aback by the suddenness with which this question was put,
Courtin hesitated.

"_Pardieu!_" he said, "from Touvois."

"No one is expected from there," replied the man, attempting to close
the door; but it was not so easy to do this, for Courtin had his foot
against it.

A ray of light darted into the farmer's mind; he remembered the words
Michel had used to obtain the two horses from the landlord of the
Point du Jour, and he felt certain that those words, which he had not
understood at the time, were the countersign.

The man continued to push the door; but Courtin held firm.

"Wait, wait!" he said. "When I said I came from Touvois I was only
trying to find out if you were in the secret; one can't take too many
precautions in these devilish times. Well, there! I don't come from
Touvois, I come from the South."

"And where are you going?" asked his questioner, without, however,
yielding one inch of the way.

"Where do you expect me to go, if I come from the South, but to
Rosny?"

"That's all right," said the servant; "but don't you see, my fine
friend, that no one can come in here without showing a white paw?"

"For those who are all white, that isn't difficult."

"Hum! so much the better," said the man, a peasant of Lower Brittany,
who was running over the beads of a chaplet in his hand while
speaking.

But inasmuch as Courtin had really answered with the proper passwords,
he showed him, though with evident reluctance, into a small room, and
said, pointing to a chair:--

"Monsieur is engaged just now. I will announce you as soon as he has
finished with the person who is now in his office. Sit down,--unless
you want to spend the time more usefully."

Courtin saw that he had gained more than he expected. He had hoped to
meet some subordinate agent from whom he could extract, either by
trickery or corruption, the clues he wanted. When the man who admitted
him spoke of announcing him to his master, he felt that the matter was
becoming serious, and that he ought to be ready with some tale to meet
the necessities of the situation. He refrained from questioning the
servant, whose stern and gloomy countenance showed him to be one of
those rigid fanatics who are still to be found on the Celtic
peninsula. Courtin instantly perceived the tone he ought to take.

"Yes," he said, giving to his countenance a humble and sanctimonious
expression, "I will wait Monsieur's leisure and employ the time in
prayer. May I take one of those prayer-books?" he added, glancing at
the table.

"Don't touch those books if you are what you pretend to be; they are
not prayer-books, they are profane books," replied the Breton. "I'll
lend you mine," he continued, drawing from the pocket of his
embroidered jacket a little book, the cover and edges of which were
blackened by time and usage.

The movement he made in carrying his hand to his pocket disclosed the
shining handles of two pistols stuck into his wide belt, and Courtin
congratulated himself on not having risked any attempt on the fidelity
of the Breton, whom he now felt to be a man who would have answered it
in some dangerous way.

"Thank you," he said, as he received the book and knelt down with such
humility and contrition that the Breton, much edified, removed the hat
from his long hair, made the sign of the cross, and closed the door
very softly, that he might not trouble the devotions of so saintly a
person.

As soon as he was alone, the farmer felt a desire to examine in detail
the room in which he found himself; but he was not the man to commit
such a blunder as that. He reflected that the Breton's eye might be
fixed on him through the keyhole; he therefore controlled himself and
remained absorbed in prayer.

Nevertheless, while mumbling his pater-nosters, Courtin's eyes did
rove about the floor below him. The room was not more than a dozen
feet square, and was separated from an adjoining room by a partition,
in which there was a door. This little room was plainly furnished in
walnut, and was lighted by a window on the courtyard, the lower panes
of which were provided with a very delicate iron grating painted
green, which prevented any one on the outside from seeing into the
apartment.

He listened attentively to hear if any sound of voices could reach
him; but as to this, precautions had doubtless been taken, for though
Maître Courtin strained his ears toward the door and toward the
chimney, near which he was kneeling, not a sound reached him.

But, as he stooped beneath the chimney-piece to listen better, Courtin
caught sight, among the ashes, of several bits of crumpled paper lying
in a heap, as if placed there to be burned. These papers tempted
him; he dropped his arm, and then, leaning his head against the
chimney-piece, he slowly stretched out his hand and took up the
papers, one by one. Without changing his position he managed to open
them, confident that his movements at that level were hidden from any
eye at the keyhole by a table in the middle of the room.

He had examined and thrown away as of no interest several of these
papers, when on the back of one (among a number of insignificant bills
which he was about to crumple up on his knee and return to the ashes)
he spied certain words in a delicate and refined handwriting, which
struck him; they were as follows:--

"If you feel uneasy, come at once. Our friend desires me to say that
there is an empty room in our retreat which is at your service."

The note was signed M. de S. Evidently, as the initials indicated, it
was signed by Mary de Souday. Courtin put it carefully away in his
pocket; his peasant craftiness had instantly perceived the possible
good he might get out of its possession.

He continued his investigations, however, and came to the conclusion,
from sundry bills for large payments, that the owner or lessee of
the house must be intrusted with the management of the duchess's
money-matters. Just then he heard the sound of voices and of steps in
the passage. He rose hastily and went to the window. Through the
grating we have mentioned he saw the servant escorting a gentleman to
the door. The latter held in his hand an empty money-bag, and before
leaving the premises he folded it up and put it in his pocket. Until
then Courtin had not been able to see his face; but, just as he passed
in front of the servant to go out of the door, Courtin recognized
Maître Loriot.

"Ah, ha!" he said. "So he's in it, is he? It is he who brings them
money. Decidedly, I made a good stroke in coming here."

He returned to his place near the chimney, thinking that the time for
his interview had probably arrived. When the Breton opened the door he
found the visitor so absorbed in his orisons that he never stirred.
The peasant went to him, touched him gently on the shoulder, and asked
him to follow him; Courtin obeyed, after ending his prayer as he began
it, by making the sign of the cross, which the Breton imitated.

The farmer was now shown into the same room where Maître Pascal had
formerly received Michel; on this occasion, however, Maître Pascal was
much more seriously employed. Before him was a table covered with
papers, and Courtin fancied he saw the shining of various gold-pieces
among a pile of opened letters, which seemed to have been lately
heaped there as if to hide them.

Maître Pascal intercepted the farmer's glance; at first he was not
displeased, attributing it to nothing more than the inquisitive
interest which the peasantry always attach to the sight of gold and
silver. Nevertheless, as he did not choose to allow that curiosity to
go too far, he pretended to search for something in a drawer, and in
order to do so threw up an end of the long green table-cloth so that
it covered the pile of papers effectually. Then, turning to his
visitor he said roughly:--

"What do you want?"

"To fulfil an errand."

"Who sends you?"

"Monsieur de la Logerie."

"Ah, do you belong to that young man?"

"I am his farmer, his confidential man."

"Then say what you have to say."

"But I don't know that I can do that," said Courtin, boldly.

"Why not?"

"Because you are not the person to whom Monsieur de la Logerie sent
me."

"Who was it, then?" asked Maître Pascal, frowning with some
uneasiness.

"Another person, to whom you were to take me."

"I don't know what you mean," returned Maître Pascal, unable to
conceal the impatience he felt at what he supposed to be an
unpardonable piece of heedlessness on Michel's part.

Courtin, noticing his annoyance, saw that he had gone too far; but it
was dangerous to beat too rapid a retreat.

"Come," said Pascal, "will you, or will you not tell me what you are
here for? I have no time to waste."

"Bless me! I don't know what to do, my good gentleman," said Courtin.
"I love my young master enough to jump into the fire for him. When he
says to me 'do this' or 'do that,' I always try to execute his orders
just as he gives them, so as to deserve his confidence; and he did not
tell me to give his message to you."

"What is your name, my good man?"

"Courtin, at your service."

"What parish do you belong to?"

"La Logerie."

Maître Pascal took up a note-book, and looked it over for a few
moments; then he fixed an investigating and distrustful eye on
Courtin.

"You are the mayor of La Logerie?" he asked.

"Yes, since 1830." Then, observing Maître Pascal's increasing
coldness, "It was my mistress, Madame la baronne, who had me
nominated," he added.

"Did Monsieur de la Logerie only give you a verbal message for the
person to whom he sent you?"

"Yes; I have a bit of a letter here, but it isn't for that person."

"Can I see that bit of a letter?"

"Of course; there's no secret in it, because it isn't sealed."

And Courtin held out to Maître Pascal the paper Michel had given him
for Bertha, in which Petit-Pierre begged her to come to Nantes.

"How happens it that this paper is still in your hands?" asked Maître
Pascal. "It is dated some days ago."

"Because one can't do everything all at once; and I am not going back
our way just yet, and till I do I can't meet the person to whom I'm to
give the note."

Maître Pascal's eyes had never left the farmer's face from the moment
he had failed to find Courtin's name on the list of those whose
loyalty could be trusted. The latter was now affecting the same
idiotic simplicity that had succeeded so well with the captain of the
"Jeune Charles."

"Come, my good man," said Maître Pascal, "it is impossible for you to
give your message to any one but me. Do so if you think proper; if
not, go back to your master, and tell him he must come himself."

"I sha'n't do that, my dear monsieur," replied Courtin. "My master is
condemned to death, and I don't wish to say a word to bring him back
to Nantes. He is better off with us. I'll tell the whole thing to you;
you can do what you think best about it, and if Monsieur is not
pleased, he may scold me; I'd rather that than bring him here."

This artless expression of devotion reconciled Maître Pascal in a
degree to the farmer, whose first answer had seriously alarmed him.

"Go on, my good man, and I will answer for it your master will not
blame you."

"The matter is soon told: Monsieur Michel wants me to tell you, or
rather tell Monsieur Petit-Pierre,--for that is the name of the person
he sent me to find,--"

"Go on!" said Maître Pascal, smiling.

"I was to tell him that he had discovered the man who ordered the ship
to sail a few moments before Monsieur Petit-Pierre, Mademoiselle Mary,
and himself reached the rendezvous."

"And who may that man be?"

"One named Joseph Picaut, lately hostler at the Point du Jour."

"True; the man whom we placed there has disappeared since yesterday,"
said Maître Pascal. "Go on, Courtin!"

"I was to warn Monsieur Petit-Pierre to beware of this Picaut in town,
and to say he would look out for him in the country. And that's all."

"Very good; thank Monsieur de la Logerie for his information. And now
that I have received it, I can assure you that it was intended for
me."

"That's enough to satisfy me," said Courtin, rising.

Maître Pascal accompanied the farmer as he went out with much
civility, and did for him what Courtin had noticed that he did not do
for Maître Loriot,--he followed him to the very door of the street.

Courtin was too wily himself to mistake the meaning of these
attentions; and he was not surprised, when he had gone about twenty
paces from the house, to hear the door open and close behind him. He
did not turn round; but, certain that he was followed, he walked
slowly, like a man at leisure, stopping to gaze like a countryman into
all the shop-windows, reading the posters on the walls, and carefully
avoiding everything that might confirm the suspicions he had not been
able to destroy in Maître Pascal's mind. This constraint was no
annoyance to him; in fact, he enjoyed his morning, feeling that he was
on the verge of obtaining the reward of his trouble.

Just as he arrived in front of the hôtel des Colonies he saw Maître
Loriot under the portico, talking to a stranger. Courtin, affecting
great surprise, went straight to the notary, and inquired how he came
to be at Nantes when it was not the market-day. Then he asked the
notary if he would give him a seat in his cabriolet back to Légé, to
which the latter very willingly assented, saying, however, that he
still had a few errands to do and should not be ready to leave Nantes
for four or five hours, and advising Courtin to wait in some café.

Now, a café was a luxury the farmer would not allow himself under any
circumstances, and that day least of all. In his religious fervor he
went devoutly to church, where he assisted at vespers said for the
canons; after which he returned to Maître Loriot's hotel, sat down on
a stone bench under a yew-tree, and went to sleep, or pretended to do
so, in the calm and peaceful slumber of an easy conscience.

Two hours later the notary returned; he told Courtin that unexpected
business would detain him at Nantes, and that he could not start for
Légé before ten o'clock. This did not suit the farmer, whose
appointment with Monsieur Hyacinthe (the name, it will be remembered,
of the mysterious man of Aigrefeuille) was from seven to eight o'clock
at Saint-Philbert-de-Grand-Lieu. He therefore told Monsieur Loriot
that he must give up the honor of his company and go on foot, for the
sun was getting low and he wanted to get home before night-fall.

When Courtin, sitting on the bench, had first opened his eyes, he saw
the Breton servant watching him; he now paid no attention to him and
seemed not to see him as he started to keep his rendezvous. The Breton
followed him over the river; but Courtin never once betrayed, by
looking backward, the usual uneasiness of those whose consciences are
ill at ease. The result was that the Breton returned to his master and
assured him that it was a great mistake to distrust the worthy
peasant, who spent his leisure hours in the most innocent amusements
and pious practices; so that even Maître Pascal, cautious as he was,
began to think Michel less to blame for confiding in so faithful a
servant.

XXXV.

THE TAVERN OF THE GRAND SAINT-JACQUES.

One word on the lay of the land about the village of Saint-Philbert.
Without this little topographical preface, which shall be short, like
all our prefaces, it would be difficult for our readers to follow in
detail the scenes we are now about to lay before their eyes.

The village of Saint-Philbert stands at the angle formed by the river
Boulogne as it falls into the lake of Grand-Lieu; the village is on
the left bank of the river. The church and the principal houses are
somewhere about fifteen hundred yards from the lake; the main, in fact
the only street follows the river-bank, and the lower it goes to the
lake, the fewer and poorer the houses; so that when the vast blue
sheet of water, framed in reeds, which forms the terminus of the
street is reached, there is nothing to be seen but a few thatched huts
occupied by men who are employed in the fisheries.

Yet there is, or rather was at the time of which we write, one
exception to this decadence of the lower end of the village street.
About thirty steps away from the huts we have mentioned stood a brick
and stone house, with red roofs and green shutters, surrounded with
hay and straw stacks, like sentinels round a camp, and peopled with a
world of cows, sheep, chickens, ducks,--all either lowing and bleating
in the stables or clucking and gabbling before the door as they
preened themselves in the dust of the road.

The road served as the courtyard of the house, which, if deprived of
that useful resort, could still fall back upon its gardens, which are
simply the most magnificent and productive of all the country round.
From the road the crests of the fruit-trees can be seen above the
farm-buildings, covered in spring-time with the rosy snow of their
blossoms; in summer, with fruits of all kinds; and during nine months
of the year, with verdure. These trees spread in a semi-circle about a
thousand feet southerly, to a little hill crowned with ruins which
looks down upon the waters of the lake of Grand-Lieu.

This house is the inn kept by the mother of Marianne Picaut. These
ruins are those of the château de Saint-Philbert-de-Grand-Lieu.

The high walls and gigantic towers of this the most celebrated
baronial castle in the province, built to hold the country in check
and command the waters of the lake, the gloomy arches that once echoed
to the clanking spurs of Comte Gilles de Retz as he trod its paved
floors, meditating on those monstrous debauches which surpassed all
that Rome in its decadence ever invented,--now, dismantled,
dilapidated, swathed in ivy, overgrown with gilliflowers, crumbling on
all sides, have descended, from degradation to degradation, to the
lowest of all; grand, savage, terrible as they once were, they are now
humbly utilitarian; they have been reduced at last to making a living
for a family of peasants, descendants of poor serfs who in former days
regarded them, no doubt, with fear and trembling.

These ruins shelter the gardens from the northwest wind, so fatal to
fertility, and make this little corner of earth a perfect Eldorado,
where all things grow and prosper,--from the native pear to the grape,
the fruiting sorbus to the fig-tree.

But this was not the only service which the old feudal castle did to
its new proprietors. In the lower halls, cooled by currents of
impetuous air, they kept their fruits and garden products, preserving
them in good condition after the ordinary season had passed; thus
doubling their value. And besides this source of profit, the dungeons,
where Gilles de Retz had piled his victims, were now a dairy, the
butter and cheese of which were justly celebrated. This is what time
has done with the Titanic works of the former lords of Saint-Philbert.

One word now on what they once were.

The château de Saint-Philbert consisted originally of a vast
parallelogram enclosed with walls, bathed on one side by the waters of
the lake and protected on the other side by a broad moat hollowed in
the rock. Four square towers flanked the four corners of this enormous
mass of stone; a citadel in the centre, with its portcullis bristling
with spikes, defended the entrance. Opposite to the citadel, on the
other side of the castle, a fifth square tower, taller and more
imposing than the rest, commanded the whole structure, and the lake,
which surrounded it on three sides.

With the exception of this fifth tower and the citadel, or keep, all
the rest of the fortress, walls and main-buildings, had pretty much
crumbled away, and time had not entirely spared the great tower
itself. The rotten beams of the first floor, unable to support the
stones which year by year slid down upon them in greater numbers, had
sunk to the ground-floor, raising it by over a foot, leaving no other
ceiling in the tower than the rafters of the roof.

It was in this lower room that the grandfather of the widow Picaut had
principally kept his fruit, and the walls were lined with shelves on
which the good man spread in winter the various products of his
garden. The doors and windows of this portion of the tower had
remained more or less intact, and at one of these windows could still
be seen an iron bar covered with rust, which undoubtedly dated from
the days of Comte Gilles.

The other towers and the walls of the main building were completely in
ruins; the masses of masonry which had fallen had rolled either into
the courtyard, which they obstructed, or into the lake, which covered
them with its reeds at all times and its foam in stormy weather. The
citadel, about as intact as the great tower, was crowded with an
enormous mass of ivy which took the place of a roof; in it were two
small chambers, which, notwithstanding the colossal appearance of the
structure, were not more than eight or ten feet square, owing to the
enormous thickness of the walls.

