Page:Tales of my landlord (Volume 4).djvu/58

 fence.—Let any one who loves his country follow me!"

The multitude had turned, their heads in the direction to which he pointed. The sight of the glittering files of the footguards, supported by several squadrons of horse, of the cannon which the artillery, men were busily engaged in planting against the bridge, and of the long succession of troops which were destined to support the attack, silenced at once their clamorous uproar, and struck them with as much consternation as if it were an unexpected apparition, and not the very thing which they ought to have been looking out for. They gazed on each other, and on their leaders, with looks resembling those that indicate the weakness of a patient when exhausted by a fit of frenzy. Yet when Morton, springing from the rostrum, directed his steps towards the bridge, he was followed by about an hundred of the young men who were particularly attached to his command.