lack of others; the coach is bringing gold, and
there's always a lack of that. We bury men, who go to heaven, and we
take money, which goes into the pockets of heroes. I don't see the
difficulty."

The Chouans approved of her speech by unanimous smiles.

"Do you see nothing in all that to make you blush?" said the young man,
in a low voice. "Are you in such need of money that you must pillage on
the high-road?"

"I am so eager for it, marquis, that I should put my heart in pawn if it
were not already captured," she said, smiling coquettishly. "But where
did you get the strange idea that you could manage Chouans without
letting them rob a few Blues here and there? Don't you know the saying,
'Thieving as an owl'?--and that's a Chouan. Besides," she said, raising
her voice to be heard by the men, "it is just; haven't the Blues seized
the property of the Church, and our own?"

Another murmur, very different from the growl with which the Chouans had
answered their leader, greeted these words. The young man's face grew
darker; he took the young lady aside and said in the annoyed tone of a
well-bred man, "Will those gentlemen be at La Vivetiere on the appointed
day?"

"Yes," she replied, "all of them, the Claimant, Grand-Jacques, and
perhaps Ferdinand."

"Then allow me to return there. I cannot sanction such robbery. Yes,
madame, I call it robbery. There may be honor in being robbed, but--"

"Well, well," she said, interrupting him, "then I shall have your share
of the booty, and I am much obliged to you for giving it up to me; the
extra sum will be extremely useful, for my mother has delayed sending me
money, so that I am almost destitute."

"Adieu!" cried the marquis.

He turned away, but the lady ran after him.

"Why won't you stay with me?" she said, giving him the look,
half-despotic, half-caressing, with which women who have a right to a
man's respect let him know their wishes.

"You are going to pillage that coach?"

"Pillage? what a word!" she said. "Let me explain to you--"

"Explain nothing," he said, taking her hand and kissing it with the
superficial gallantry of a courtier. "Listen to me," he added after a
short pause: "if I were to stay here while they capture that diligence
our people would kill me, for I should certainly--"

"Not kill them," she said quickly, "for they would bind your hands,
with all the respect that is due to your rank; then, having levied the
necessary contribution for thei