The inner courtyard, used in feudal days as the barrack-ground of the
castle's defenders, obstructed by the rubbish which time had heaped
there,--fragments of columns and battlements, broken arches,
dilapidated statues,--was now impassable. A narrow path led to the
great tower; another, less carefully cleared, led to a remaining
vestige of the east tower, where a stone staircase was actually left
standing, by which all persons desirous of enjoying a beautiful view
could, after a series of acrobatic feats, reach the platform of the
main tower by following a gallery which ran along the wall like those
Alpine paths cut on the face of the rock between precipice and
mountain.

It is unnecessary to say that, except during the period of the year
when the fruits were stored there, no one frequented these ruins of
the château de Saint-Philbert. At that period a watchman was stationed
there, who slept in the keep; all the rest of the year the gates of
the tower were locked and the place was abandoned to lovers of
historical reminiscences, and to the boys of the village, who pervaded
the old ruins, where they found nests to pillage, flowers to pick,
dangers to brave,--all things of eager attraction to children.

It was in these ruins that Courtin had appointed to meet Monsieur
Hyacinthe. He knew they would be absolutely deserted at the hour he
named to his associate, inasmuch as the lingering ill-repute of the
place drove away at night all the village urchins who, as long as the
sun was above the horizon, scampered like lizards among the dentelled
ridges of the old ruin.

The mayor of La Logerie left Nantes about five o'clock; he was on
foot, and yet he walked so fast that he was an hour earlier than he
needed to be when he crossed the bridge which led into the village of
Saint-Philbert. Maître Courtin was somewhat of a personage in the
village. To see him desert the Grand Saint-Jacques (the inn before
which he usually tied his pony Sweetheart) in favor of the Pomme de
Pin, the tavern kept by the mother of the widow Picaut, would have
been an event which, as he very well knew, would have set the village
tongues a wagging. He was so convinced of this that, although, being
deprived of his pony and never taking any refreshment except what was
offered to him, it seemed a useless matter to go to an inn at all, the
mayor of La Logerie stopped, as usual, before the door of the Grand
Saint-Jacques, where he held with the inhabitants of the village (who,
since the double defeat at Chêne and La Pénissière, had drawn closer
to him) a conversation which, under present circumstances, was not
unimportant to him.

"Maître Courtin," said one man, "is it true what they say?"

"What do they say, Matthieu?" replied Courtin. "Tell me; I'd like to
know."

"Hang it! they say you've turned your coat, and nothing can be seen
but the lining of it,--so that what was blue is now white."

"Well done!" said Courtin; "if that isn't nonsense!"

"You've given occasion for it, my man; and since your young master
went over to the Whites it is a fact that you've stopped gabbling
against them as you once did."

"Gabbling!" exclaimed Courtin, with his slyest look, "what's the good
of that? I have something better to do than gabble, and--and you'll
hear of it soon, my lad."

"So much the better! for, don't you see, Maître Courtin, all these
public troubles are death to business. If patriots can't agree,
they'll die of poverty and hunger instead of being shot like our
forefathers. Whereas, if we could only get rid of those troublesome
_gars_ who roam the forests about here and make trouble, business
would soon pick up, and that's all we want."

"Roaming?" repeated Courtin, "who are roaming? Seems to me that none
but ghosts are left to roam now."

"Pooh! there's plenty of them left. It isn't ten minutes since I saw
the boldest of them go by, gun in hand, pistols in his belt,--just as
if there weren't any red-breeches in the land."

"Who was he?"

"Joseph Picaut, by God!--the man who killed his brother."

"Joseph Picaut! here?" exclaimed Courtin, turning livid. "It isn't
possible!"

"It's as true as you live, Maître Courtin! as true as there is a God!
He did have on a sailor's hat and jacket, but never mind, I recognized
him all the same."

Maître Courtin reflected a moment. The plan he had laid in his head,
which rested on the existence of the house with two issues, and the
daily intercourse of Maître Pascal with Petit-Pierre, might fail; in
which case, he had Bertha to fall back upon as a last resource.
There would then remain, in order to discover Petit-Pierre's retreat,
one means open to him,--the means he had already failed in with
Mary,--namely, to follow Bertha when she went to Nantes. If Bertha saw
Joseph Picaut all was lost; still worse would it be if Bertha put
Picaut in communication with Michel! Then the part he had played in
stopping the embarkation would be disclosed to the young baron, and
the farmer was a ruined man.

Courtin asked for pen, ink, and paper, wrote a few lines, and gave
them to the man who had spoken to him.

"Here, _gars_ Matthieu," he said, "here's a proof that I'm a patriot
and that I don't turn round like a weathercock to the wind of any
master. You accuse me of following my young landlord in all his
performances; well, the fact is that I have only known within the last
hour where he is hiding, and now I am going to lay hands on him. The
more occasion I have to destroy the enemies of the nation, the better
pleased I am, and the more I hasten to take advantage of it; and
what's more, I do it without inquiring whether it is to my advantage
or disadvantage, or whether the persons I denounce are my friends or
not."

The peasant, who was a double-dyed Blue, shook Courtin's hand
heartily.

"Are your legs good?" continued the latter.

"I should think so!" said the peasant.

"Well, then, carry that to Nantes at once; and as I have a good many
haystacks out, I rely on you to keep my secret; for, you understand,
if I'm suspected of having the young baron arrested, those stacks will
never get into my barn."

The peasant made a promise of secrecy, and Courtin, as it was now
dusk, left the inn on the right, made a tack across the fields, and
then, returning cautiously on his steps, took a path which led to the
ruins of Saint-Philbert.

He reached them by the shore of the lake, followed the moat, and
entered the courtyard by a stone bridge which had long replaced the
portcullis that gave entrance to the citadel.

As he entered the courtyard he whistled softly. At the signal a man
sitting on the fallen masonry rose and came to him. The man was
Monsieur Hyacinthe.

"Is that you?" he said, as he approached with some caution.

"Yes," said Courtin, "don't be alarmed."

"What news?"

"Good; but this is not the place to tell it."

"Why not?"

"Because it is as dark as a pocket. I almost walked over you before I
knew it. A man might be hidden here at our feet and we not be the
wiser. Come! the affair is in too good shape just now to risk
anything."

"Very good; but where will you find a lonelier place than this?"

"We must find one. If I knew of an open desert in the neighborhood I'd
go there and speak low. But, for want of a desert, we'll find some
place where we are certain of being alone."

"Go on; I'll follow you."

XXXVI.

JUDAS AND JUDAS.

It was toward the great middle tower that Courtin now guided his
companion, not without stopping once or twice to listen; for, whether
it was reality or fancy, the mayor of La Logerie thought he saw
shadows gliding near them. But as Monsieur Hyacinthe reassured him
after every pause, he ended by thinking it an effect of imagination;
and when they reached the tower he opened a door, entered first, took
from his pocket a wax candle and a sulphur match, lighted the candle
and carried it cautiously into all the corners and angularities of the
room to make sure that no one was hidden there.

A door, cut in the wall to the right and partly broken down by the
rubbish of the ceiling, excited his fears and also his curiosity. He
pushed it open and found himself in front of a yawning space from
which a damp vapor was rising.

"Look there!" said Monsieur Hyacinthe, who followed him, showing
Courtin a wide breach in the outer wall, through which they could see
the lake sparkling in the moonlight. "Look at that!"

"I see it plain enough," said Courtin, laughing. "Yes, Mère Chompré's
dairy needs repairing; since I was here last the hole in that wall is
double the size it used to be. One might get a boat in now."

Raising his light and holding it outward he tried to look into the
depths below; not succeeding, he took a stone and flung it into the
water, where it fell with a sonorous noise that sounded like a threat,
while the wash of the ruffled water against the steps and the
foundations gave an answering ripple.

"Well," said Courtin, "there is evidently nothing there that can hear
us but the fish of the lake; and the old proverb says, you know, 'Mute
as a fish.'"

Just then a stone came rolling down from the roof along the tower wall
and fell into the courtyard.

"Did you hear that?" asked Monsieur Hyacinthe, uneasily.

"Yes," replied Courtin. Unlike his companion, who seemed to grow more
timorous in the gigantic shadow thrown by the ruins, the farmer
recovered courage after convincing himself that no human being could
possibly be lurking in the courtyard. "I've seen large bits of
masonry fall from the top of that old tower just from the blow of a
bat's wing."

"Hé, hé!" exclaimed Monsieur Hyacinthe, with his nasal laugh, which
was like that of a German Jew; "it is precisely the night-birds we
have to fear."

"Yes, the Chouans," replied Courtin. "But no! these ruins are too near
the village; and though a villain I thought I had got rid of has been
seen roaming about here to-day, I feel sure he won't dare to risk a
visit by night."

"Put out your light, then!"

"No, no; we don't need it to talk by, that's true, but we have
something else to do than talk, I'm thinking."

"Have we?" said Monsieur Hyacinthe, eagerly.

"Yes. Come into this recess, where we shall be sheltered, and where
the light can be hidden."

So saying he led Monsieur Hyacinthe beneath the archway that led down
to the gate of the cellars, placed the light behind a fallen stone,
and sat down himself on the cellar steps.

"Do you mean to say," said Monsieur Hyacinthe, planting himself in
front of Courtin, "that you are going to give me the name of the
street and the number of the house in which the duchess is hidden?"

"That, or something like it," replied Courtin, who had heard the
clinking of gold on Monsieur Hyacinthe's person, his eyes sparkling
with greed.

"Come, don't lose time in useless words. Do you know where she is
living?"

"No."

"Then why have you brought me here? Ha! if I have a regret it is that
I ever committed myself to a dawdler like you."

For all answer Courtin took the paper he had picked from the ashes of
the hearth in the rue du Marché and held it out to Monsieur Hyacinthe,
raising the light that he might see to read it.

"Who wrote that?" asked the Jew.

"The young girl I told you about, who was with the person we are in
search of."

"Yes, but she is not with her now."

"That is true."

"Therefore I should be glad to know what good this letter is. What
does it prove? How can it help our purpose?"

Courtin shrugged his shoulders and replaced the candle beside the
stone.

"Really, for a city gentleman," he said, "you are not very sharp."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Don't you see that the duchess offers an asylum to the man to whom
the letter is addressed, in case he is in any danger?"

"Yes, what next?"

"Next? Why, if we put him in danger he is certain to take it."

"And then?"

"Then we can search the house he goes to, and catch them all
together."

Monsieur Hyacinthe reflected.

"Yes, the scheme is a good one," he said, turning the letter over and
over in his hand and holding it near the candle to make sure it
contained no other writing.

"I should think it was a good one!" exclaimed Courtin.

"Where does that man live?" asked Monsieur Hyacinthe, carelessly.

"Oh, as for telling you where he lives, that's another matter. I've
told you the scheme, and you think it a good one,--you said so
yourself; if I told you how to carry it out I should just be giving
myself away for nothing."

"But suppose the man does not accept the retreat offered to him, and
does not go to the house where she is hidden?" said Monsieur
Hyacinthe.

"Oh, that's impossible if we follow a plan I'll explain to you. His
own house has two issues. We go to one with a posse of soldiers; he
escapes by the other, which we leave clear; he sees no danger that
way, but we follow him from a distance. You see for yourself the thing
can't fail. And now, unfasten your belt and pay me the money."

"Will you come with me?"

"Of course I will."

"From now till the game is played you will not leave me a single
instant?"

"I don't wish to, inasmuch as you only pay me half now."

"But remember this," said Monsieur Hyacinthe, with a determination
scarcely to be expected from his pacific demeanor, "I warn you that if
you make even one suspicious gesture, if I have the slightest reason
to think you are deceiving me, I will blow your brains out."

So saying Monsieur Hyacinths drew a pistol from his pocket and showed
it to his companion. The face of the man who made the threat was cold
and calm, but a dangerous flash in his eye convinced the other that he
was a man to keep his word.

"As you please," said Courtin; "and all the easier for you because I
have no weapon."

"That's a blunder," remarked Monsieur Hyacinthe.

"Come," said Courtin, "pay me what you promised, and swear to me that
if the thing succeeds you will pay me as much more."

"You may rely upon my word, which is sacred; a man is honest, or he is
not honest. But why do you want to carry this gold yourself, as you
and I are not to part?" continued Monsieur Hyacinthe, who seemed to
have as much reluctance to part with his belt as Courtin had eagerness
to grasp it.

"What!" exclaimed the latter; "don't you see I'm in a fever to touch
that gold, to feel it, to handle it? I am dying to know if it is
really there, even if I don't touch it. Why, for the joy of that, for
that one moment of happiness when I feel it in my fingers, I've risked
all! You shall give it to me now, or I'll not say another word. Yes!
for this one moment I've braved everything, I've summoned courage,--I
who am afraid of my shadow, I who trembled and shook when I walked up
our avenue at night. Give me that gold, give me that gold, monsieur!
We have many dangers to face, many risks to run yet; that gold will
give me courage. Give me that gold if you wish me to be as calm, as
relentless as yourself."

"Yes," replied Monsieur Hyacinthe, who had watched the vivid lighting
up of the peasant's dull, wan face as he said these words. "Yes, you
shall have the money the instant you give me the address; but I will
have the address, the address!"

One was as eager as the other for the thing each desired. Monsieur
Hyacinthe rose, and took off his belt; Courtin, intoxicated with the
metallic sound he heard, again stretched forth his hand to seize it.

"One moment!" cried Monsieur Hyacinthe; "give and take!"

"Yes, but let me first see if it is really gold you have there."

The Jew shrugged his shoulders, but he yielded to the wishes of his
accomplice; he pulled the iron chain that closed the mouth of the
leathern bag, and Courtin, dazzled by the gleam of gold, felt a
shudder pass through all his body, while with elongated neck, and
fixed eyes, and trembling lips, he plunged his hands with ineffable,
indescribable pleasure into the heap of coin which rippled through his
fingers.

"He lives," he said, "rue du Marché, No. 22; the other door is in an
alley running parallel with the rue du Marché."

Maître Hyacinthe released his hold on the belt, which Courtin seized
with a deep sigh of satisfaction. But almost at the same instant he
raised his head with a terrified look.

"What is it?" asked Monsieur Hyacinthe.

"I heard steps," said the farmer, his face convulsed.

"No, no," said the Jew, "I heard nothing. I've been a fool to give you
that money."

"Why?" said Courtin, clasping the belt to his breast as if afraid the
other might snatch it back.

"Because it seems to double your fears."

With a rapid movement Courtin clutched his companion's arm.

"What is the matter?" asked Monsieur Hyacinthe again, beginning to
feel uneasy.

"I tell you I hear steps overhead!" said Courtin, looking up to the
dark and gloomy space above them.

"Nonsense; perhaps you are ill."

"I don't feel well, that's true."

"Then let's leave the place; we have nothing more to do here, and it
is time we were on the way to Nantes."

"No, no, not yet."

"Why not yet?"

"Let us hide here and listen. People are about, and they are watching
for us; and if they are watching for us they'll guard the door. Oh, my
God! my God! can it be that they are after my gold already?" moaned
the farmer, trying to fasten the belt about his waist, but trembling
so violently that he could not do it.

"My good friend, you are certainly losing your head," said Monsieur
Hyacinthe, who proved to be the more courageous man of the two. "Let
us put out the light and hide in the cellar. We can see from there if
you are mistaken."

"You are right, you are right," said Courtin, blowing out the candle
as he opened the cellar door and went down the first step into the
inundated vault.

But he went no farther. A cry of terror burst from him, in which could
be heard the words:--

"Help, help! Monsieur Hyacinthe!"

The latter laid a hand on his pistol, when a powerful hand seized his
arm and twisted it as if to break it. The pain was so great that the
Jew fell on his knees, the sweat pouring from his face as he cried out
for mercy.

"One word, and I'll kill you like the dog you are!" said the voice of
Maître Jacques. Then, addressing Joseph Picaut, who was just behind
him, he went on: "Well, do-nothing, haven't you got him? What are you
about?"

"Oh, the villain!" exclaimed Joseph, in a voice that was broken and
breathless from his efforts to hold Courtin, whom he had seized the
moment the latter opened the door to go down the cellar stairs, and
who was now making desperate efforts to save, not himself, but his
gold. "Oh, the traitor! he is biting me, tearing me. If you hadn't
forbidden me to bleed him, I'd soon have done for him."

At the same instant two bodies fell within six feet of Monsieur
Hyacinthe, whom Maître Jacques was pinning to the ground.

"If he kicks too long, kill him, kill him!" said Maître Jacques. "Now
that I know all I want to know, I don't see why not."

"Damn it! why didn't you say so before, and I'd have finished him at
once!"

By a violent effort Picaut threw Courtin under him and got a knee upon
his breast, pulling a long-bladed knife from his belt, on which, dark
as it was, Courtin saw the light flashing.

"Mercy! mercy!" cried the mayor. "I'll tell all, I'll confess all; but
don't kill me!"

Maître Jacques' hand stayed Picaut's arm, which, in spite of Courtin's
offer, was in the act of descending upon him.

"Don't kill him!" said Maître Jacques, "on reflection, he may still be
useful. Tie him up like a sausage, and don't let him stir, paws or
toes!"

The luckless Courtin was so terrified that he actually held out his
hands to Joseph, who bound them with a slender, loose rope Maître
Jacques had made his companion bring with him. Nevertheless, the
wretched man would not release his clutch on the belt full of gold,
which he held pressed to his stomach by his elbow.

"Haven't you bound him yet?" cried Maître Jacques, impatiently.

"Let me finish roping this paw," replied Joseph.

"Very good; and when you've done bind this fellow, too," continued
Maître Jacques, pointing to Monsieur Hyacinthe, whom he had allowed to
get upon his knees, in which posture the Jew remained silent and
motionless.

