La Vendee Part 23

"M. d'Elbee," said Cathelineau, aloud, "you will not, I am sure, refuse to take your portion of our labours."

"You will find," whispered Stofflet to his neighbour, "that as Providence has called upon him, he will be willing enough."

"I will do my best," said d'Elbee "as I am called upon; and may the Lord direct me, that I may fight His battle so as to do honour to His name."

"I think I will name Stofflet," said Cathelineau, consulting with Bonchamps and de Lescure; "he is a brave man, and though rude in his manner, he will make perhaps the best soldier among us; already the men obey him almost more implicitly than any one."

"Do--do!" said Bonchamps; "you cannot do better."

"I think you will be right to do so," said de Lescure, "though I do not like the man; but the peasants know him, and he is one of themselves.

Yesterday morning I had ample proof of his courage. As you say, he is a brave man and a good soldier."

Stofflet was then informed that he had been named, and though he muttered some expressions as to his own want of the necessary qualifications, he was evidently well pleased that the choice had fallen on him.

And now the last of the lot was to be chosen. As the two last names had been mentioned, Denot's brow had grown blacker and blacker. Henri Larochejaquelin, during the whole proceeding, had been walking about the room, sitting now in one place, and now in another. At the present moment, he was sitting next to Adolphe, who, when Stofflet's name was mentioned, whispered to him, but almost audibly:

"Gracious heaven! Stofflet!--the whole affair is becoming discreditable.

How can any gentleman serve under such a man as that?"

"You think too much of rank, Adolphe," said Henri; "we should entirely forget all distinctions of person now; unless we do so we can never succeed."

"But do you think we are more likely to set the King upon his throne, by making such a brute as that a General? I wonder whom our Commander-in-Chief will choose next--Foret, I suppose."

After having again consulted for some time, Bonchamps said to Cathelineau: "I do not think you can do better than name Adolphe Denot."

This was said in a low voice, but Adolphe's ears were not slow to catch his own name, and he was once more happy. Though he was named last, he would be equal with the others.

"Not so," said de Lescure, who had no idea that Denot had overheard the mention of his name, "Adolphe is not yet sufficiently known to the people; besides we have hitherto forgotten one, who though absent, we must not forget--one who was the first in the field against the Republic, who is already at the head of an army, and who has on various occasions shown himself capable to lead an army. We must not forget Charette."

The last words were spoken out loud, and though they were eagerly responded to by every one else, they fell with a heavy sound on Adolphe Denot's ear. To know that he was excluded after he had been named, to feel that he had been proposed merely to be rejected; it was more than he could bear; and as soon as Cathelineau had formally announced the name of M. Charette as one of their leaders, he started abruptly from his chair and said:

"Oh, of course, gentlemen, if you prefer Charette, so be it! He, doubtless will be better able to a.s.sist your endeavours than I should; but you might have spared me the mortification of putting my name on your list of officers, merely to scratch it off again."

"What matters it, Adolphe," said Larochejaquelin, blushing for his friend, "will you not share my command? Will not your word be as influential in the parishes of Chatillon as my own?"

"I sincerely beg your pardon, M. Denot," said Cathelineau, "if I have hurt your feelings, but you are as much aware as we are that we should be very wrong to neglect the merits of M. Charette; his achievements claim from us this distinction, and his power and influence would probably be lost to La Vendee, if we did not now incorporate his army with ours."

"I have nothing further to say," said Denot. "I must own I do not altogether admire the selection which has been made; but I have nothing further to say on the subject."

"I am sorry, Adolphe, that you have said so much," said de Lescure.

"You would have been apt to say more yourself if you had been pa.s.sed over," said Adolphe, forgetting in his pa.s.sion how he had disgraced himself before de Lescure at the bridge of Fouchard.

"I fear you misunderstand the purpose, which has collected here in Saumur so many men in arms," said he. "I fear that you think the peasants of our country have turned themselves into soldiers, that we might become generals, and play at being great men. Indeed, such is not the case; if personal ambition has brought you here, you had better leave us. We have come here to fight, and very probably to die for our King and our religion; and, being called upon to act as leaders, we must bear a heavier share of the burden, and undergo greater perils than others; but we seek no especial dignity, we look for no other pre-eminence, than that of suffering more than others. I fear these are not the feelings that influence you."

"My feelings, Sir, are as pure as your own!" said Denot.

"If so," said Father Jerome, "you had better teach us all to think so, by taking care that your conduct is also as pure as M. de Lescure's."

"Oh, Father Jerome, do not anger him," said Henri. "Come with me, Adolphe, and we will quietly talk over this; they don't exactly understand what you mean yet."

