do, drill will not be necessary. I have raised this band on Jean
Martin's estate, sir, and with your permission I propose to call
them 'Cathelineau's scouts.' It seemed, to my brother and myself,
that you sorely need scouts to inform you of the movements of the
enemy, the roads by which they are approaching, their force and
order. I have therefore raised this little body of lads of my own
age. They will remain with me permanently, as long as the occasion
needs. They will go on any special mission with which you may
charge them; and will, at other times, watch all the roads by which
an enemy would be likely to advance."

"If they will do that, Monsieur Stansfield, they will be valuable,
indeed; that is just what I cannot get the peasants to do. When it
comes to fighting, they will obey orders; but at all other times
they regard themselves as their own masters, and neither entreaties
nor the offer of pay suffices to persuade them to undertake such
work as you are proposing to carry out. Consequently, it is only by
chance that we obtain any news of the enemy's movements. I wish we
had fifty such parties."

"They would be valuable, indeed," Monsieur d'Elbee said. "The
obstinacy of the peasantry is maddening.

"How do you propose to feed your men?"

"When we are within reach of their homes, two will go back to fetch
bread for the whole; when we are too far away, I shall buy it in
one of the villages."

"When you are within reach of my headquarters, wherever that may
be, you have only to send in; and they shall have the loaves served
out to them, the same as the band who remain here. We are not short
of money, thanks to the captures we have made.

"I see that none of your band have firearms."

"No, sir. Jean Martin would have let me have some of the muskets he
brought from here, but it seemed to me that they would be an
encumbrance. We may have to trust to our swiftness of foot to
escape and, at any rate, we shall want to carry messages to you as
quickly as possible. The weight of a gun and ammunition would make
a good deal of difference; and would, moreover, be in our way in
getting through the woods and hedges."

"But for all that, you ought to have some defence," Cathelineau
said; "and if you came upon a patrol of cavalry, though only three
or four in number, you would be in a bad case with only those
knives to defend yourselves.

"Do you know whether there are any pistols in the storehouse,
Monsieur Boncham