"I could do it faster if there were any light," said Joseph Picaut,
provoked to find a knot in his rope, which in the darkness he could
not undo.

"Well, after all," said Maître Jacques, "why the devil are we in a
hurry? Why not light the lantern? It would do my soul good to see the
faces of these sellers of kings and princes."

Suiting the action to the word, Maître Jacques pulled out a little
lantern and lighted it with a sulphur match as imperturbably as if he
had been in the depths of his forest of Touvois; then he turned the
light full on the faces of Monsieur Hyacinthe and Courtin. By the
gleam of that light Joseph Picaut saw the leather belt the farmer was
hugging to his breast, and he sprang forward to tear it from him.
Maître Jacques mistook the object of his action. Thinking that the
Chouan's hatred to Courtin had got the better of him, and that he
meant to kill him, the master of rabbits sprang forward to prevent it.

As he did so a line of fire darted from the upper part of the tower
and shot through the darkness; a dull explosion was heard and Maître
Jacques fell head foremost on Courtin's body, who felt his face
covered with a warm and fetid liquid.

"Ha! villain!" cried Maître Jacques, rising on one knee and addressing
Joseph, "ha! you have led me into a trap. I forgave you your lie, but
you shall pay for your treachery!"

Raising his pistol, he fired at close quarters on Pascal Picaut's
brother. The lantern rolled down the steps into the waters below and
was extinguished; the smoke of the two shots made the darkness deeper.

Monsieur Hyacinthe, when Maître Jacques fell, rose pale, mute, mad
with terror, and ran hither and thither about the tower, endeavoring
to find an exit. At last he saw through a narrow window the sparkle of
a star on the black vault of heaven, and with the strength of terror
he climbed to the opening, giving no heed to the fate of his
accomplice, and plunged head foremost into the lake.

The immersion into cold water calmed the blood which was rushing
violently to his brain, and he recovered his self-control. He came to
the surface of the water, where he kept himself by swimming. Then he
looked about him to see in which direction he had better turn, and his
eyes lighted on a boat moored at the breach in the wall through which
the waters of the lake had forced their way into the tower.
Shuddering, he swam for it, making as little noise as he could,
climbed in, seized the oars, and was five hundred feet away from the
shore before he even thought of his companion.

"Rue du Marché, No. 22," he cried. "No, terror hasn't made me forget
it. Success depends now on the rapidity with which I get to Nantes.
Poor Courtin!--I may now consider myself heir to the last fifty
thousand francs; but what a fool I was to give him the first! I might
at this very moment have had the address and the money both. What a
blunder! what a blunder!"

Then, to stifle his remorse, the Jew bent to his oars and made the
boat spin across the lake with a vigor which seemed quite incompatible
with his weakly appearance.

XXXVII.

AN EYE FOR AN EYE, AND A TOOTH FOR A TOOTH.

In order to follow Monsieur Hyacinthe for a moment we were obliged to
leave our older acquaintance, Courtin, stretched on the ground, legs
and arms tied, in thickest darkness, between the two wounded bandits.

The sound of Maître Jacques' heavy breathing and Joseph's moans
terrified him as much as their threats had done. He trembled lest one
or the other might revive and remember he was here, and execute
summary vengeance on him; he held his breath, lest even its tremor
might recall him to their minds.

And yet, another feeling was even more powerful in him than the love
of life. He was resolved to keep to the very last moment the precious
belt from those who might be his murderers, and he continued to hug it
to his breast, even daring, in order to hide it, that which he would
not have dared to save his life; he gently suffered the belt to slip
to the ground beside him, and then with an almost imperceptible motion
he crept in the same direction until he had covered it with his body.

Just as he had managed to execute this difficult man[oe]uvre he heard
the door of the tower rolling and creaking on its rusty hinges, and he
saw a sort of phantom clothed in black advancing toward him, holding a
torch in one hand, and dragging with the other a heavy musket, the
butt-end of which resounded on the stones.

Though the shades of death were already darkening his eyes, Joseph
Picaut saw the apparition; for he cried out, in a voice broken with
agony:--

"The widow! the widow!"

The widow of Pascal Picaut, for it was she, walked slowly forward,
without a glance at Courtin or Maître Jacques, who, pressing his left
hand on a wound in his breast, was striving to rise upon his right;
then she stopped in front of her brother-in-law and gazed at him with
an eye that was still threatening.

"A priest! a priest!" cried the dying man, horrified by that awful
phantom, which roused a hitherto unknown feeling in his breast,--that
of remorse.

"A priest! What good will a priest do you, miserable man? Can he bring
back to life your brother whom you murdered?"

"No, no!" cried Joseph; "no, I did not murder Pascal. I swear it by
eternity, to which I am now going!"

"You did not kill him, but you let others do so,--if, indeed, you did
not urge them to the crime. Not content with that, you fired at me.
You would have been twice a fratricide in one day if the hand of a
brave man had not pushed aside your weapon. But be sure of this: it is
not the harm you tried to do to me that I am avenging. It is the hand
of God that strikes you through me--Cain!"

"What!" exclaimed Joseph Picaut and Maître Jacques, "that shot--"

"I fired it; I knew I should surprise you here in the commission of
another crime, and it was I who shot you in the act. Yes, Joseph, yes;
you so brave, you so proud of your strength, bow down before God's
judgment!--you die by a woman's hand."

"What matters it to me how I die? Death comes from God. I implore you,
woman, give my repentance chance for efficacy; let me be reconciled to
the Heaven I have offended; bring me a priest, I implore you!"

"Did your brother have a priest in his last hour? Did you give him,
you, the time to lift his soul to God when he fell beneath the blows
of your accomplices at the ford of the Boulogne? No, an eye for an
eye, and a tooth for a tooth! Die a violent death; die without help
temporal or spiritual, as your brother died. And may all brigands,"
she added, turning to Maître Jacques, "all brigands who, in the name
of any flag, no matter which it is, bring ruin to their country and
mourning to their homes, descend with you to the lowest hell!"

"Woman!" cried Maître Jacques, who had succeeded in raising himself,
"whatever be his crime, whatever he may have done to you, it is not
good that you should speak to him thus. Forgive him, that you may
yourself be forgiven!"

"I?" said the widow. "Who dares to raise a voice against me?"

"The man whom, without intending it, you have sent to his grave; he
who received the ball you meant for your brother-in-law; the man who
speaks to you, I--I whom you have killed. And yet I am not angry with
you; for, by the way the world wags now, the best thing men of heart
can do is to go and see if that three-colored rag which seems to be to
the fore here waves in God's heaven."

Marianne gave a cry of astonishment, almost of horror, when she heard
what Maître Jacques told her. As the reader has doubtless understood,
she had watched for the arrival of Courtin; then when he and his
companion had entered the tower she went up the old staircase and
along the outer gallery till she reached the platform of the tower;
thence, through the rafters of the roof, she had fired on her
brother-in-law.

We have seen how, in consequence of the movement, made by Maître
Jacques to save Courtin, he was the one to receive the shot.

This miscarriage of her hatred had, as we have said, bewildered the
widow; but quickly recovering herself as she remembered what bandits
these men really were, she said:--

"Even if that is true, if I did shoot one intending to shoot the
other, my shot struck you as you were both about to commit another
crime. I have saved the life of an innocent man."

A savage smile curled the pale lips of Maître Jacques on hearing her
last words. He turned toward Courtin and felt in his belt for the
handle of his second pistol.

"Ha! yes!" he said with a dangerous laugh; "here's an innocent man; I
had almost forgotten him. Well, that innocent, since you remind me of
him, I'll give him his brevet as martyr. I won't die without
accomplishing my mission."

"You shall not stain your last hour with blood, as you have stained
your whole life, Maître Jacques!" cried the widow, placing herself
between Courtin and the Chouan. "I know how to prevent it."

And she turned the muzzle of her gun full on Maître Jacques.

"Very good," said Maître Jacques, as if he resigned himself.
"Presently, if God allows me time and strength, I will make you know
the two scoundrels whom you call innocent; but, for the time being, I
will let this one live. In exchange, and to deserve the absolution I
gave you just now, forgive your poor brother. Don't you hear the
rattle in his throat? He will be dead in ten minutes, and then it will
be too late."

"No, never! never!" said the widow, in a muffled voice.

Not only the voice but the rattle in Joseph's throat grew perceptibly
weaker, and yet he did not cease to use his last remaining strength in
beseeching his sister's pardon.

"It is God and not I whom you must implore," she said.

"No," said the dying man, shaking his head; "I dare not pray to God so
long as your curse is upon me."

"Then address your brother, and pray to him to forgive you."

"My brother!" murmured Joseph, closing his eyes as if a terrible
spectre were before him; "my brother! I shall see him! I shall be face
to face with him!"

And he strove to push away with his hand the bloody phantom which
seemed to beckon to him. Then, in a voice that was hardly
intelligible, and was indeed scarcely more than a whisper,--

"Brother! brother!" he murmured, "why do you turn away your head when
I pray to you? In the name of our mother, Pascal, let me clasp your
knees. Remember the tears we shed together in our childhood, which the
first Blues made so bitter. Forgive me for having followed the
terrible path our father enjoined on both of us. Alas! alas! how could
I know it would bring you and me face to face as enemies? My God! my
God! he does not answer me! Oh, Pascal, why do you turn away your
head? Oh! my poor child, my little Louis, whom I shall never see
again," continued the Chouan, "pray to your uncle, pray to him for me!
He loved you as his own child; ask him, in the name of your dying
father, to help a repentant sinner to reach the throne of God! Ah,
brother! brother!" he murmured, with a sudden expression of joy that
bordered on ecstasy, "you hear him, you pardon me, you stretch your
hand to the child. My God! my God! take my soul now, for my brother
has forgiven me!"

He fell back upon the ground from which, by a mighty effort, he had
risen to stretch his arms toward the vision.

During this time, and gradually, the hatred and vengeance in the
widow's face subsided. When Joseph spoke of the little boy whom Pascal
loved as his own child, a tear forced its way from her eyelids; and
when at last, by the gleam of her torch, she saw the face of the dying
man illuminated, not with an earthly light, but by a sacred halo, she
fell upon her knees, and pressing the hand of her wounded brother, she
cried out:--

"I believe you, I believe you, Joseph! God unseals the eyes of the
dying and lets them see into the heights of heaven. If Pascal pardons
you, I pardon you. As he forgets, so I forget. Yes, I forget all to
remember one thing only,--that you were his brother. Brother of
Pascal, die in peace!"

"Thank you, thank you," stammered Joseph, whose voice now hissed
through his lips, which were stained with a bloody froth. "Thank you!
but--the wife, the children?"

"Your wife shall be my sister, and your children are my children,"
said the widow, solemnly. "Die in peace, Joseph!"

The hand of the Chouan went to his forehead as though he meant to make
the sign of the cross; his lips murmured a few words, doubtless not
said for human ears, for no one understood them. Then he opened his
eyes unnaturally wide, stretched out his arm, and gave a sigh; it was
his last.

"Amen!" said Maître Jacques.

The widow knelt down and prayed beside the body for some
instants,--quite amazed that her eyes should be filled with tears for
him who had made her weep so bitterly.

A long silence followed. No doubt this silence oppressed Maître
Jacques, for he suddenly called out:--

"_Sacredié!_ who would suppose there was one living Christian still
here? I say one, for I don't call Judas a Christian."

The widow quivered; beside the dead she had indeed forgotten the
dying.

"I'll go back to the house and send help," she said.

"Help? Don't do anything of the kind; they'd only cure me for the
guillotine; and, thank you, la Picaut, I'd rather die the death of a
soldier. I've got it, and I won't let go of it now."

"Do you suppose I'd give you up to the authorities?"

"Yes; for you are a Blue and the wife of a Blue. Damn it! the capture
of Maître Jacques would make a fine figure on your record-book."

"My husband was a patriot, and I shared his feelings, that is true.
But I have a horror, above all things, of traitors and treachery. For
all the gold in the world I would not betray a person, not even you."

"You say you have a horror of treachery. Do you hear that, you cur?"

"Come, Jacques, let me send help," said the widow.

"No," said the Chouan bandit, "I'm at the end of my tether; I feel it
and I know it. I've made too many such holes not to know all about it.
In two hours, or three at most, I shall be disporting myself on the
great open moor,--the last, grand, beautiful moor of the good God. But
listen to me now."

"I am listening."

"This man whom you see here," he continued, pushing Courtin with his
foot as he might a noxious animal, "this man, for a few gold coins,
has sold a head which ought to be sacred to all, not only because it
is of those who are destined to wear a crown, but because her heart is
noble and kind and generous."

"That head," replied the widow, "I have sheltered beneath my roof."

In the portrait Maître Jacques had drawn she recognized the duchess.

"Yes, you saved her that time, la Picaut, I know it; and it is that
which makes you so great in my eyes; it is that which leads me to make
you my last request."

"Tell me what it is."

"Come nearer and stoop down; you alone must know what I have to say."

The widow went close to Maître Jacques and leaned over him and
listened attentively.

"You must," he said in a very low voice, "tell all this to the man you
have in your house."

"Who is that?" asked the widow, thunderstruck.

"The man you are hiding in your stable; the one you go every night to
nurse and comfort."

"But who told you?"

"Pooh! do you think anything can be hidden from Maître Jacques? All I
say is true, la Picaut, and it makes Maître Jacques the Chouan, Maître
Jacques the Chauffeur, proud to be among your friends."

"But the _gars_ is a very sick man; he has hardly strength to stand,
and then only by leaning on the wall."

"He'll find strength, never fear; he's a man,--a man indeed such as
there'll be no more of after we have gone," said the Vendéan, with
savage pride; "and if he can't take the field himself he'll make
others do so. Tell him merely that he must warn Nantes instantly,
without losing a minute, a second; he must warn _he knows who_. That
other man who was here is already on the march while we are talking."

"It shall be done, Maître Jacques."

"Ah! if that rascal Joseph had only spoken sooner!" resumed Maître
Jacques, raising his body to stop the blood which was rushing
violently to his chest. "He knew, I am certain, what was plotting
between these two villains; but he had them in his power and he never
thought to die. Well! man proposes, and God disposes. It must have
been the booty that tempted him. By the bye, widow, you ought to be
able to find that booty somewhere."

"What must I do with it?"

"Divide it in two parts; give one to the orphans this war has made,
white as well as blue; that's my share. The other belongs to Joseph;
give that to his children."

Courtin gave a sigh of anguish; for the words were spoken loud enough
for him to hear.

"No," said the widow, "no, it is the money of Judas; it would bring
evil. I will not take that money for those poor children, innocent as
they are."

"You are right; then give it all to the poor. The hands that receive
alms cleanse everything, even crime."

"And he?" said the widow, motioning toward Courtin but not looking at
him, "what is to be done with him?"

"He's well bound and gagged, isn't he?"

"He seems to be."

"Well, leave it to the man you have at your house to say what shall be
done with him."

"So be it."

"By the bye, la Picaut, when you go for him, give him this roll of
tobacco. I have no further use for it, and I think it will please him
mightily. I declare, though," continued the master of warrens, "it
makes me half sorry to die. Ha! I'd give my twenty-five thousand
francs prize-money to see the meeting of our man and this one; droll
enough, that will be!"

"But you must not stay here," said Marianne Picaut. "We have a little
bedroom in the citadel, where I will carry you. There, at any rate,
you can see a priest."

"As you please, widow; but first, do me the kindness to make sure that
my scoundrel is securely bound. It would embitter my last moments,
don't you see, if I thought he would get loose before the shaking up
he is going to have presently."

The widow bent over Courtin. The ropes were so tightly bound around
his arms that they entered the flesh which was red and swollen on each
side of them. The farmer's face, above all, betrayed the misery he was
enduring and was paler than that of Maître Jacques.

"He can't stir," said Marianne. "See! Besides, I'll turn the key on
him."

"Very good; it won't be for long. You will go at once, won't you, la
Picaut?"

"Yes, I promise."

"Thank you. Ah! the thanks I give you are nothing to those the man you
have over there will give when you tell him all."

"Well, well! Now let me carry you to the citadel, where you can have
the care you need. The confessor and the doctor will both hold their
tongues, don't be afraid of that."

"Very good; carry me along. It will be queer to see Maître Jacques die
in a bed, when he never, in all his life, slept on anything but ferns
and heather."

The widow took him in her arms and carried him to the little room we
have mentioned, and laid him on a pallet that was kept there. Maître
Jacques, in spite of the suffering he must have endured, in spite of
the gravity of his position, continued, in the presence of death, the
same merry but sardonic being he had been all his life. The nature of
this man, totally unlike that of his compatriots, never belied itself
for a single instant. But, in the midst of his lively sarcasms, flung
at the things he had defended quite as much as at those he had
attacked, he never ceased to urge the widow Picaut to go at once and
fulfil the errand to Jean Oullier which he had intrusted to her.

Thus urged, Marianne only took time to lock the door and push the
bolts of the fruit-room in which she left Courtin a prisoner. She
crossed the garden, re-entered the inn, and found her old mother
greatly alarmed by the noise of the shots which had reached her. Her
daughter's absence increased the old woman's fears, and she was
beginning to be terribly alarmed lest the widow had been made the
victim of some trap by her brother-in-law, when Marianne returned.

The widow, without telling her mother a word of what had happened,
begged her not to let any one pass into the ruins; then, flinging her
mantle over her shoulders, she prepared to go out. Just as she laid
her hand on the latch of the door a light knock was given without.
Marianne turned back to her mother.

"Mother," she said, "if any stranger asks to pass the night at the inn
say we have no room. No one must enter the house this night; the hand
of God is upon it."

The person outside rapped again.

