, for more than a day or two.

"There can be no doubt that the impulse to cross the Loire was a
mad one. On the other side we at least knew the country, and it
would have been far better to have died fighting, there, than to
throw ourselves across the river. It was well nigh a miracle that
we got across, and it will need nothing short of a miracle to get
us back again.

"Of one thing we may be sure: the whole host of our enemies will,
by this time, be in movement. We should never have got across, had
they dreamed that such was our intention. Now that we have done it,
you may be sure that they will strain every effort to prevent us
from returning. Probably, by this time, half their forces are
marching to cross at Nantes. The other half are pressing on to
Saumur. In three or four days they will be united again, and will
be between us and the river.

"Were we a smaller body, were we only men, I should say that we
ought to march another twenty miles north, then sweep round either
east or west and, while the enemy followed the north bank of the
river to effect a junction, we should march all night without a
halt, pass them, and hurl ourselves either upon Saumur or Nantes,
and so return to La Vendee. But with such a host as this, there
would be little hope of success. I fancy that we shall march to
Laval, and there halt for a day or two. By that time the whole
force of the enemy will have come up, and there will be another
battle."

"And we, Jean?"

"I see nothing but for us to march with them. We know nothing of
the movements of the enemy and, were we to try to make our way
across the country, we might run into their arms. Besides, Leigh
and I have both agreed that, at present at least, we cannot leave
Rochejaquelein."

"We could not, indeed, Patsey," Leigh broke in. "If you had seen
him this evening when, with tears in his eyes, he accepted our
choice, you would feel as we do. It was all very well for us,
before, to talk of making off; but now that the worst has happened,
if it were only for his sake, I should stay by him; though I think
that Jean, with the responsibility of you and your child, would be
justified in going."

"No," Patsey said firmly, "whatever comes, we will stay together.
As Jean said, you cannot desert the cause now. As long as there are
battles to fight we must stay with them, and it is not until
further fighting has become impossible that we, like others, must
endeavour to shift for ourselve