Page:The Works of Honoré de Balzac Volume 29.djvu/73

Rh "What?" cried the young man angrily. "Do you mean to say you are waiting here to stop a coach? You cowards, who could not gain the victory in the first encounter with me for your commander! How is victory possible with such intentions? So those who fight for God and the King are pillagers? By St. Anne of Auray! we are making war on the Republic and not on diligences. Any one guilty of such disgraceful actions in future will not be pardoned, and shall not benefit by the favors destined for brave and faithful servants of the King."

A murmur like a growl arose from the band. It was easy to see that the authority of the new leader, never very sure over these undisciplined troops, had been compromised. Nothing of this was lost upon the young man, who cast about him for a means of saving his orders from discredit, when the sound of approaching horse-hoofs broke the silence. Every head was turned in the direction whence the sound seemed to come. A young woman appeared, mounted sideways upon a little horse, her pace quickened to a gallop as soon as she saw the young man.

"What is the matter?" she asked, looking by turns at the chief and the assembled Chouans.

"Would you believe it, madame, they are waiting to plunder the coach that runs between Mayenne and Fougères, just as we have liberated our gars from Fougères in a skirmish which has cost us a good many lives, without our being able to demolish the Blues."

"Very well, but where is the harm?" asked the young lady, whose woman's tact had revealed the secret of this scene to her. "You have lost some men, you say; we shall never run short of them. The mail is carrying money, and we are always short of that. We will bury our men, who will go to heaven, and we will take the money, which will go into the pockets of these good fellows. What is the objection?"

Every face among the Chouans beamed with approval at her words.