"Who's there?" said the widow, opening the door, but barring the way
with her own person.

Bertha appeared on the threshold.

"You sent me word this morning, madame," said the young girl, "that
you had an important communication to make to me."

"You are right," said the widow. "I had wholly forgotten it."

"Good God!" cried Bertha, noticing that Marianne's kerchief was
stained with blood, "has any harm happened to my people,--to Mary, my
father, Michel?"

And in spite of her strength of mind, this last thought shook her so
terribly that she leaned against the wall to keep herself from
falling.

"Don't be uneasy," answered the widow. "I have no misfortune to tell
you; on the contrary, I am to say that an old friend whom you thought
lost is living, and wants to see you."

"Jean Oullier!" cried Bertha, instantly guessing whom she meant, "Jean
Oullier! It is he whom you mean, isn't it? He is living? Oh, God be
thanked! my father will be so glad! Take me to him at once,--at once,
I entreat you!"

"It was my intention to do so this morning; but since then events have
happened which lay upon you a duty more pressing still."

"A duty!" exclaimed Bertha, astonished. "What duty?"

"That of going to Nantes immediately; for I doubt if poor Jean
Oullier, exhausted as he is, can possibly do what Maître Jacques
requests of him."

"What am I to do in Nantes?"

"Tell him, or her, whom you call Petit-Pierre that the secret of her
present hiding-place has been sold and bought, and she must leave it
instantly. Any place is safer than the one she is now in. Betrayal is
close upon her; God grant you may get there in time!"

"Betrayed!" cried Bertha, "betrayed by whom?"

"By the man who once before sent the soldiers to my house to capture
her,--by Courtin, the mayor of La Logerie."

"Courtin! Have you seen him?"

"Yes," replied Marianne, laconically.

"Oh!" cried Bertha, clasping her hands, "let me see him!"

"Young girl, young girl," said the widow, evading a reply to this
request, "it is I, whom the partisans of that woman have made a widow,
who urge you to make haste and save her; and it is you, who boast of
being faithful to her, who hesitate to go!"

"No, no; that is not so!" cried Bertha. "I do not hesitate; I am
going."

She made a motion to go out; the widow stopped her.

"You cannot go to Nantes on foot; you would get there too late. In the
stable of this house you will find two horses; take either you please,
and tell the hostler to saddle him."

"Oh," said Bertha, "I can saddle him myself. But what can we ever do
for you, my poor widow, who have twice saved her life?"

"Tell her to remember what I said to her in my cottage beside the
bodies of two men killed for her sake; tell her that it is a crime to
bring discord and civil war into a region where her enemies themselves
protect her from treachery. Go, mademoiselle, go! and may God guide
you."

So saying, the widow left the house hurriedly,--going first to the
rector of Saint-Philbert, whom she asked to visit the citadel, and
then, as rapidly as possible, she struck across the fields to her own
house.

XXXVIII.

THE RED-BREECHES.

For the last twenty-four hours Bertha's anxiety had been extreme. It
was not only on Courtin that her suspicions fell; they extended to
Michel himself.

Her recollections of that evening preceding the fight at Chêne, the
apparition of a man at her sister's window, had never entirely left
Bertha's mind; from time to time they crossed it like a flash of
flame, leaving behind them a painful furrow, which the passive
attitude taken toward her by Michel during his convalescence was far
from soothing. But when she learned that Courtin, whom she supposed to
have acted under Michel's directions, had ordered the schooner to
sail, and when, above all, she returned, frightened and breathless
with love, to the farmhouse at La Logerie, and did not find him whom
she came to seek, then indeed her jealous suspicions became intense.

Nevertheless, she forgot all to obey the duty laid upon her by the
widow; before that duty all considerations must give way, even those
of her love. She ran to the stable without losing another moment;
chose the horse that seemed to her most fit to do the distance
rapidly; gave him a double feed of oats to put into his legs the
elasticity they needed; threw upon his back, as he ate, the sort of
pack-saddle used in those regions; and, bridle in hand, waited until
the animal had finished eating.

As she stood there waiting, a sound, well-known in those days, reached
her ears. It was that of the regular tramp of a troop of armed men. At
the same moment a loud knocking was heard on the inn door.

Through a glazed sash, which looked into a bake-house that opened into
the kitchen, the young girl saw the soldiers, and discovered at the
first words they said that they wanted a guide. At that moment
everything was significant to Bertha; she trembled for her father, for
Michel, for Petit-Pierre. She therefore would not start until she had
found out what these men were after. Confident of not being recognized
in the peasant-woman's dress she wore, she passed through the
bake-house and entered the kitchen. A lieutenant was in command of the
little squad.

"Do you mean," he was saying to Mère Chompré, "that there's not a man
in the house,--not one?"

"No, monsieur; my daughter is a widow; and the only hostler we have is
out somewhere, but I don't know where."

"Well, your daughter is the person I want. If she were here she would
serve us as guide, as she did at the Springs of Baugé one famous
night; or, if she couldn't come herself, she might tell us of some one
to take her place. I know I could trust her; but these miserable
peasants, half Chouans, whom we compel to guide us against their will,
never leave us an easy moment."

"Mistress Picaut is absent; but perhaps we can supply some one in her
place," said Bertha, advancing resolutely. "Are you going far,
gentlemen?"

"Bless my soul! a pretty girl!" said the young officer, approaching
her. "Guide me where you will, my beauty, and the devil take me if I
don't follow you!"

Bertha lowered her eyes and twisted the corner of her apron like a
bashful village-girl, as she answered:--

"If it isn't very far from here, and the mistress is willing, I'll go
with you myself. I know the neighborhood."

"Agreed!" cried the lieutenant.

"But on one condition," continued Bertha,--"that some one shall bring
me back here. I am afraid to be out in the roads alone."

"God forbid I should yield that privilege to any one, my dear, even if
it costs me my epaulets!" said the officer. "Do you know the way to
Banl[oe]uvre?"

At the name of the farmhouse belonging to Michel, where she had lived
herself for some days with the marquis and Petit-Pierre, Bertha felt a
shudder run through her body, a cold sweat came upon her forehead, her
heart beat violently, but she managed to master her emotion.

"Banl[oe]uvre?" she repeated. "No, that's not in our parts. Is it a
village or a château, Banl[oe]uvre?"

"It is a farmhouse."

"A farmhouse! Whom does it belong to?"

"To a gentleman of your neighborhood."

"Are you billeted at Banl[oe]uvre?"

"No; we have an expedition there."

"What is an expedition?"

"Well done!" cried the lieutenant. "Here's a pretty girl who wants
information!"

"Natural enough, too. If I take you, or get some one to take you to
Banl[oe]uvre, of course I want to know why you are going there."

"We are going," said the sub-lieutenant, joining in the conversation
for the sake of showing his wit, "to give a white such a dose of lead
that he'll turn blue."

"Ah!" cried Bertha, unable to repress the exclamation.

"Hey! what's the matter with you?" asked the lieutenant. "If we had
told you the name of the man we are going to arrest, I should have
said you were in love with him."

"I?" said Bertha, calling up her strength of mind to hide the terror
in her heart. "I, in love with a gentleman?"

"Kings have married shepherdesses," said the sub-lieutenant, who
seemed to be of a comic humor.

"Well, well!" cried the lieutenant; "here's the shepherdess fainting
away like a fine lady."

"I? fainting!" exclaimed Bertha, endeavoring to laugh. "Nonsense, we
don't have city manners here!"

"Nevertheless, you are as pale as your linen, my pretty girl."

"Goodness! you talk of shooting a man as you would a rabbit in a
hedge!"

"Not at all the same thing," said the sub-lieutenant; "for a rabbit is
good to eat, whereas a dead Chouan is good for nothing."

Bertha could not prevent her proud, energetic face from betraying, by
its expression, the disgust she felt at the jokes of the young
officer.

"Ah, _ça!_" said the lieutenant, "you are not as patriotic as your
mistress. I see we sha'n't get much help from you."

"I am patriotic; but much as I hate my enemies, I can't see them
killed with a dry eye."

"Pooh!" said the officer, "you'll get accustomed to it, just as we
soldiers get accustomed to sleeping on the high-roads instead of our
beds. To-night, when the letter of that cursed peasant came to the
guard-house at Saint-Martin, and obliged me to start off at once, I
damned the State to all the devils. Well, I now see I was wrong, for
it has its compensations,--in fact, instead of cursing and swearing, I
find the expedition charming."

So saying, and as if to add to the pleasures of the situation, he
stooped and tried to snatch a kiss from the neck of the young girl.
Bertha, who did not suspect his amorous intention, felt the young
man's breath upon her face and started away, red as a pomegranate, her
nostrils quivering, her eyes sparkling with indignation.

"Oh, oh!" continued the lieutenant, "you are not going to get angry
for a silly kiss, are you, my beauty?"

"Do you think, because I am a poor country-girl, that I can be
insulted with impunity?"

"'Insulted with impunity'! hey, what fine language!" said the
sub-lieutenant; "and they told us we were coming to a land of
savages."

"Do you know," said the lieutenant, looking fixedly at Bertha, "that
I've a great mind to do something."

"Do what?"

"Arrest you on suspicion, and not let you off till you pay me the
ransom I would set upon your liberty."

"What would that be?"

"A kiss."

"I can't let you kiss me, because you are neither my father, nor
brother, nor husband."

"Are they the only ones who will have the right to put their lips to
those pretty cheeks?"

"Of course they are."

"Why so?"

"I don't wish to forget my duty."

"Your duty! oh, you little joker!"

"Don't you think we peasant-girls have our duties as well as you
soldiers have yours? Come" (Bertha tried to laugh), "if I were to ask
you the name of the man you are going to arrest, and it would be
against your duty to tell it, would you tell it to me?"

"Faith," said the young man, "I shouldn't fail much in duty if I did
tell you; for there isn't, I think, the slightest harm in your knowing
it."

"But suppose there were any harm?"

"Oh, then--but I declare I don't know; your eyes have turned my head,
and I really can't say what I should do. Well, yes, if you are really
as curious as I am weak, I'll tell you that name and betray the
country; only, I must be paid for it with a kiss."

Bertha's apprehensions were so great,--she was so convinced that
Michel was the object of the expedition,--that she forgot, with her
usual impetuosity, all caution, and without reflecting on the
suspicions she gave rise to by her persistency, she abruptly offered
him her cheek. He took two resounding kisses.

"Give and take," he said, laughing. "The name of the man we are going
to arrest is Monsieur de Vincé."

Bertha drew back and looked at the officer. A misgiving crossed her
mind that he had tricked her.

"Come, let's start," said the lieutenant to his subordinate. "I shall
go and ask the mayor for the guide we evidently can't get here."
Turning to Bertha he added, "Any guide he may give me won't please me
as you do, my dear," and he gave an affected sigh. Then he called to
his men: "Forward there, march!"

Before starting himself he asked for a match to light his cigar.
Bertha searched in vain on the mantel-piece. The officer then took a
paper from his pocket and lighted it at the lamp. Bertha watched his
movements and threw a glance at the paper, which the flames were
beginning to shrivel up, and she distinctly saw there Michel's name.

"I suspected it," thought she. "He lied to me. Yes, yes, it is Michel
they are going to arrest."

As the officer threw down the half-burned paper, she put her foot upon
it with some difficulty, and the officer took advantage of her motions
to seize another kiss.

"Hush!" he said, putting his finger on his lip; "you are not a
peasant-girl. Look out for yourself, if you have any reason for
hiding. If you play your part as badly with those who are seeking you
as you have with me, who am not instructed to arrest you, you are
lost."

So saying, he hastily turned away, fearing perhaps to be lost himself.
He was no sooner out of sight than Bertha seized the remains of the
paper. It contained the denunciation that Courtin had sent to Nantes
by the peasant Matthieu, which the latter, to save himself trouble,
had put into the first post-office he came to. This post-office was
that of Saint-Martin, the next village to Saint-Philbert.

Enough remained unburned of Courtin's writing to enlighten Bertha as
to the object of the troop now advancing on Banl[oe]uvre. Her head
swam. If the sentence already pronounced on the young man were
executed by the soldiers, Michel would be dead in two hours; she saw
him, a bloody corpse, reddening the earth about him. Her mind gave
way.

"Where is Jean Oullier?" she cried to the old landlady.

"Jean Oullier?" said the latter, gazing stolidly at the girl. "I don't
know what you mean."

"I ask you, where is Jean Oullier?"

"Isn't Jean Oullier dead?" replied Mère Chompré.

"But your daughter, where has your daughter gone?"

"I'm sure I don't know; she never tells me where she is going when she
goes out. She is old enough to be the mistress of her own actions."

Bertha thought of the Picaut cottage; but to go there would take her
an hour, and it might prove a waste of time. That hour would suffice
to insure Michel's death.

"She will be back in a minute," she said to the old woman. "When she
comes tell her I could not go as soon as she expected to the place she
knows of; but I will be there before daylight."

Running to the stables, she slipped the bridle on the horse, sprang
upon his back, rode him out of the building, and giving him a vigorous
blow with a switch, put him at once into a gait that was neither trot
nor gallop, but fast enough to gain half an hour at least on the
soldiers. As she crossed the market-place of Saint-Philbert she heard
on her right the receding footsteps of the little troop.

Then she took her bearings, passed the houses, dashed her horse into
the river Boulogne, and came out to join the road a little above the
forest of Machecoul.

XXXIX.

A WOUNDED SOUL.

Fortunately for Bertha the horse she was riding had better qualities
than his appearance denoted. He was a little Breton beast which, when
quiet, seemed gloomy, sad, depressed, like the men of his native
region; but once warmed to action (like them again) he increased every
moment in vigor and energy. With flaring nostrils, and his tangled
mane floating in the wind, he attained to a gallop; presently his
gallop became a run. Plains, valleys, and hedges passed and
disappeared behind him with fantastic rapidity, while Bertha, bending
low upon his neck, gave rein and urged him onward with voice and whip.

The belated peasants whom she met, seeing the horse and its rider fade
into the distance as quickly as they had seen them appear, took them
for phantoms, and signed themselves devoutly behind them.

Rapid as this going was, it was not as fast as Bertha's heart
demanded; to her a second seemed a week, a minute a year. She felt the
terrible responsibility that rested on her,--the responsibility of
blood and death and shame. Could she save Michel, and, having saved
him, should she still have time to avert the danger that threatened
Petit-Pierre? That was the question.

A thousand confused ideas coursed through her brain; she blamed
herself for not having given Marianne's mother more careful
instructions; she was seized with vertigo at the thought that after
the headlong rush of that mad ride, the poor little Breton horse would
surely be unable to return from Banl[oe]uvre to Nantes; she reproached
herself for using in the interests of her love the time and resources
which might be necessary to save the noblest head in France; then she
reflected that unless others possessed, as she did, the passwords, it
would be impossible for any one to reach the illustrious fugitive. So
thinking, and torn by a thousand conflicting emotions, culminating in
a sort of intoxication or madness, she pressed her horse with her heel
and continued her wild ride, which, at any rate, cooled her brain,
burning with thoughts that were like to burst it.

At the end of an hour she reached the forest of Touvois. There she was
compelled to slacken speed; the way was full of quagmires. Twice the
little horse plunged into them. She was forced to let him walk,
calculating that in any case she had gained sufficiently on the
soldiers to give Michel time to escape.

She hoped; she breathed. A moment of joyful satisfaction came to
quench the all-consuming anguish of her fears; once more Michel would
owe to her his life!

We must have loved, we must have known the ineffable joy of sacrifice,
to comprehend what there was of happiness in this immolation of
herself to the man she loved, and the proud joy with which Bertha
thought for an instant that Michel's life, which she was now about to
save, might cost her dear.

Her mind was full of these thoughts when she saw the white walls of
the farmhouse shining in the moonlight, framed by the dark tufts of
the nut-trees. The gate of the farmyard was open. Bertha dismounted,
fastened her horse to a ring in the outer wall, and crossed the yard
on foot.

The manure which covered the ground deadened the sound of her steps;
no dog barked to welcome her, or to signify her presence to the
inmates. To her great surprise Bertha noticed a horse standing,
saddled and bridled, by the door of the house. The horse might belong
to Michel; but then again it might belong to a stranger. Bertha was
determined to make sure before entering the house.

One of the shutters in the room where Petit-Pierre had asked her hand
of her father in Michel's name stood open. Bertha went softly up to it
and looked within.

Hardly had her eyes rested on the interior of the room when she gave a
stifled cry and almost fainted. She had seen Michel at Mary's knees;
one hand was round her sister's waist, and the latter's hand was
toying with his hair; their lips were smiling to each other; their
eyes shone with that expression of joy which can never be mistaken by
hearts that have loved.

The prostration caused by this discovery lasted but a second. Bertha
rushed to the door of the room, pushed it open violently, and appeared
on the threshold like an embodiment of Vengeance, her hair
dishevelled, her eyes flaming, her face livid, her breast heaving.

Mary gave a cry and fell on her knees with her face in her hands. She
had guessed the whole at a single glance, so frightfully convulsed was
Bertha's face.

Michel, horrified by Bertha's look, rose hastily, and, as though he
found himself suddenly in presence of an enemy, he mechanically put
his hand on his arms.

"Strike!" cried Bertha, who saw his action; "strike, miserable man! It
will be a fit conclusion to your baseness and your treachery!"

"Bertha," stammered Michel, "let me tell you, let me explain to you!"

