avel alone.

"The more of us there are, the more certain to attract
observation," Jean said. "We must go without Francois and Marthe.
Their chance of safety will be greater if they either return to
their villages, or take up their abode with the family of some
woodman--or rather, Marthe's safety would be greater. As to
Francois, he has long been eager to join in the fighting, and it is
only his fidelity that has constrained him to remain in what he
considers is a disgraceful position, when every other man who can
bear arms is fighting. We will therefore take him with us and, when
the day of battle comes, he will join the fighting men and, if we
are defeated, must care for his own safety.

"When we fight, I shall always leave you at a village, a mile or
two away. You will have the horse ready to mount, and we shall join
you at once, if we are defeated."

"We ought to be disguised, Jean," Leigh said.

"It would be well," Jean said, "but I hardly see what disguise
would be of use to us. Certainly not that of peasants, for in that
dress we should be shot down, without question, by the first party
of Blues we came across. Even if we succeed in reaching the river
and crossing it, we may be sure that the authorities will be
everywhere on the lookout for fugitive peasants. It would be better
to be shot, at once, than to await in prison death by the
guillotine."

"I should say that it does not matter a bit how we are dressed,
till we reach the river. We know now pretty nearly every lane in
the country," Leigh said, "and I should think that we ought to be
able to reach the Loire."

"That is where the difficulty will begin. In the first place there
will be the trouble of crossing, and then that of making our way
through the country. Certainly we could not do so as Vendean
peasants."

"I should say, Jean, that the best disguises would be those of
fairly well-to-do townspeople; something like those we wore into
Nantes, but rather less formal--the sort of thing that ordinary
tradesmen, without any strong political feeling either way, would
wear. I don't say that we shall not be suspected, however we are
dressed, because no one in his senses would be travelling about
just at present; but when once we get beyond Tours, if we go that
way, we might pass without much notice.

"Which way do you think that we ought to go, Jean?"

Jean shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't see that there is any choice. There would be very little