Page:The Works of Honoré de Balzac Volume 29.djvu/58

30 "Oh, if the army did not interfere a little in the government," said Gérard, "the lawyers would put us back in a worse position than we were in before the Revolution. Do those wretches understand how to make themselves obeyed?"

"I am always in fear that I shall hear of their treating with the Bourbon princes. Tonnerre de Dieu! If they came to an understanding, what a fix some of the rest of us would be in out here."

"No, no, commandant; we shall not come to that," said Gérard. "As you say, the army would make its voice heard; and so that the army does not pick its words out of Pichegru's dictionary, we shall not have been cutting ourselves to pieces for ten years, I hope, over carding the flax for others to spin."

"Well," said Captain Merle, "let us always conduct ourselves here like good patriots, and try to cut off the Chouan communications with la Vendée; for if once they hear that England has a finger in the matter, I would not answer for the cap of our Republic, one and indivisible."

Just then the cry of a screech-owl, heard from some considerable distance, interrupted the conversation. Still more uneasily the commandant again furtively scrutinized Marche-à-Terre; there was no sign of animation, so to speak, in his stolid face. The recruits, drawn up together by one of the officers, were mustered like a herd of cattle in the crown of the road, some thirty paces from the troops in order of battle. Behind them again, at the distance of some ten paces, came the soldiers and patriots commanded by Lieutenant Lebrun. The commandant ran his eyes over this array, and gave a last glance at the picket posted in advance up the road. Satisfied with this disposition of his forces, he turned to give the order to march, when he saw the tricolor cockades of two of his scouts returning from the search of the woods that lay on the left. As he saw no sign whatever of the two sent to reconnoitre the right-hand woods, the commandant determined to wait for them.

"Perhaps the trouble is coming from that quarter," he