"To your knees! to your knees!--you and your accomplice!" cried
Bertha. "Say on your knees the lies you will invent for your defence!
Oh, the vile wretch! And I have flown here to save his life! I, half
mad with terror and despair for the fate that was hanging over him; I,
who have forgotten all, all, honor, duty; I, who laid my life at his
feet, who had but one thought, one object, one desire, one wish,--that
of saying to him, 'Michel, look! see how I love you!'--I come, and I
find him betraying his word, denying his promises, faithless to sacred
ties--I will not say of love, but of gratitude--and with whom? for
whom? The being I loved next to him in this world, the companion of my
childhood,--my sister! Was there no other woman to seduce? Speak!
speak, wretch!" went on Bertha, seizing the young man's arm and
shaking it with violence. "Or did you wish, in deserting me, to take
away my only consolation,--the heart of that second self I called a
sister?"

"Bertha, listen to me!" said Michel. "Listen to me, I implore you! We
are not, thank God, as guilty as you think us. Oh, if you did but
know, Bertha!"

"I will hear nothing; I listen only to my heart, which grief is
breaking, which despair has crushed; I listen only to the voice within
me which says you are a coward! base! My God! my God!" she cried,
grasping her hair in her clenched hands, "my God! is this the reward
of my tenderness, which was so blind that my eyes refused to see, my
ears to hear when they told me that this child, this timid, trembling,
wavering, unmanly creature, was not worthy of my love? Oh, poor fool
that I have been! I hoped that gratitude would bind him to her who
took pity on his weakness, who braved all prejudice and public opinion
to drag him from the bog of infamy and make his name, his degraded
name, an honorable and honored one!"

"Ah!" cried Michel, rising, "enough! enough!"

"Yes, enough of a degraded name!" repeated Bertha. "That touches you,
does it? So much the better; I will say it again and again. Yes, a
name soiled and degraded by all that is most odious, cowardly,
infamous,--by treachery! Oh, family of betrayers! The son continues in
the way of the father; I ought to have expected it."

"Mademoiselle, mademoiselle!" said Michel, "you abuse the privilege of
your sex in thus insulting me; and not only me, but all that a man
holds most sacred,--the memory of his father!"

"Sex! sex! So I have a sex now, have I? I had none when you were
betraying me at the feet of that poor fool, none when you were making
me the most miserable of creatures; but now, because I do not lament
and tear my hair and beat my breast and drag myself to your feet, now,
now you suddenly discover I am a woman, a being to be respected
because she is gentle, to whom suffering must be spared because she is
weak! No, no! for you I have no longer a sex. You have before you,
from this hour, a being whom you have mortally offended, and who
returns you insult for insult. Baron de la Logerie, coward and traitor
double-dyed is he who seduces the sister of his betrothed wife,--yes,
I was the affianced wife of that man! Baron de la Logerie, not only
are you a traitor and a coward, but you are the son of a traitor and a
coward; your father was the infamous wretch who sold and betrayed
Charette. He, at least, paid the penalty of his crime, which he
expiated with his life. You have been told that he was killed in
hunting,--a benevolent lie, which I here refute. He was killed by one
who saw him do his deed of treachery; he was killed by--"

"Sister!" cried Mary, springing forward and laying her hand on her
sister's lips, "you are about to commit the crime you denounce in
others; you are betraying secrets which do not belong to you!"

"Be it so; but that man shall speak! The contempt I cast upon him
shall make him raise his head! He shall find, in his shame or in his
pride, the strength to send me out of a life that is odious to me, a
life which can be henceforth but a long delirium, an eternal despair.
Let him complete with one blow the ruin he has begun! My God! my God!"
continued Bertha, in whose eyes the tears were beginning to force
their way, "why dost thou suffer men to break the hearts of thy living
creatures? My God! my God! what can ever console me for this?"

"I will," said Mary. "I will, my sister, my good sister, my precious
sister, if you will but hear me, if you will only pardon me."

"Pardon you! you?" cried Bertha, pushing Mary away from her. "No! you
are the partner of that man; I know you no more! But, I warn you,
watch each other mutually, for your treachery will bring evil on both
of you."

"Bertha! Bertha! in God's name, do not say such things! Do not curse
us, do not insult us thus!"

"Ha!" exclaimed Bertha, "you feel it, do you? Yes, it is not without
good reason that we are called 'she-wolves'! And now they'll say: 'The
Demoiselles de Souday both loved Monsieur de la Logerie, and after
promising to marry' (for I suppose he promised it to you as he did to
me) 'he deserted them and took a third!' Why, even for wolves it would
be monstrous!"

"Bertha! Bertha!"

"If I scorned the epithet they gave us, as I scorn all empty
considerations of mock propriety," continued the young girl, still at
the height of her excitement, "if I laughed at the conventions of
society and the world, it was because we both--both, do you hear
that?--because we both had the right to walk proudly in a virtuous
independence of unsullied honor; because we were so high in our inward
consciousness that such miserable insults were beneath our notice. But
to-day all that is changed, and I here declare that I will do for you,
Mary, what I disdain to do for myself,--if that man will not marry
you, I will kill him. It will at least save our father's name from
dishonor."

"That name is not dishonored; I swear it, Bertha!" cried Mary,
kneeling down before her sister, who, shaken at last beyond her
strength, fell into a chair and clasped her head in her hands.

"So much the better; it is one pain the less for her whom you will
never see again." Then, twisting her arms with a gesture of despair,
"My God! my God!" she cried, "after having loved them so well, to be
forced to hate them!"

"No, you shall not hate me, Bertha! Your tears, your sufferings are
worse to me than your anger. Forgive me! Oh, my God! what am I saying?
You will think me guilty if I clasp your knees and ask your pardon. I
am not guilty, I swear it. I will tell you--but oh! you must not
suffer, you must not weep! Monsieur de la Logerie," continued Mary,
turning to Michel a face that was bathed in tears, "Monsieur de la
Logerie, all that has happened is a dream; the daylight has come. Go!
go far away; forget me! Go at once!"

"Mary," said Bertha, who had suffered her sister to take her hand,
which the latter covered with tears and kisses, "you do not reflect;
it is too late; it is impossible."

"Yes, yes, it is possible, Bertha!" said Mary, with a heart-rending
smile. "Bertha, we will each take a spouse whose name will protect us
from the calumnies of the world."

"Whom do you mean, poor child?"

Mary raised her hand to heaven.

"God!" she said.

Bertha did not answer; grief was choking her; but she held Mary
tightly clasped against her breast, while Michel, utterly overcome,
fell on a bench in a corner of the room.

"Forgive us!" murmured Mary, in her sister's ear. "Do not crush him!
Is it his fault if a mistaken education has made him so irresolute and
timid that he had no courage to speak when it was his duty to do so?
He has long wished to tell you the truth, but I have withheld him. I
alone am to blame, I hoped we should forget each other. Alas, alas!
God has made us very feeble against our own hearts! But now, we will
never leave each other, you and I, dear sister. Look at me! let me
kiss your eyes! No one shall ever come between us! no man shall bring
trouble and discord between two sisters. No, no! we will live alone
together, loving each other,--alone with ourselves and God, to whom we
will consecrate our lives; and there will still be happiness, my
Bertha, happiness in our solitude, for we can pray for him, we can
pray for him!"

Mary uttered the last words in a heart-rending tone. Michel, convulsed
with anguish, came and knelt beside her before Bertha, who, with her
mind bent on her sister, did not notice him.

At this moment the soldiers appeared at the door which Bertha had left
open, and the officer we have seen at the inn of Saint-Philbert
advanced into the middle of the room and laid his hand on Michel's
shoulder.

"You are Monsieur Michel de la Logerie?" he said.

"Yes, monsieur."

"Then I arrest you, in the name of the law."

"Great God!" cried Bertha, recovering her senses. "I had forgotten it!
Ah, it is I who have killed him! And the other! down there! down
there! Oh, what is happening there?"

"Michel, Michel!" said Mary, forgetting what she had just said to her
sister. "Michel, if you die, I will die with you."

"No, no," cried Bertha, "he shall not die; I swear to you, sister, you
shall still be happy! Make way, monsieur, make way!" she said to the
officer.

"Mademoiselle," replied the latter, with painful politeness, "like you
I cannot trifle with my duty. At Saint-Philbert you were only, to me,
a suspicious person. I am not a commissary of police, and I was not
called upon to interfere with you. Here I find you in flagrant
rebellion against the laws, and I arrest you."

"Arrest me! arrest me at this moment! You may kill me, monsieur, but
you shall not have, me living!"

And before the officer could recover from his surprise, Bertha climbed
the window, sprang into the courtyard, and reached the gate. It was
guarded by soldiers. Looking about her the girl saw Michel's horse,
which, frightened by the noise and the apparition of the soldiers, had
broken loose and was running hither and thither about the yard.

Profiting by the confidence that the officer felt in the precaution
taken of surrounding the house, a security which prevented him from
ordering violence against a woman, she went straight to the animal and
sprang into the saddle with a bound, then passing like a thunderbolt
before the eyes of the amazed officer, she reached a place in the wall
which was slightly broken down; there with heel and bridle she urged
on the horse, which was an excellent English hunter, made it jump the
barrier which was still nearly five feet high, and darted away across
the plain.

"Don't fire! don't fire upon that woman!" cried the officer, who did
not think the prize worth taking dead if he could not get her living.

But the soldiers who formed the cordon outside the courtyard did not
understand the order, and a rain of balls hissed around Bertha as the
vigorous stride of her good English beast carried her toward Nantes.

XL.

THE CHIMNEY-BACK.

Let us now see what was happening in Nantes during this night which
began with the death of Joseph Picaut, followed by the arrest of
Monsieur Michel de la Logerie.

Toward nine o'clock that evening a man with his clothes soaked in
water and soiled with mud presented himself at the Prefecture, and on
refusal of the usher in charge to take him to the prefect, he sent in
to that official a card, bearing, as it appeared, some all-powerful
name, for the prefect immediately left his employment to receive this
man, who was no other than the one known to us as Monsieur Hyacinthe.

Ten minutes after their interview a strong force of gendarmes and
police officers was on its way to the house occupied by Maître Pascal
in the rue du Marché, and soon appeared before the door of the house
which opened on the street.

No precaution was taken to dull the sound of the column's advance, or
to mislead any one as to its intentions; so that Maître Pascal, on
becoming aware of its advance, had plenty of time to notice that the
door into the alley was not guarded, and to escape in that way before
the emissaries of the law could burst in the door on the rue du
Marché, which was not opened to them.

He made at once for the rue du Château and entered No. 3. Monsieur
Hyacinthe, whom he had not perceived, hidden as he was behind a stone
block near the entrance of the alley, followed him with all the
practised skill of a hunter stalking the game he covets.

During this preliminary operation, for the success of which Monsieur
Hyacinthe had probably vouched, the authorities had taken strong
military measures; and no sooner had the Jew made his report of what
he had seen to the prefect of the Loire than twelve hundred men
advanced upon the house into which the spy had seen Maître Pascal
disappear. These twelve hundred men were divided into three columns.
The first went down the Cours, leaving sentinels stationed along the
walls of the Archbishop's garden and the adjoining houses, skirted the
castle moat and came in front of No. 3 rue du Château, where it
deployed. The second, following the rue de l'Evêché, crossed the place
Saint-Pierre, went down the main street, and joined the first column
by the rue Basse-du-Château. The third united with the two others from
the upper end of the rue du Château, leaving, like the others, a long
line of sentries with fixed bayonets behind it.

The investment was complete; the whole nest of houses, in the midst of
which was No. 3, was securely surrounded.

The troops entered the ground-floor, preceded by the commissaries of
police, who marched before them, pistol in hand. The soldiers spread
themselves through the house and guarded all the exits; their mission
was then fulfilled. That of the police began.

Four ladies were, apparently, the only occupants of the house. These
ladies, who belonged to the upper aristocracy of Nantes, and were
respected, not only for their social position, but for their honorable
characters, were arrested.

Outside the house a crowd gathered, and formed another cordon behind
that of the soldiers. The whole town seemed to have turned into the
streets; but no sign of royalist sympathy was shown. The crowd was
grave and curious, that was all.

Investigations began inside the house; and their first result
confirmed the authorities in the conviction that Madame la Duchesse de
Berry occupied it. A letter addressed to her Royal Highness was lying
open on a table. The disappearance of Maître Pascal, who was seen to
enter the house and known not to have left it, proved the existence of
some hiding-place within its walls. That hiding-place must be found.

All articles of furniture were opened if the keys were in them; broken
open if they were not. The sappers and masons sounded the walls and
floors with their hammers; builders, who were taken from room to room,
declared it impossible, comparing the internal with the external
construction, that any hiding-place was made in the walls. In several
of the rooms, however, articles were found, such as printed papers,
jewels, articles of silver, which might, to be sure, have belonged to
the owners of the house, but, under the circumstances, seemed to point
to the presence of the princess within the walls. When the garret was
reached the builders declared that there, less than elsewhere, was it
possible for a hiding-place to exist.

The police then searched the neighboring houses, sounding the walls
with such violence that fragments of masonry were detached, and at one
time it was thought that the walls themselves were coming down.

While these things were happening about them the ladies of the house,
who were under arrest, showed the greatest coolness; though kept in
sight by their guards, they calmly sat down to dinner. Two other
women,--and history ought, ere this, to have searched out their names
and preserved them for posterity,--two other women were the special
objects of police investigation; these women, the servants of the
household, named Charlotte Moreau and Marie Boissy, were taken to the
castle, thence to the barracks of the gendarmerie, where, finding that
they resisted all threats, an attempt was made to corrupt them. Large
and still larger sums of money were offered to them, but they answered
steadily that they knew nothing whatever of the Duchesse de Berry.

After these ineffectual efforts the search relaxed; the prefect was
the first to retreat, leaving, by way of precaution, a sufficient
number of men to guard each room in the house, while the commissaries
of police took up their quarters on the ground-floor. The house was
still surrounded and the National Guard sent a detachment to relieve
the troops of the line, who took a rest.

In distributing sentries, two gendarmes were placed in two attic
rooms, which had, of course, been carefully searched. The cold was so
sharp that these men suffered from it. One of them went downstairs and
returned with an armful of peat-fuel, and ten minutes later a fine
fire was blazing in the chimney, the iron back of which was soon
red-hot.

Almost at the same time, although it was scarcely daylight, the work
of the masons began again; their crow-bars and mallets struck the
walls of the attic rooms and made them tremble. In spite of this noisy
racket, one of the gendarmes was fast asleep; his companion, now
comfortably warm, had ceased to keep up the fire, and the masons,
satisfied at last, gave up the search in this part of the house,
which, with the instinct of their trade, they had carefully explored.

The gendarme who was awake, profiting by the silence that followed the
diabolical uproar which had continued since early on the previous
evening, went to sleep himself. His companion soon after waked up
cold. His eyes were scarcely open before he thought of warming
himself, and relighted the fire; but as the peat did not ignite very
readily, he threw into the fireplace a number of copies of the
"Quotidienne" which lay pell-mell upon the table. The flames from the
newspapers produced a thicker smoke and greater heat than the peat had
done at any time. The gendarme, feeling comfortable, was occupying his
time by reading the "Quotidienne," when all of a sudden his
pyrotechnic edifice came tumbling clown, and the peat squares which he
had set against the chimney-back rolled into the room.

At the same instant he heard from behind that back a noise which gave
him an odd idea; he fancied there were rats in the chimney, and that
the heat of his fire had forced them to decamp. On this he woke up his
comrade, and together they made ready to chase the rodents, sabre in
hand.

While their attention was wholly fixed on this new species of game,
one of them noticed a decided movement of the chimney-back, and he
called out:--

"Who's there?"

A woman's voice replied:--

"We surrender,--we will open the door; put out your fire!"

The two gendarmes jumped to their fire and scattered it out with a few
kicks. The chimney-back then slowly turned on a pivot and disclosed a
hollow space, from which a woman, bareheaded, her face pale, her hair
standing up from her forehead like that of a man, dressed in a simple
Neapolitan gown of a brown color, scorched in many places, came forth,
placing her feet and hands on the heated hearth.

This woman was Petit-Pierre, her Royal Highness Marie-Caroline, the
Duchesse de Berry.

Her companions followed her. For sixteen hours they had been confined
in that cramped place without food. The hole which was thus their
asylum was made between the flue of the chimney and the wall of the
adjoining house under the roof, the rafters of which served to conceal
it.

At the moment when the troops surrounded the house her Royal Highness
was listening to Maître Pascal, who gave her an amusing account of the
scare which had led him to leave his house and come to hers. Through
the windows of the room in which she sat the duchess could see the
moon rising in the calm sky, and defining, like a brown silhouette,
the massive towers, the silent, motionless towers of the old castle.

There are moments when nature seems so gentle, so friendly, that it is
impossible to believe a danger lurks and threatens us from the midst
of such perfect quietude.

Suddenly Maître Pascal, coming nearer to the window, saw the flash of
bayonets. Instantly he threw himself back, exclaiming:--

"Escape! save yourself, Madame!"

The duchess at once rushed up the staircase, the others following her.
Reaching the hiding-place, she turned and called to her companions. As
they knew the place could only be entered on their hands and knees,
the men went first; then, as the young lady who attended on her Royal
Highness was unwilling to pass before her, the duchess said,
laughing:--

"Go in, go in! Good strategy requires that when a retreat is made the
commander should always be in the rear."

The soldiers entered the door of the house just as that of the
hiding-place was closed on the princess and her friends.

We have seen with what minute care the search had been made. Every
blow struck on the walls resounded in the refuge of the duchess; the
plaster fell in showers, the bricks were loosened, and the prisoners
came near being buried in the mass of rubbish shaken down by the jar
of the hammers and the iron-bars and joists of the searchers. When the
gendarmes built their fire the back of the chimney and the wall gave
forth a heat which made the little chamber almost insupportable. After
a while those who were imprisoned in it could scarcely breathe, and
they would have perished asphyxiated if they had not succeeded in
getting a few slates off the roof, which made an opening that let in
air.

