LITMIR.BIZ

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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!

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