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CHAPTER XXII

THE ROBBERS' OAK

'FAREWELL, Madame! I must return. My son will be at your command,' said de la Roberie as they came within sight of Stephen's Mill. Heaven bless you and keep you safe!'

'And you, my friend.'

He turned sadly away.

'I do not know how it is, I feel as if that man were marked out for misfortune. I am glad he is not coming further with us,' she said.

Several Royalists were gathered together at the Mill, René le Romain and Prévost de Saint-Marc among them. Their faces boded no good.

No one knew what had happened. The counterorder had not reached all the chiefs in time. The worst was to be feared.

In the course of the day de Monti arrived, with two younger friends of the cause.

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The others crowded round them.

'Well?'

'All is lost!'

A little vague that,' said René le Romain. 'Come to details. In the Romantic School everything depends upon details.'

'At Bressuire our forces were crushed at once, and at Deux-Sèvres.'

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'Who said that?'

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Shakespeare. He's all the rage in Paris now. Hugo swears there is nobody like him.'

'Outside France there is no world for a Frenchman. He must have been a fool.'

'Once we are at peace again, I shall challenge you. Go on.'

'The counter-order did not reach Brittany and Poitou in time. The people rose, but they were overwhelmed by numbers.'

'Not de Courson's Division? Impossible!'

'There were two obstinate fights, after which they dispersed. He is badly wounded.'

'Briant was with him?'

'It was he who cried out "I am a dead man, but long live Henri Cinq!" as he fell. Then he called for a priest. The Abbé Laisis, chaplain of the Division, took him on his shoulders, confessing him as he went. When they were hard pressed by the Reds, he put him down, seized his gun, shot one, wounded another, took up his burden again and went on. The confession was finished; and Briant died in peace.'

'I will never laugh at a priest again,' said René le Romain.

'But Clouet-Clouet?'

'Clouet was very ill when he received the counterorder, but he started at once to take it to Gaulier. As soon as he came up, he heard the rattle of musketrythe firing had begun. He rushed into the thick of it, and would have fallen, he was so weak, but that Gaulier, with fifteen men, protected him. They kept in check a column of four to five hundred for five hours at a stretch. They reached Saint-Charles without

the loss of a single trooper, but they could do no more.'

'And Cathelineau?' asked Madame.

'Dead. Shot by the Blues five days ago. They found him in a hayloft where he was hiding with Moricet and another friend. The farmer-old père Guinehut-kept eight hundred pounds of powder there there was lead too-and there were moulds for casting balls—any number of printed proclamations, also, though he did not know how to read himself. His son gave warning, and the three gentlemen were all under the floor of the hayloft by the time a detachment of the 29th of the Line came up.

"Look here, père Guinehut," said they, "you're a capital fellow. You don't want the war to go on and on without rhyme or reason. Own up! You know you're sheltering more than one of the old leaders."

"If you think they're in my house, look for them," said père Guinehut.

'So they did. They looked high-they looked low -they found nothing. They were going away at last, when, as ill-luck would have it, one of them spied a copy of the Quotidienne, which had been left about in a corner when the three gentlemen jumped up from their dinner to hide.'

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'Well?'

'Peasants do not take in the papers, as a rule.'

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Exactly. It was, Oh ho, père Guinehut! This is more communicative than you are."

"Papers are not forbidden, sir. I suppose I may have a paper like the rest of the world?"

"Oh, it is your paper, is it? Read us the news, then."

'They caught him out there-he could not read. The search began over again. He was obliged to walk in front, and open every door. At last they came to the hayloft. He saw at once that there was a bit of straw sticking up through the trap, moved to the side, put his foot on it. Nothing was to be found.

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Well, you old Owl you!" said the officer in command, out of all patience, "you have laughed at His Majesty's troops for the last time. Show us where these men are, or we will shoot you and set fire to the loft. There will not be much left of you or your farm either in an hour or two."

Our old friend, madame de la Paumelière, told me the rest in Guinehut's own words.

"I said to myself, The farm is not mine. Have I the right to let it be burnt when I could stop the thing? But then I answered, My master is a Royalist. If he were here, he would do like me. Besides, when they have killed me, they will be satisfied, and perhaps they will not burn the house after all. So I said:

"Gentlemen, you command here. Shoot me whenever you will.'

"They made me kneel down-they knocked out one of my front teeth here-the musket was at my lips -all that, a few steps from the trap-door. The gentlemen below heard everything. Unhappily, they risked their lives.

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"Do not fire.'

"Up went the trap-door, and there they were, all three of them.

"The soldiers were taken by surprise.

"""Shoot the Owls!' cried their officer; but they

were in no hurry to obey. He seized a musket and fired on the one nearest to him-monsieur de Cathelineau-who fell dead. The soldiers cried out."'

'What of the other two?'

'They were taken prisoners. They were driven into Cholet in the same cart with the dead body.'

' And that very day the secret papers were found by Dermoncourt's men in the wine-bottles in the cellar at la Charlière.'

'What-all?' said the duchess, putting her hands to her head.

'All, Madame.'

'The last blow to my hopes! Oh, my boy, my boy, you will never know!'

She turned away.

'Achille Guibourg is in the Prison Neuve at Nantes. He was caught early next morning. Dermoncourt vows he will shoot him.'

'This bloodshed must be stopped at any cost,' she cried, with feverish decision. Is it impossible to get the counter-order out?'

'Too late, Madame. The position is desperate. All that remains for you to do is to gain the coast and to fly.'

'I tell you, I will not!' she said proudly. 'I dismiss the first man who mentions the word flight to me. I am going to la Brosse. Is everything ready?'

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A boat will be in waiting for Your Royal Highness by ten o'clock,' said the younger Jacinth. The moon is nearly at the full to-night. I have sent word to the guides to meet us on the further bank.'

If Your Royal Highness will take my advice,' said de Charette, 'you will rest while you can.'

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