e honour
of striking the first blow, at Saint Florent."

"Your names are all widely known in this part," Monsieur Sapinaud
said, courteously. "Well, sirs, we have come to fight under your
orders. I have brought a hundred men with me, and we have already
done something on our own account; for we last night captured
Herbiers, which was defended by two companies, with four cannon. We
have gained a sufficient number of muskets to arm all our party."

"If I do not offer to give up the leadership to you, Monsieur de la
Verrie," Cathelineau said gravely, "it is from no desire on my part
to be a commander; but I am widely known to the peasantry of many
parishes round Pin and, perhaps because I understand them better
than most, they have confidence in me; and would, I think, follow
me rather than a gentleman like yourself, of whom they know but
little."

"They are quite right," Monsieur Sapinaud said. "The peasantry
commenced this war. It is right that they should choose their own
leaders. You and your two companions have already their confidence,
and it is far better that you should be their leaders. I believe
all other gentlemen who join you will be as ready as we are to
follow you, and I am sure that the only rivalry will be as to who
shall most bravely expose himself, when he faces the enemy."

"I thank you, sir," Cathelineau said. "I believe earnestly that, in
many respects, it is best that the peasants should have their own
leaders. We can associate ourselves with their feelings, better
than the gentry could do. We shall have more patience with their
failings.

"You would want to make an army of them. We know that this cannot
be done. They will fight and die as bravely as men could do, but I
know that they will never submit to discipline. After a battle,
they will want to hurry off to their homes. They will obey the
order to fight, but that is the only order one can rely upon their
obeying.

"We are on the point of starting for Chollet. It is a town where
the people are devoted to the cause of the Convention. At the last
drawing for the militia they killed, without any pretext, a number
of young men who had come, unarmed, into the town. Many inhabitants
of adjoining parishes have been seized and thrown in prison,
charged only with being hostile to the Convention, and expressing
horror at the murder of the king.

"The capture will produce an impression throughout the country.
They have three or four hundred drago