The duchess suffered the most; for, having entered last, she was
nearest to the chimney-back. Each of her companions begged her to
change places, but she would not consent to it. To the danger of being
suffocated was now added that of being burned alive. The door of the
hiding-place was red-hot, and threatened at every moment to set fire
to the clothing of the women. In fact, Madame's gown had been twice on
fire and she had put it out with her hands, which were badly burned;
the scars remained visible for many months.

Every minute exhausted the interior air, and the external air admitted
through the tiny holes did not suffice to renew it. The breathing of
the prisoners became more and more difficult; another ten minutes in
that furnace might sacrifice the future life of the duchess. Her
companions implored her to surrender; but she would not. Her eyes
filled with tears of anger, which the scorching air dried upon her
cheeks. The fire had again caught her gown and again she had
extinguished it; but in the movement she thus made she chanced to
touch the spring of the chimney-back, which moved and attracted the
attention of the gendarme.

Supposing that this accident had betrayed her retreat, and pitying the
sufferings of her companions, Madame consented to surrender, leaving
the chimney as we have related. Her first words were a request to see
General Dermoncourt. One of the gendarmes went to find him on the
ground-floor, which he had not chosen to leave throughout the search.

XLI.

THREE BROKEN HEARTS.

As soon as the general's arrival was announced, Madame went hastily
toward him.

"General," she said quickly, "I surrender to you; and I trust to your
loyalty!"

"Madame," replied Dermoncourt, "your Royal Highness is under the
safeguard of French honor!"

He led her to a chair, and as she seated herself she pressed his arm
firmly and said:--

"General, I have nothing to reproach myself with. I have done my duty
as a mother to recover my son's inheritance."

Her voice was clear and accentuated. Though pale, she was excited as
if by fever. The general sent for a glass of water, in which she
dipped her fingers; the refreshing coolness calmed her.

During this time the prefect and the commander of the National Guard
were notified of what had happened. The prefect was the first to
arrive. He entered the room in which Madame was sitting, with his hat
on his head, ignoring that a woman was a prisoner there,--a woman
whose rank and whose misfortunes deserved more respect than had ever
been shown her.

He approached the duchess, looked at her, touched his hat cavalierly,
and said:--

"Yes, that is really she."

Then he went out to give some orders.

"Who is that man?" asked the princess.

The question was a natural one, for the prefect had presented himself
without any of the distinctive signs of his high administrative
position.

"Madame can surely guess," said the general.

She looked at him with a slight laugh.

"I suppose it must be the prefect," she said.

"Madame could not have been more correct had she seen his license."

"Did that man serve under the Restoration?"

"No, Madame."

"I am glad for the Restoration."

The prefect now returned, entering without being announced, as before;
and, as before, he did not remove his hat. Apparently, the prefect was
hungry on that particular morning, for he brought with him, on a plate
which he held in his hand, a slice of pâté. He put the plate on the
table, asked for a knife and fork, and began to eat with his back to
the princess.

Madame looked at him with an expression of mingled anger and contempt.

"General," she said, "do you know what I most regret in the station I
once occupied?"

"No, Madame."

"Two ushers, to turn that man out."

When the prefect had finished his repast he turned round and asked the
duchess for her papers.

Madame replied that he could look in her late hiding-place, where he
would find a white portfolio she had left there.

The prefect went to fetch the portfolio and brought it back with him.

"Monsieur," said the duchess, opening it, "the papers in this
portfolio are of very little consequence; but I wish to give them to
you myself in order that I may explain their ownership."

So saying, she gave him one after the other the things that were in
the portfolio.

"Does Madame know how much money she has here?" asked the prefect.

"Monsieur, there ought to be about thirty-six thousand francs; of
which twelve thousand belong to persons whom I will designate."

The general here approached and said that if Madame felt better it was
urgent that she should leave the house.

"To go where?" she said, looking at him fixedly.

"To the castle, Madame."

"Ah, yes, and from there to Blaye, no doubt?"

"General," said one of Madame's companions, "her Royal Highness cannot
go on foot; it would not be proper."

"Monsieur," replied Dermoncourt, "a carriage would only encumber us.
Madame can go on foot by throwing a mantle over her shoulders and
wearing a hat."

On this the general's secretary and the prefect, who seemed to be
suddenly pricked by gallantry, went down stairs and returned with
three hats. The princess chose a black one, because, as she said, the
color was analogous to the circumstances; after which she took the
general's arm to leave the house. As she passed before the door of the
garret she gave a glance at the chimney-back, which remained open.

"Ah, general!" she said, laughing, "if you had not treated me as they
treated Saint Lawrence,--which by the bye is quite unworthy of your
military generosity,--you wouldn't have me under your arm, now. Come,
friends," she added, addressing her companions.

The princess went down the staircase on the general's arm. As she was
about to cross the threshold into the street she heard a great noise
among the crowd, who flocked behind the soldiers and formed a line ten
times as deep as that of the military.

Madame may have thought that those cries and shouts were aimed at her;
but she gave no sign of fear except that she pressed a little closer
to the general's arm.

When the princess advanced between the double line of soldiers and
National Guards, who made a lane from the house to the castle, the
cries and mutterings she had heard became louder and more violent than
before. The general cast his eyes in the direction from which the
tumult chiefly came, and there he saw a young peasant-woman trying to
force her way through the ranks of the soldiers who opposed her
passage; and yet, being struck by her beauty and the despair that was
visible on her face, were refraining from violence in repulsing her.

Dermoncourt recognized Bertha, and called the duchess's attention to
her. The latter gave a cry.

"General," she said eagerly, "you have promised not to separate me
from my friends; let that young girl come to me."

On a sign from the general the ranks opened, and Bertha reached the
august prisoner.

"Pardon, Madame! pardon for an unhappy woman who might have saved you,
and did not! Oh, I would I could die, cursing that fatal love which
has made me the involuntary accomplice of the traitors who have sold
your Royal Highness!"

"I don't know what you mean, Bertha!" interrupted the princess,
raising the young girl and giving her the arm that was free. "What you
are doing at this moment proves that whatever else has happened I
cannot doubt a devotion the memory of which will never leave me. But I
have to talk to you of other things, dear child. I have to ask your
pardon for contributing to an error which may, perhaps, have made you
most unhappy; I have to tell you that--"

"I know all, Madame," said Bertha, lifting her eyes, that were red
with tears, to the princess.

"Poor child!" exclaimed the duchess, pressing the girl's hand. "Then,
follow me, come with me; time and my affection will calm a sorrow that
I comprehend, that I respect--"

"I beg your Highness to forgive me for not obeying her, but I have
made a vow which I must fulfil. God alone is placed by duty above my
princess."

"Then go, dear child!" said Madame, comprehending the young girl's
meaning. "Go, and may the God you seek be with you! When you pray to
Him remember Petit-Pierre; the prayers of a broken heart ascend to
Him."[3]

---------------

[Footnote 3: Hers was a gallant soul. She was privately married to an
Italian nobleman of distinguished name and fame, and a child was born
to her during her imprisonment at Blaye. The Bourbons never forgave
her; they treated her, and so did the French people, as if she had
disgraced herself. Justice has never been done to her brave, generous,
gallant heart,--a royal heart that felt for others. Her second
marriage was a most happy one. She survived her husband several years,
and died in 1873.--Tr.]

---------------

They had now reached the gates of the prison. The duchess raised her
eyes to the blackened walls of the old castle; then she held out her
hand to Bertha, who, kneeling down, laid a kiss upon it, murmuring
once more the words, "Forgive me!" Then Madame, after an instant's
hesitation, passed through the postern, giving a last smile in token
of farewell to Bertha.

The general withdrew his arm from the duchess to allow her to pass in;
then he turned hastily to Bertha and said in a low voice:--

"Where is your father?"

"He is at Nantes."

"Tell him to return to the château, and stay there quietly; he shall
not be disturbed. I'll break my sword sooner than allow him to be
arrested, my old enemy!"

"Thank you for him, general."

"And you, if you have any need of my services, command them,
mademoiselle."

"I want a passport to Paris."

"When?"

"At once."

"Where shall I send it to you?"

"To the other side of the pont Rousseau; to the inn of the Point du
Jour."

[Illustration: Château of Nantes.]

"In an hour you shall have it, mademoiselle."

With a sign of farewell the general turned and disappeared beneath the
gloomy portal.

Bertha worked her way through the close-pressed ranks of the crowd
until she reached the nearest church, which she entered. There she
remained a long time kneeling on the cold stone pavement.

When she rose the stones were wet with tears.

Then she crossed the town and the pont Rousseau. Approaching the inn
of the Point du Jour, she saw her father sitting at the threshold of
the door. Within the last few hours the Marquis de Souday had aged ten
years; his eye had lost the humorous, bantering look which gave it
such expression; he carried his head low, like a man whose burden was
too heavy for him.

Warned by the priest who had received the last confession of Maître
Jacques, and who went to the forest of Touvois to tell the marquis
what had happened, the old man started at once for Nantes. A mile from
the pont Rousseau he met Bertha, whose horse had fallen, having broken
a tendon in the furious pace to which she had urged him.

The girl confessed to her father what had happened. The old man did
not reproach her, but he broke the stick he held in his hand against
the stones of the road.

When they reached the pont Rousseau public rumor informed them, though
it was only seven in the morning, of the arrest of the princess before
that arrest was actually accomplished. Bertha, not daring to raise her
eyes to her father, rushed toward Nantes; the old man seated himself
on the bench before the inn, where we find him four hours later.

This sorrow was the only one against which his selfish and epicurean
philosophy was impotent. He would have pardoned his daughter many
faults; but he could not think without despair that she had covered
his name with the crime and shame of lèze-chivalry, and that a Souday,
the last of the name, should have helped to fling royalty into the
gulf.

When Bertha approached him he silently held out to her a paper a
gendarme had given him. It was her passport from the general.

"Father, will you not forgive me as she forgave me?" said the
girl, in a gentle, humble tone which contrasted strangely with
her self-assuming manner in other days.

The old gentleman sadly shook his head.

"Where shall I find my poor Jean Oullier?" he said. "Since God has
preserved him to me I want to see him. I want him to go with me out of
this country!"

"Will you leave Souday, father?"

"Yes."

"Where will you go?"

"Where I can hide my name."

"And Mary, poor Mary, who is innocent!"

"Mary will be the wife of the man who is the cause of this execrable
crime. I will never see Mary again!"

"You will be alone."

"No; I shall have Jean Oullier."

Bertha bowed her head; she entered the inn, where she changed her
peasant dress for mourning garments, which she had bought on her way
through the town. When she came out the old man had gone. Looking
about her she saw him, with his hands clasped behind his back, his
head sunk on his breast, sadly walking in the direction of
Saint-Philbert.

Bertha sobbed; then she cast a lingering look at the verdant plain of
the Retz region, which can be seen in the distance from Nantes, backed
by the dark-blue line of the forest of Machecoul.

"Farewell, all that I love in this world!" she cried.

Then she turned and re-entered the town of Nantes.

XLII.

GOD'S EXECUTIONER.

During the three hours that Courtin spent bound hand and foot, and
lying on the earth in the ruins of Saint-Philbert, side by side with
the corpse of Joseph Picaut, his heart passed through all the agony
that can rend and torture a human being.

He felt the precious belt beneath him, for he had managed to lie upon
it; but the gold it contained only added more pangs to his other
pangs, more terror to the countless terrors which assailed his brain.
That gold, which was more to him than life itself, was he doomed to
lose it? Who was this unknown man whom he had heard Maître Jacques
tell the widow to summon? What was this mysterious vengeance he had
now to fear? He passed in review before him all the persons to whom,
in the course of his life, he had done harm; the list was long, and
their threatening faces peopled the darkness of the tower.

And yet, at times, a ray of hope traversed his gloomy mind; vague and
undecided at first, it presently took on consistency. Could it be that
a man possessing that glorious gold should die? If vengeance rose
before him would not a handful of those coins silence it? His
imagination counted and re-counted the sum belonging to him, which was
really, really his own, which was bruising his flesh delightfully,
pressing into his loins as if the gold itself were becoming a part of
his very body. Then he reflected that if he could only escape he
should add fifty thousand more francs to the fifty thousand now
beneath him; and, helpless as he was, a victim doomed to death,
awaiting the fall of the sword of Damocles above his head, which might
at any instant cut the thread of his life, his heart melted into such
joy that it took the character of intoxication. But soon his ideas
again changed their course. He asked himself if his accomplice--in
whom he felt only the confidence of an accomplice--would not profit by
his absence to cheat him of the share that belonged to him; he saw
that man escaping, weighed down by the weight of the enormous sum he
was carrying, and refusing to divide it with him, who, after all, had
done the whole betrayal. He mentally prepared for such occasion; he
thought of words of entreaty to reach the heart of that Jew, threats
to intimidate him, reproaches that might move him; but suddenly,
when he reflected that if Monsieur Hyacinthe loved gold as he loved
it,--which was probable, inasmuch as he was a Jew,--when he measured
his associate by his own measure, when he sounded in his own soul the
depths of the sacrifice he demanded, he said to himself that tears,
prayers, threats, reproaches would all be useless, and he fell into
paroxysms of rage; he vented roars which shook the old arches of the
feudal edifice; he struggled in his bonds, he bit the ropes, he tried
to tear them with his teeth; but those ropes, slender and loosely
twisted as they were, seemed to take on life, to become living things
under his efforts; he fancied he felt them struggling against him,
increasing their tangled snarl; the knots he undid seemed to tie
themselves again, not singly as before, but in double, treble,
quadruple turns; and then, as if to punish his efforts, they buried
themselves in his flesh, where they made a burning furrow. All dreams
of hope, all thought of riches and happiness vanished like clouds
before the breath of a tempest; the phantoms of those whom the farmer
had persecuted rose terrible before him; all things lurking in the
shadow, stones, beams, fragments of broken wood-work, fallen cornices,
all took form, and each of those threatening shapes looked at him with
eyes which shone in the darkness like thousands of sparks darting on
the tissue of a black shroud. The mind of the wretched man began to
wander. Mad with terror and despair he called to the corpse of Joseph
Picaut, of which he could see the outline, stiff and stark, about four
feet from him; he offered him a fourth, a third, a half of his gold if
he would loose his bonds; but the echo of the arches alone replied in
its funereal voice, and, exhausted by emotion, he fell back for a
moment into dull insensibility.

He was in one of these moments of torpor when a noise without made him
quiver. Some one was walking in the inner courtyard of the castle,
and presently he heard the grinding of the rusty bolts of the old
fruit-room. Courtin's heart beat as though it would burst his breast.
He was breathless with fear, choking with anguish; he felt that the
coming person was the avenger summoned by Maître Jacques.

The door opened. The flame of a torch lighted the rafters with its
ruddy glare. Courtin had an instant of hope; it was the widow, bearing
the torch, whom he first saw, and he thought she was alone; but she
had scarcely made two steps into the tower before a man who was behind
her appeared. The hair of the hapless farmer rose on his head; he
dared not look at the man; he closed his eyes and was silent.

The man and the widow came nearer. Marianne gave the torch to her
companion, pointing with her finger to Courtin; and then, as if
indifferent to what was about to happen, she knelt down at the feet of
Joseph Picaut's body and began to pray.

As for the man, he came close beside the farmer and, no doubt to
convince himself that he was really the mayor of La Logerie, he cast
the light of the torch across his face.

"Can he be asleep?" he said to himself, in a low voice. "No, he is too
great a coward to sleep; no, his face is too pale--he's not sleeping."

Then he stuck his torch into a fissure in the wall, sat down on an
enormous stone which had rolled from the top to the middle of the
tower and, addressing Courtin, said to him:--

"Come, open your eyes, Monsieur le maire. We have something to say to
each other, and I like to see the eyes of those who speak to me."

"Jean Oullier!" cried Courtin, turning livid, and making a desperate
effort to burst his bonds and escape. "Jean Oullier living!"

"If it were only his ghost, Monsieur Courtin, it would be, I think,
enough to terrify you; for you have a long account to settle with
him."

"Oh, my God! my God!" exclaimed Courtin, letting himself drop back on
the ground like a man who resigns himself to his fate.

"Our hatred dates far back, doesn't it?" continued Jean Oullier; "and
its instincts have not misled us; they have embittered you against me,
and to-day, exhausted and half dead as I am, they have brought me back
to you."

"I have never hated you," said Courtin, who the moment he perceived
that Jean Oullier was not about to kill him on the spot, felt a gleam
of hope in his heart and foresaw the possibility of saving his life by
discussion. "I have never hated you; on the contrary! and if my ball
did strike you it was not because I meant it for you. I did not know
you were in that bush."

"Oh, my grievances against you go farther back than that, Monsieur
Courtin!"

"Farther back?" replied Courtin, who, little by little, was recovering
some energy. "But I swear that before that accident, which I deplore,
I never put you in any danger, I never did you any harm."

"Your memory is short, and your offences weigh most on the soul of the
offended person, it appears; for I remember the wrongs you have done
me."

"What wrongs? What can you remember against me? Speak, Monsieur Jean
Oullier! Do you think it right to kill a man without hearing him,
without allowing him to say one word in his defence?"

"Who told you I meant to kill you?" said Jean Oullier, with the icy
calmness he had not quitted for an instant. "Your conscience,
perhaps."

"Speak out, Monsieur Jean! tell me of what I am accused! Except for
that luckless shot, I know I am as white as the driven snow. Yes, I
can prove to you that no one has been a better friend than I to the
worthy family at Souday; no one has respected them more, or been more
glad of this marriage which is to unite the families of your master
and mine."

