lf, Andre; but although I can get on
fairly enough in your patois, I cannot speak it well enough to pass
as a native. However, you are not likely to be questioned. In a
town crowded with troops, two lads can move about without
attracting the smallest attention from the military. It would be
only the civilian authorities that you would have to fear; but
these will be so much occupied, in attending to the wants of the
soldiers, that they will not have any time on their hands for
asking questions.

"Be sure, before you enter the town, that you find out the name of
some village, three or four miles on the other side; so as to have
an answer ready, if you are asked where you come from.

"It is probable that you will find troops quartered in all the
villages beyond the town, which could hardly accommodate so large a
number as are there. Remember, you must try to look absolutely
unconcerned as you go through them, and as you walk about the
streets of the town. The great object is to find out how many men
there are in and around Thouars, whether they are looking for more
troops to join them from Saumur, and when they are expecting to
move forward."

As soon as they had left he repeated, to the six lads who remained
with him, the orders that he had given to those posted on the other
roads.

"You are to remain in hiding," he said, "whatever the force may be.
It is likely enough that patrols of four or five men may come
along, to see that the roads are clear, and that there are no signs
of any bodies being gathered to oppose their advance. It is quite
true that we might shoot down and overpower any such patrols, but
we must not attempt to do so. If one of them escaped, he would
carry the news to Thouars that the roads were beset. This would put
them on their guard--doubtless they imagine that, with such a force
as they have gathered, they will march through La Vendee without
opposition--and they would adopt such precautions at to render it
far more difficult, than it otherwise would be, to check their
advance when it begins in earnest. We are here only to watch. We
shall have opportunities for fighting, later on.

"This is a good spot for watching, for we have a thick wood behind
us; and plenty of undergrowth along its edge, by the road, where we
can hide so closely that there will not be the slightest chance of
our being discovered, if we do but keep absolutely quiet."

Three or four times during the day, indeed, cavalry