tes to the assembly of Rennes which was
to select the deputies to the Third Estate and edit their cahier of
grievances. Rennes itself was being as fully represented, whilst such
villages as Gavrillac were sending two delegates for every two hundred
hearths or less. Each of these three had clamoured that Andre-Louis
Moreau should be one of its delegates. Gavrillac wanted him because he
belonged to the village, and it was known there what sacrifices he had
made in the popular cause; Rennes wanted him because it had heard
his spirited address on the day of the shooting of the students; and
Nantes--to whom his identity was unknown--asked for him as the speaker who
had addressed them under the name of Omnes Omnibus and who had framed
for them the memorial that was believed so largely to have influenced M.
Necker in formulating the terms of the convocation.

Since he could not be found, the delegations had been made up without
him. But now it happened that one or two vacancies had occurred in
the Nantes representation; and it was the business of filling these
vacancies that had brought Le Chapelier to Nantes.

Andre-Louis firmly shook his head in answer to Le Chapelier's proposal.

"You refuse?" the other cried. "Are you mad? Refuse, when you are
demanded from so many sides? Do you realize that it is more than
probable you will be elected one of the deputies, that you will be sent
to the States General at Versailles to represent us in this work of
saving France?"

But Andre-Louis, we know, was not concerned to save France. At the
moment he was concerned to save two women, both of whom he loved, though
in vastly different ways, from a man he had vowed to ruin. He stood firm
in his refusal until Le Chapelier dejectedly abandoned the attempt to
persuade him.

"It is odd," said Andre-Louis, "that I should have been so deeply
immersed in trifles as never to have perceived that Nantes is being
politically active."

"Active! My friend, it is a seething cauldron of political emotions. It
is kept quiet on the surface only by the persuasion that all goes well.
At a hint to the contrary it would boil over."

"Would it so?" said Scaramouche, thoughtfully. "The knowledge may be
useful." And then he changed the subject. "You know that La Tour d'Azyr
is here?"

"In Nantes? He has courage if he shows himself. They are not a docile
people, these Nantais, and they know his record and the part he played
in the rising at Rennes. I marv