"Monsieur Courtin," said Jean Oullier, who had left free course to
this flux of words, "it is, as you say, only fair that an accused
person should defend himself. Defend yourself, therefore, if you can.
Listen to me; I begin--"

"Oh, go on! I am not afraid of your questions!" replied Courtin.

"We shall soon see that. Who betrayed me to the gendarmes at the fair
of Montaigu, so as to lay hands more securely on my master's guests,
whom you rightly supposed I was defending? Who, having done that,
basely hid himself behind the hedge of the last garden in Montaigu,
and after borrowing a gun of the owner of that garden, fired at my dog
and killed my poor companion? Answer, Monsieur Courtin!"

"Who dares to say he saw me do that?" cried the farmer.

"Three persons; among them the man from whom you borrowed the gun."

"How should I know the dog was yours? No, Monsieur Jean, upon my
honor, I was ignorant of it."

Jean made a contemptuous gesture.

"Who," he continued, in the same calm but accusing voice, "who, having
slipped into Pascal Picaut's house, sold to the Blues the secret he
discovered there,--the secret of a sacred hospitality?"

"I bear testimony to that," said the deep voice of Pascal's widow,
issuing from her silence and immobility.

The farmer shuddered and dared not defend himself.

"Whom have I constantly found," resumed Jean Oullier, "during the last
four months, busy with shameful schemes, laying his plots and
sheltering them under the name of his young master, proclaiming
devotion and fidelity to him, and soiling the very name of those
virtues by contact with his criminal intentions? Whom did I hear, on
the Bouaimé moor, discussing the price of blood? Whom did I see
weighing the gold offered him for the basest and most odious of
treacheries? Who, I say, was that man, if not you?"

"I swear to you by all there is most sacred among men!" said Courtin,
who still believed that Jean Oullier's principal grievance was the
shot that wounded him. "I swear to you that I did not know you were in
that luckless bush!"

"But I tell you I don't blame you for that! I have not said a word, I
have not opened my lips to you about it! The list of your crimes is
long enough without adding that!"

"You speak of my crimes, Jean Oullier, and you forget that my young
master, who will soon become yours, owes me his life; and that if I
had been the traitor that you call me I should have delivered him up
to the soldiers who passed and repassed my house every day while he
was there. You forget all that, while, on the contrary, you rake up
every trifling circumstance against me."

"If you did save your master," continued Jean Oullier, in the same
inexorable tone, "it is because that sham devotion was useful to your
plans. Better for him, better for those two poor girls, if you had let
them end their days honorably, gloriously, than to have mixed them up
in these shameless intrigues. That is what I have against you,
Courtin; that thought alone doubles the hatred I feel to you."

"The proof that I don't hate you, Jean Oullier, is that if I had
chosen you would long ago have been put out of this world."

"What do you mean?"

"On the day of that hunt when the father of Monsieur Michel was
killed--murdered, Monsieur Jean, we won't blink the word--a beater was
not ten paces from him; and the name of that beater was Courtin."

Jean Oullier rose to his full height.

"Yes," continued the farmer, "and this beater saw it was Jean
Oullier's ball that brought the traitor down."

"Yes," said Jean Oullier; "but it was not a crime it was an expiation.
I am proud to have been the man whom God selected to punish that
criminal."

"God alone may punish, God alone may curse," said the mayor.

"No, I am not mistaken; it is He who has put into my heart this hatred
of sin, this ineradicable recollection of treachery; it was the finger
of God touching my heart when that heart quivered at the name of the
traitor. When my shot struck that Judas I felt the breath of the
divine Justice cross my face and cool it; and, from that moment to
this I have found the peace and calmness I never had while that
unpunished criminal prospered before my eyes. God was with me."

"God is never with a murderer."

"God is always with the executioner who lifts the sword of justice.
Men have their laws, He has his. I was that day, as I am to-day, the
sword of God."

"Do you mean to murder me as you murdered Baron Michel?"

"I mean to punish the man who sold Petit-Pierre as I punished him who
sold Charette. I shall punish him without fear, without doubt, without
remorse."

"Take care; remorse will come when your future master calls you to
account for his father's death."

"That young man is just and loyal; if he is ever called upon to judge
my conduct I shall tell him what I saw in the wood of La Chabotière,
and he will judge me rightly."

"Who can testify that you tell the truth? One man alone, and that is
I. Let me live, Jean, let me live! and, as that woman did just now, I
will rise and say: 'I bear testimony to that.'"

"Fear makes you foolish, Courtin. Monsieur Michel will ask for no
other testimony when Jean Oullier says, 'This is the truth;' when Jean
Oullier, baring his breast, says, 'If you wish to avenge your father,
strike!' when Jean Oullier kneels before him and prays to God to send
the expiation if He himself judges that the deed should be expiated.
No, no! and you are wrong, wrong to evoke in your terror those bloody
memories before my mind. You, Maître Courtin, you have done worse
things than Michel did; for the blood you sold is nobler still than
that he trafficked in. I did not spare Michel, why should I spare you?
Never, never!"

"Pity! mercy! Jean Oullier. Do not kill me!" sobbed the wretched man.

"Implore those stones, ask pity of them! They may answer you; but
nothing can move my will, or shake my resolution. You shall die!"

"Ah, my God! my God!" cried Courtin, "is there no one to help me?
Widow Picaut! widow Picaut! here! here! will you let him cut my
throat? Here! help me! protect me! If you want gold, I'll give it! I
have gold, gold! No, what am I saying? My mind is wandering; I have no
gold!" said the poor wretch, fearing to spur on the murder he saw
glittering in the eyes of his enemy if he offered such hopes. "No, I
have no gold, but I have property, estates. I'll give you all; I'll
make you rich--both of you! Oh, mercy, Jean Oullier! Widow Picaut,
defend me!"

The widow did not stir; except for the movement of her lips she might
have been taken, as she knelt there in her mourning garments, pale as
marble, mute and motionless beside the corpse, for one of those
kneeling statues we often see at the foot of some ancient monument.

"What!" continued Courtin, "will you really kill me? kill me without a
fight, without danger, when I cannot lift a foot to escape or a hand
to defend myself? Will you cut my throat in my bonds like a beast that
they drag to a slaughter-house? Oh, Jean Oullier, that's not the work
of a soldier; you are a butcher!"

"Who told you I would do it thus? No, no, no, Maître Courtin. Look,
the wound you gave me has not healed; it still bleeds. I am weak,
tottering, feeble; I am proscribed, a price is on my head!--well, in
spite of all that, I am so certain of the justice of my cause that I
do not hesitate to appeal to the judgment of God. Courtin, you are
free!"

"Free?"

"Yes, I set you at liberty. Oh, you need not thank me; what I do, I do
for myself, not you,--that it may never be said Jean Oullier struck a
fallen man, an unarmed man. But don't mistake; the life I give you
now, I will take some day."

"Oh, God!"

"Maître Courtin, you will go from here unbound and free; but, I warn
you, beware! As soon as you have passed the threshold of these ruins I
shall be upon your traces; and those traces I will never abandon until
I have struck you down and made your body a corpse. Beware, Maître
Courtin, beware!"

So saying, Jean Oullier took his knife and cut the cords that bound
the farmer hand and foot. Courtin made a bound of almost frantic joy;
but he instantly controlled it. In springing up he felt the belt; it
seemed as though it called to him. Jean Oullier had given him life,
but what was life without his gold?

He flung himself down upon it as quickly as he had risen.

Jean Oullier had seen, rapid as Courtin's movement was, the swollen
leather of the belt, and he guessed what was passing in the farmer's
mind.

"Why don't you go?" he said. "What are you waiting for? Yes, I
understand; you are afraid that, seeing you free as myself and
stronger than I, my wrath may revive; you are afraid I may throw you
another knife like my own and say to you: 'Defend yourself, Maître
Courtin, we are equal now!' No, Jean Oullier has but one word, and
that he has given you. Make haste! depart! fly! If God is with you, He
will protect you against me; if He condemns you, what care I for the
start I give you? Take your cursèd gold, and begone!"

Maître Courtin did not answer. He rose, stumbling like a drunken man;
he tried to fasten the belt around his waist, but could not; his
fingers trembled as though they were shaken by an ague. Before
departing he kept himself turned in terror toward Jean Oullier. The
traitor feared treachery; he could not believe that the generosity of
his enemy did not hide some trap.

Jean Oullier pointed with his finger to the door. Courtin rushed into
the court; but before he reached the postern-gate he heard the voice
of the Vendéan, sonorous as the clarion of battle, calling to him:--

"Beware, Courtin! beware!"

Maître Courtin, free as he was, shuddered; and in that moment of
agitation he struck his foot against a stone, tripped, and fell
forward. He uttered a cry of agony, fancying that the Vendéan was upon
him; he thought he felt the cold steel of a knife piercing between his
shoulders.

It was only an omen. Courtin rose, and a minute later, having passed
the postern, he darted, a free man, into the open country he had not
expected to see again.

When he had disappeared the widow went up to Jean Oullier and offered
him her hand.

"Jean," she said, "as I listened to you, I thought how right my Pascal
was when he told me there were brave, strong souls under every flag."

Jean Oullier wrung the hand the worthy woman who had saved his life
held out to him.

"How do you feel now?" she asked.

"Better; we are always stronger for a struggle."

"And where are you going?"

"To Nantes. After what your mother told us, I think Bertha may not
have gone there; and I fear some disaster from the delay."

"Well, at any rate, take a boat; that will spare your legs the fatigue
of half the distance."

"I will," replied Jean Oullier.

And he followed the widow to the place on the lakeside where the boats
of the fishermen were drawn up on the sand.

XLIII.

SHOWS THAT A MAN WITH FIFTY THOUSAND FRANCS
ABOUT HIM MAY BE MUCH EMBARRASSED.

As soon as Maître Courtin had crossed the bridge leading from the
castle he began to run like a madman; terror lent him wings. He did
not ask himself whither his steps led him; he fled to flee. If his
strength had equalled his fear he would have put the world between
himself and the threats of the Vendéan,--threats he continued to hear
resounding in his ears like a funeral knell.

But after he had done about a couple of miles across country in the
direction of Machecoul, exhausted, breathless, choked by the rapidity
of his flight, he fell rather than seated himself on the bank of a
ditch, where he came to his senses and began to reflect on what he had
better do. His first idea was to go at once to his own house; but that
idea he almost immediately abandoned. In the country, no matter what
effort the authorities might make to protect the mayor of La Logerie,
Jean Oullier--with his relations to the country-people and his perfect
knowledge of roads, forests, and gorse moors, seconded by the sympathy
that the whole community felt for him, and by the hatred they felt for
Courtin--was all-powerful, and the game would be wholly on his side.

In Nantes alone could the farmer find refuge,--Nantes, where an able
and numerous police would protect his life until such time as they
could arrest Jean Oullier,--a result Courtin hoped to reach very soon
by the information he was able to give as to the usual hiding-places
of the insurrectionists.

As he sat there thinking these things his hand went to his belt to
lift it; the weight of the mass of gold he carried hurt him, and had
contributed not a little to the breathless fatigue of his hard run.
That gesture decided his fate.

Surely he should find Monsieur Hyacinthe in Nantes. The thought of
receiving from his associate, if their plot had succeeded (and this he
did not doubt), an equal sum to that he carried, filled Courtin's
heart with a joy that put him far above the tribulations he had lately
undergone. He did not hesitate another moment, but turned at once in
the direction of the town.

He resolved on getting there as the crow flies, across country. On the
road he risked being watched; chance alone could put Jean Oullier on
his traces if he kept to the plain. But his imagination, heated by the
terrible vicissitudes of the night, was more powerful than his
common-sense. No matter how carefully he glided beside the hedges,
crouching in the shadows and stifling the sound of his steps, not
daring to enter any field until certain it was deserted, a panic fear
pursued him all the way.

In the trees with their pruned heads, which rose above the hedges, his
fancy saw assassins; in their knotty branches extending above him,
arms and hands with daggers ready to strike him. He stopped, chilled
with fear; his legs refused to carry him farther, as though they were
rooted to the ground; an icy sweat burst from his body; his teeth
chattered convulsively; his shaking fingers clutched his gold, and it
took him a long time to recover from his terror. He could not endure
to continue in the fields, and made for the high-road.

Besides, he reflected that he might meet a vehicle of some kind on its
way to Nantes and obtain a seat in it, which would shorten the way and
also protect him.

After taking about five hundred steps he came out upon the road which
follows for over a mile the shores of the lake of Grand-Lieu, to which
it serves as a species of dike.

Courtin stopped every few minutes to listen; and presently he fancied
he heard the trot of a horse's feet. He flung himself into the reeds
which bordered the road on the lakeside, and crouched there, again
enduring all the agonies of mind which we have just described.

But he now heard oars to his left dipping softly in the water. He
crept through the reeds to look in the direction of the sound, and
saw, in the shadow, a boat gliding slowly past the shore. It was, no
doubt, some fisherman, intending to gather in his nets before
daybreak.

The horse came nearer; the ring of his hoofs on the stones of the road
terrified Courtin; danger was there, there! and he must flee from it.
He whistled softly to attract the attention of the fisherman. The
latter stopped rowing.

"This way! this way!" cried Courtin.

He had scarcely said the words before a vigorous stroke of the oars
sent the boat within four feet of the fugitive.

"Can you put me across the lake and take me as far as
Port-Saint-Martin?" asked Courtin. "I'll pay you a franc for it."

The fisherman, who was wrapped in a sort of pea-jacket, with a hood
which concealed his face, answered only by a nod; but he did better
than reply. Using his boat-hook he drove the wherry in among the
reeds, which bent and quivered under its prow; and just as the horse
whose coming had so terrified Maître Courtin reached the point in the
road he had lately left, the latter, with two springs, gained the boat
and was safely in it.

The fisherman, as though he had shared his passenger's apprehensions,
turned the boat toward the middle of the lake, while Courtin gave a
sigh of relief. At the end of ten minutes the road and the trees that
bordered it seemed merely a line upon the horizon.

Courtin could scarcely contain himself for joy. The boat, which some
fortunate chance had brought to that spot, would enable him to crown
his hopes and fulfil all wishes. Once at Port-Saint-Martin, he had
only a three-mile walk to Nantes over a road frequented at every hour
of the day or night; and once in Nantes he was safe.

Courtin's joy was so great that, in spite of himself, and as an effect
of the reaction of his terror, he felt impelled to some outward
manifestation of it. Sitting in the stern of the boat, he looked
excitedly at the fisherman, as the latter bent to his oars and put at
every stroke a stretch of water between him and danger. Those strokes,
he counted them aloud; then he laughed a hollow laugh, fingered his
belt, and made the gold slip forward and back inside it. This was not
mere joy--it was intoxication.

Presently, however, he began to think the fisherman had gone far
enough from the shore, and that it was high time to turn the boat's
head to Port-Saint-Martin, which they were now leaving behind them on
their right. He waited a few minutes, thinking it might be a
man[oe]uvre of the fisherman's to catch some current of which he would
take advantage. But still the fisherman rowed on and on towards the
middle of the lake.

"Hey, _gars_," cried the farmer at last, "you can't have heard me
rightly; you are making for Port-Saint-Père, and I told you
Port-Saint-Martin. Go the way I told you, and you'll earn your money
sooner!"

The fisherman was silent.

"Did you hear me? What are you about?" cried Courtin, impatiently.
"Port-Saint-Martin, I say! Go to your right! It is very well not to
keep too near the shore, out of reach of balls in these queer times;
but I wish you to go in that direction if you please."

The boatman appeared not to hear him.

"Ah, _ça!_ are you deaf?" exclaimed the farmer, beginning to get
angry.

The fisherman replied only by a vigorous stroke of his oars, which
sent the boat flying several paces farther out on the surface of the
lake.

Courtin, beside himself, sprang to the bow, knocked off the hood which
in the darkness concealed the fisherman's head, put his own face close
to the man's face, and then, with a stifled cry, fell on his knees at
the bottom of the boat.

The man let go his oars, but did not rise.

"God has spoken, Maître Courtin," he said; "His judgment is against
you! I was not seeking you, but He sends you to me; I had forgotten
you for a time, and He puts you in my way. God wills that you shall
die, Maître Courtin."

"No, no, no! you won't kill me, Jean Oullier!" cried the wretched man,
falling back into all his terrors.

"I will kill you as surely as those stars which are in the sky were
placed there by God's hand. Therefore, if you have a soul, think of
it; repent, and pray that your doom may not be too severe."

"Oh, you cannot do it, you will not do it, Jean Oullier! Think that
you are killing a child of the good God, whose name you speak! Oh, not
to tread the earth again, which is so beautiful in the sunlight! to
sleep in an icy bed away forever from those I love! Oh, no, no, no! it
is impossible!"

"If you were a father, if you had wife, mother, or sister expecting
your return, your words might touch me; but no! useless among men, you
have lived only to use them, and to return them evil for good. You
blaspheme even now in lying, for you love no one. No one has ever
loved you on this earth, and my knife will wound no heart but your own
in killing you. Maître Courtin, you are now to appear before your
Judge; once more, I say, commend your soul to Him."

"Can a few short moments suffice for that? A guilty man like me needs
time, needs years of repentance to equal his crimes. You who are so
pious, Jean Oullier, you will surely leave me time to sorrow for my
sins."

"No; life would only enable you to commit others. Death is expiation;
you fear it. Put your fears and your anguish at the feet of the Lord,
and He will receive you in His mercy. Maître Courtin, time is passing,
and as true as God is there above those stars, in ten minutes you will
be before Him!"

