the general gaiety of her expression. A certain daintiness of
feature was misleading as to her true character and her almost virile
decision. She had small hands and small feet; in fact, there was
something fragile about her whole person which excluded the idea of
vigor and determination. Having always lived beside her mother, she had
a most perfect innocence of thought and behavior and a really remarkable
piety. This young girl, like her mother, was fanatically attached to
the Bourbons; she was therefore a bitter enemy to the Revolution, and
regarded the dominion of Napoleon as a curse inflicted by Providence
upon France in punishment of the crimes of 1793.

"The conformity of opinion on this subject between Madame de la
Chanterie and her daughter, and the daughter's suitor, was one of the
determining reasons of the marriage.

"The friend of the husband had commanded a body of Chouans at the time
that hostilities were renewed in 1799; and it seems that the baron's
object (Madame de la Chanterie's son-in-law was a baron) in fostering
the intimacy between his wife and his friend was to obtain, through her
influence, certain succor from that friend.

"This requires a few words of explanation," said Monsieur Alain,
interrupting his narrative, "about an association which in those days
made a great deal of noise. I mean the 'Chauffeurs.'[*] Every province
in the west of France was at that time more or less overrun with these
'brigands,' whose object was far less pillage than a resurrection of the
royalist warfare. They profited, so it was said, by the great number of
'refractories,'--the name applied to those who evaded the conscription,
which was at that time, as you probably know, enforced to actual abuse.

[*] _Chauffeurs_. This name applies to royalists who robbed
the mail-coaches conveying government funds, and levied
tribute on those who bought the confiscated property of
_emigres_ at the West. When the Thermidorian reaction began,
after the fall of Robespierre, other companies of royalists,
chiefly young nobles who had not emigrated, were formed at
the South and East under various names, such as "The
Avengers," and "The Company of Jehu," who stopped the
diligences containing government money, which they
transmitted to Brittany and La Vendee for the support of the
royalist troops. They regarded this as legitimate warfare,
and were scrupulous not to touch p