"Ten minutes, my God! ten minutes! Oh, pity! pity! mercy!"

"The time you employ in useless prayers is lost to your soul; think of
that, Maître Courtin, think of that!"

Courtin did not answer; his hand had touched an oar, and a gleam of
hope came into his mind. He gently seized it; then rising abruptly, he
aimed a blow at the head of the Vendéan. The latter threw himself to
the right and evaded it; the oar fell on the forward gunwale and was
shivered into a thousand bits, leaving but a fragment in the farmer's
hand.

Quick as lightning Jean Oullier sprang at Courtin's throat. Again the
hapless man fell on his knees. Paralyzed by fear he rolled to the
bottom of the boat; his choking voice could scarcely murmur the cry
for "Mercy! mercy!"

"Ha, the fear of death did awaken a spark of courage in you!" cried
Jean Oullier. "Ha, you found a weapon! Well, so much the better,--so
much the better! Defend yourself, Courtin; and if the weapon you hold
in your hand doesn't suit you, take mine!" continued the old keeper,
flinging his knife at the other's feet.

But Courtin was incapable of seizing it; all movement had become
impossible to him. He stammered a few incoherent words; his whole body
trembled as though he was shaken by an ague; his ears hummed and all
his senses seemed to leave him in his awful dread of death.

"My God!" cried Jean Oullier, pushing the inert mass before him with
his foot, "my God! I cannot put my knife into that dead body."

He looked about him as if in search of something.

Nature was calm; the night silent; the breeze scarcely ruffled the
surface of the lake; the undulation of the water rippled softly
against the sides of the boat; nothing was heard but the cry of the
water-fowl flying eastward, their wings dotting with black the crimson
lines of the dawn as it slowly ascended heavenward.

Jean Oullier turned abruptly to Courtin and shook him by the arm.

"Maître Courtin, I will not kill you without taking my share of the
danger," he said. "Maître Courtin, I will force you to defend
yourself; if not against me, at least against death. Death is coming,
it is here; defend yourself!"

The farmer answered only by a moan. He rolled his haggard eyes about
him, but it was plain he could not distinguish the objects that
surrounded him. Death, terrible, hideous, menacing, effaced all else.

At the same instant Jean Oullier gave a vigorous stamp with his heel
on the bottom of the boat. The rotten planks gave way and the water
entered, boiling and foaming, into the boat.

Courtin was roused by the coldness of the flood as it reached him; he
gave an awful cry,--a cry in which there was nothing human.

"I am lost!" he screamed.

"It is God's judgment!" said Jean Oullier, stretching his arm to
heaven. "Once I did not strike you because you were bound; this time,
my hand spares you again, Maître Courtin. If your good angel wants
you, let him save you; I have not stained my hands with your blood."

Courtin had risen while Jean Oullier said these words, and he moved
hither and thither in the boat, making the water plash about him. Jean
Oullier, calm, impassible, knelt in the bow and prayed.

The water came higher and higher.

"Oh, who will save me? who will save me?" cried Courtin, now livid,
and contemplating with terror the six inches of wood which alone
remained above the surface of the lake.

"God, if it pleases Him! Your life, like mine, is in His hands; let
Him take one or the other--or save, or condemn us both. We are in His
hands; once more, Maître Courtin, I say to you, accept His will."

As Jean Oullier spoke the boat gave a lurch; the water had reached the
level of the gunwale, the skiff whirled once round, sustained itself
for a second on the surface, and then slowly sank beneath the feet of
the two men and buried itself in the depths of the lake with dismal
mutterings.

Courtin was dragged down by the suction of the boat; but he came to
the surface of the water, and his fingers seized the second oar, which
floated near him. This slender bit of light dry wood supported him on
the water long enough for him to make another appeal to Jean Oullier.
The latter did not answer; he was swimming gently in the direction of
the dawn.

"Help! help!" cried the miserable Courtin. "Help me to get ashore,
Jean Oullier, and I will give you all the gold I have upon me!"

"Throw that ill-gotten gold to the bottom of the lake!" said the
Vendéan, seeing the farmer buoyed upon the oar. "That is your one
chance of saving your life; and this advice is the only help I will
give you!"

Courtin put his hand to the belt; but drew it back as though his
fingers were burned by the contact, or as if the Vendéan had commanded
him to rip open his bowels and sacrifice his flesh and blood.

"No, no!" he murmured, "I can save it, and myself too."

He began to swim; but he had neither the skill nor the practice of
Jean Oullier in that exercise. Moreover, the weight of the gold upon
him was too great; at every stroke he went beneath the water, which,
in spite of him, got into his throat. Again he called to Jean, but
Jean Oullier was now a hundred yards away.

In one of these immersions, which lasted longer than the others, he
was seized with a sort of vertigo, and suddenly, with a rapid
movement, he detached the belt. But, before letting his precious gold
drop into the gulf, he resolved to handle it, to feel it for the last
time; he did clasp it, he did feel it with his trembling fingers.

That last contact with the metal he loved decided his fate; he could
not resolve to release his hold of it; he pressed it to his breast,
and made a strong movement with his feet to tread the water; but the
weight of the upper part of his body burdened with the coin threw him
off his balance; he sank. After a few seconds passed under water, he
rose half suffocated, flung a curse to the heaven he saw for the last
time, and then, dragged down by his gold as by a demon, he went to the
bottom.

Jean Oullier, turning at that moment, saw rings upon the surface of
the water,--the last sign given by the mayor of La Logerie of his
existence; the last movement ever made around him in the land of the
living.

The Vendéan raised his eyes to heaven and worshipped God for the
justice of his decrees.

Jean Oullier swam well; but his recent wound and the fatigues and
emotions of this terrible night had exhausted him. When he was only a
hundred strokes from the shore he felt that his strength betrayed his
courage; nevertheless, calm and resolute in this crucial moment as he
had been all his life, he resolved to struggle to the last. On he
swam.

Soon he felt a sort of faintness; his limbs grew numb; he fancied a
thousand pins were pricking and tearing his flesh; his muscles grew
painful; the blood mounted violently to his brain, and a dull,
confused humming, like the roaring of the sea against the rocks,
clamored in his ears; black clouds filled with phosphorescent sparks
danced before his eyes; he thought he was about to die, and yet his
limbs, obedient in their impotence, continued the motion his will
imposed upon them. He still swam.

His eyes closed in spite of himself; his limbs now stiffened entirely;
he gave a last thought to those with whom he had crossed the sea of
life,--to the children, to the wife, to the old man who had brightened
his youth; to the two young girls who had taken the places of those he
loved; he desired that his last prayer, like his last thought, should
be of them.

But at that instant, and in spite of himself, an idea suddenly crossed
his brain. A phantom passed before his eyes; he saw the elder Michel
bathed in his blood, dying on the mossy ground of the forest. Raising
his arm from the water aloft to heaven he cried out:--

"God! if I was mistaken, if it was a crime, forgive me! not in this
world but the next!"

Then, as if that solemn invocation had exhausted its last powers, the
soul seemed to leave the body, which floated inert upon the current at
the moment when the sun, rising above the mountains on the horizon,
gilded with its earliest fires the waters of the lake,--the same
moment when Courtin, sinking to the bottom, rendered his last breath;
the same moment when Petit-Pierre, in Nantes, was driven from her
hiding-place and arrested.

Michel, in charge of the soldiers, was making his way to Nantes.

After marching half an hour along the high-road, the lieutenant who
commanded the little troop came up to his prisoner.

"Monsieur," he said, "you look like a gentleman; I have the honor to
be one myself. It pains me to see you handcuffed. Will you give me
your word of honor not to escape if I release you?"

"Gladly," said Michel; "and I thank you, monsieur, swearing to you
that no matter from what direction succor may come to me, I will not
leave your side without your permission."

After this they continued their way, arm in arm; so that any one who
met them would little have suspected that one was a prisoner.

The night was fine, the sunrise splendid; all the flowers, moist with
dew, sparkled like diamonds; the air was full of sweetest fragrance;
the birds were singing in the branches. This march to Nantes was
really a delightful promenade.

When they reached the extremity of the lake of Grand-Lieu the
lieutenant stopped his prisoner, with whom he had advanced fully half
a mile beyond the escort, and pointing to a black mass, which was
floating on the surface of the water, about fifty feet from the shore,
he asked him what he thought it was.

"It looks like the body of a man," answered Michel.

"Can you swim?"

"A little."

"Ah, if I knew how to swim I'd be in the water now," said the officer,
sighing, and turning as if to call up his men.

Michel waited for nothing more; he ran to the bank, threw off his
clothes, and jumped into the lake. A few instants later he brought to
shore a body he had already recognized as that of Jean Oullier.

During this time the soldiers had come up, and they at once set to
work to revive the drowning man. One of them took out his flask, and
prying open the Vendéan's teeth poured a few drops of brandy into his
mouth.

This revived him. His first glance fell on Michel, who was holding his
head, and such an expression of anguish came upon his face that the
lieutenant noticed and mistook it.

"This is the man who saved you, my friend," he said, pointing to
Michel.

"Saved me! he! his son!" exclaimed Jean Oullier. "Ah! I thank thee,
God, who art wonderful in thy mercy as thou art terrible in thy
justice!"

EPILOGUE.

Toward seven o'clock in the evening of a day in the year 1842, ten
years after the events we have here recorded, a heavy carriage stopped
before the gate of the Carmelite convent at Chartres.

The carriage contained five persons: two children eight and nine years
old, a gentleman and lady,--the first about thirty-five, the second
thirty,--and a peasant, bent with age but still vigorous in spite of
his white hair. Although his dress was humble, this peasant occupied
the seat beside the lady; one of the children was sitting on his knee
and playing with the rings of a thick steel chain which fastened his
watch to the button-hole of his waistcoat, while he himself passed his
brown and shrivelled hand through the silky hair of the little one.

At the jar of the carriage, as it turned from the paved high-road into
the faubourg Saint-Jean, the lady put her head out of the window; then
she drew it back with an expression of pain as she saw the high walls
that surrounded the convent, and the gloomy portal which gave entrance
to it.

The postilion dismounted, and going, to the door of the carriage
said:--

"This is the place."

The lady pressed the hand of her husband, who was seated opposite to
her, while two large tears rolled down her cheeks.

"Go, Mary, and take courage," said the young man, in whom our readers
will recognize Baron Michel de la Logerie. "I regret that the convent
rules will not let me share this duty with you. It is the first time
in ten years we have suffered apart."

"You will speak to her of me, will you not?" said the old peasant.

"Yes, my Jean," answered Mary.

The young woman sprang from the carriage and knocked at the gate. The
sound of the knocker gave a funeral note, which echoed through the
vaulted portal.

"Mère Sainte-Marthe?" said the lady when her summons was answered.

"Are you the person our mother is expecting?" asked the Carmelite.

"Yes, sister."

"Then come in. You shall see her; but remember, our rule requires
that, although she is our Superior, you can see her only in presence
of a sister; and she forbids you absolutely to speak to her, even in
these last moments, of the earthly things she has left behind her."

Mary bowed her head.

The Carmelite went first and conducted the Baronne de la Logerie along
a damp, dark corridor, in which were a dozen doors; she opened one of
these doors and stood aside to allow the lady to enter. Mary hesitated
an instant; she was choking with emotion; then she regained her
self-command, crossed the threshold, and found herself in a little
cell about eight feet square.

In this cell, for all furniture, was a bed, a chair, and a
_prie-dieu_; for all ornament, a few holy images fastened to the bare
walls, and an ebony and brass crucifix, which stretched out its arms
above the _prie-dieu_.

Mary saw nothing of all that. On the bed lay a woman whose face had
taken the color and the transparency of wax, and whose discolored lips
seemed about to exhale their parting breath.

This woman was, or rather, had been Bertha. She was now naught else
than the Mère Sainte-Marthe, superior of the convent of the Carmelites
at Chartres,--soon to be only a corpse.

When she saw the lady enter the dying woman stretched forth her arms,
and Mary fled to them. Long they held themselves embraced; Mary
bathing with tears her sister's face, Bertha gasping,--for in her
eyes, hollowed by the austerities of the cloister, there seemed to be
no more tears.

The Carmelite sister, who had seated herself on the chair and was
reading her breviary, was, however, not so occupied with her prayers
that she did not notice what was passing before her. She probably
thought these embraces were lasting too long, for she coughed
significantly.

Mère Sainte-Marthe gently pushed Mary away from her, but did not
release her hand, which she held in hers.

"Sister! sister!" murmured Mary, "who could have told me we should
meet thus?"

"It is God's will, to which we must submit," replied the Carmelite
mother.

"His will is sometimes very stern," sighed Mary.

"How can you say so, sister? That will is gentle and most merciful to
me. God, who might have left me longer on this earth, deigns to recall
me to Him."

"You will meet our father above," said Mary.

"And whom do I leave behind me?"

"Our good Jean Oullier, who lives and loves you always, Bertha."

"Thank you; and whom else?"

"My husband,--and two children, who are named, the boy, Pierre, the
girl, Bertha. I have taught them to bless you daily."

A faint color came upon the cheeks of the dying woman.

"Dear children!" she murmured, "if God grants me a place beside Him, I
promise to pray for them above."

And the dying soul began on earth the prayer it was to end in heaven.

In the midst of that prayer and in the silence of that cell, the
striking of a clock was heard, then the tinkling of a bell, and the
sound of feet approaching along the corridor. They were bringing the
viaticum.

Mary fell on her knees by Bertha's pillow. The priest entered, holding
the sacred chalice in his left hand, and in his right the consecrated
wafer.

At this moment Mary felt the hand of Bertha seeking hers; for the
purpose, as she thought, of pressing it. She was mistaken; Bertha
slipped into her sister's hand an object which she felt to be a
locket. She tried to look at it.

"No no," said Bertha, "wait till I am dead."

Mary made a sign of obedience and bowed her head upon her clasped
hands.

The cell was now filled with nuns, all kneeling; and as far as could
be seen along the corridor were others in their gloomy robes kneeling
and praying.

The dying woman seemed to recover some strength with which to go into
the presence of her Creator; she lifted herself up, murmuring:--

"I am ready, my God!"

The priest laid the wafer on her lips, and she fell back gently on the
bed with closed eyes and clasped hands. Except for the motion of her
lips, she seemed to have died, so pale was her face, so feeble the
breath that issued from her bosom.

The priest concluded the other ceremonies of the extreme unction, but
she did not open her eyes. He left the cell, and the assistants
followed him.

The Carmelite nun, who had first met Mary, now came to her where she
knelt, and touching her gently on the shoulder, said:--

"My sister, the rule of our order forbids that you should stay any
longer in this cell."

"Bertha! Bertha!" said Mary, sobbing, "do you hear what they say to
me? My God! after living together twenty years without being parted
for a single day, and then separated for eleven years,--not to be
allowed one hour together when we are parting for eternity!"

"You may stay in the house until I am dead, my sister and it will make
me happy to think you are near me and praying for me."

Mary bent down to kiss her dying sister for the last time, but the nun
interposed, saying:--

"Do not turn our blessed mother's mind from the celestial path she now
has entered, by vain, earthly thoughts."

"Oh, I will not leave her thus!" cried Mary, flinging herself on
Bertha's bed and putting her lips to those of her sister. Bertha's
lips replied by a feeble quiver, then she gently pushed her sister
away from her. But the hand that made this motion had no power to
rejoin the other, and it fell inert upon the bed.

The nun advanced, and without a tear, without a sigh, without a sign
of emotion upon her face, she took that dying hand, joined it to the
other, and laid them clasped upon Bertha's breast. Then she gently
pushed Mary to the door.

"Oh, Bertha! Bertha!" cried her sister, breaking into sobs.

It seemed to her that a murmur echoed back these sobs, and in that
murmur she fancied that she heard the name of "Mary!"

She was in the corridor; the door of the cell was closed behind her.

"Oh, let me see her!" she cried. "Let me see her once more,--only
once!"

But the nun stretched out her arms and barred the way.

"I submit," said Mary, blinded by her tears. "Take me where you
choose, sister."

The nun led her to an empty cell, the occupant of which had died the
night before. Mary saw through her tears a _prie-dieu_ surmounted by a
crucifix, and she went, half stumbling, to kneel there.

For an hour she remained absorbed in prayer. At the end of an hour the
nun returned and said, in the same cold impassible voice:--

"Mère Sainte-Marthe is dead."

"May I see her?" asked Mary.

"The rule of our order forbids it," replied the Carmelite.

Mary dropped her head into her hands with a sigh. One of those hands
still clasped the object Bertha had given her at the moment she was
about to receive, for the last time, the blessed sacrament. Mère
Sainte-Marthe was dead, and Mary was free to look at what she had
given her.

It was, as she knew already from its shape, a locket. Mary opened it.
It contained some hair and a paper. The hair was the color of Michel's
hair; the paper contained these words: "Cut during his sleep on the
night of June 5, 1832."

"O, my God!" murmured Mary, raising her eyes to the crucifix, "my God!
in thy mercy receive her! for thy passion lasted but forty days, and
hers has lasted eleven years!"

Putting the locket upon her heart, Mary went down the cold, damp
stairway of the convent.

The carriage and those it contained were still waiting before the
gate.

"Well?" asked Michel, opening the door and making a step toward his
wife.

"Alas, it is all over!" replied Mary, throwing herself into his arms.
"She died promising to pray for us above."

"Happy children!" said Jean Oullier, laying his hands, one on the head
of the little boy, the other on that of the little girl. "Happy
children! walk fearlessly through life, for a martyr watches over you
in heaven!"

THE END.

*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The Last Vendée - or, the She-Wolves of Machecoul" ***

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