"But they shall understand what I mean," said Denot, whose anger was now beyond control, "and they shall know that I will not remain here to be rebuked by a priest, who has thrust himself into affairs with which he has no concern; or to make myself subservient to men who are not fit to be my equals. I will not deign to be a common soldier, when such a man as Stofflet is made an officer."

And he got up from the chair in which he had again seated himself, and stalked out of the room.

"He has at any rate proved to us," said Bonchamps, "that I was wrong to nominate him, and that you were right not to accept the nomination."

"I grieve that he should be vexed with me," said Stofflet; "but I did not seek to put myself above him."

"Time and experience will make him wise," said de Lescure: "let us pity his folly and forgive it."

The council was then broken up, and the different officers went each to perform his own duties. When Denot left the room, Henri immediately followed him.

"Adolphe," said he, as he overtook him in the market-place, "Adolphe, indeed you are wrong, no one meant to show you any indignity."

"And have you also followed me to tell me I am wrong--of course I am wrong--I am wrong because I will not submit, as you and Charles do, to ignorant boors like Stofflet and Cathelineau, because--"

"Like Cathelineau! why, Adolphe, you are mad," said Henri, "why you yourself voted that Cathelineau should be our General."

"Voted! Why, Henri, what a child you are! Do you call that voting when all was arranged beforehand? You are blind, I tell you. You will vote next, I suppose, that your great General's valour shall de rewarded with your sister's hand!"

"My sister's hand! what is it you are speaking of?"

"Yes, Agatha's hand! think you that when you make a General of such as him, that his ambition will rest there? if you are content to be lieutenant to a postillion, I presume you will feel yourself honoured by a nearer connexion with him."

"Denot, you are raving mad! Cathelineau looking for my sister's hand?"

"Yes, Agatha's hand, the postillion looking for your sister's hand; and, Sir, you will find that I am not mad. Before long, Cathelineau will look for Agatha's hand: her heart he has already," and without waiting for any further answer, he hurried away.

"He must be raving mad," said Henri, "unlucky in love, and thwarted in ambition, he is unable to bear his griefs like a man. What a phantasy has jealousy created in his brain But Agatha was right; a man who could speak of her, even in his madness, as he has now spoken, was not worthy of her. Cathelineau! were he ten times lower than a postillion by birth, he would still be twenty times made n.o.ble by achievements and by character, and yet I would not wish--but nonsense! he thinks no more of wedding Agatha than I of Diana."

CHAPTER III.

RETURN TO DURBELLIeRE.

When Adolphe Denot left his friend Henri in the street of Saumur, and ran off from him, Henri was so completely astonished by his parting words, so utterly dumb-founded by what he said respecting Agatha, that he made no attempt to follow him, but returned after awhile to the house, in which he, Charles and Adolphe were lodging, and as he walked slowly through the streets, he continued saying to himself, "Poor fellow, he is mad! he is certainly raving mad!"

From that time, no tidings whatsoever were heard of Denot. He had never returned to his lodging, nor been seen anywhere, except in the stable, in which his horse had been put to stand--he had himself saddled his horse, and taken him from the stall, and from that moment nothing further could be learnt of him in Saumur. De Lescure and Henri made the most minute inquiries--but in vain; had he destroyed himself, or hid himself in the town, his horse would certainly have been found; it was surmised that he had started for Paris on some mad speculation; and though his friends deeply grieved at his misconduct, his absence, when they had so much to do and to think of was in itself, felt as a relief.

After remaining about a week in Saumur, the army was disbanded--or rather disbanded itself, for every effort was made, to keep together as great a body of men as possible. An attempt was made to garrison the town; and for this purpose, the leaders undertook to pay about one thousand men, at a certain rate per day, for their services, while they remained under arms in Saumur, but the idea, after a very short time, was abandoned; the men would not stay away from their homes, and in spite of the comforts which were procured for them, and the pay which was promised, the garrison very quickly dissolved.

Cathelineau succeeded in taking back with him to St. Florent, nearly all the men who had accompanied him; his next object was the attack of Nantes, and as St. Florent is between Saumur and that town, his men were able to return to their homes, without going much out of their direct way. He marched through the town of Angers on his return, and took possession of the stores which he found there, the republican garrison having fled as soon as they heard of his approach; many of Bonchamps'

men accompanied him, and some of those who had come to Saumur with de Lescure and Henri Larochejaquelin, young men who had no wives or families, and who literally preferred the excitement of the campaign, to their ordinary home employments; all such men joined Cathelineau's army, but by far the greater number of the peasants of the Bocage returned with de Lescure and Larochejaquelin.

Charette had been invited to a.s.sist Cathelineau in his attack on Nantes, and he had promised to do so; de Lescure found it absolutely necessary to go home, on account of his wound, and Larochejaquelin went with him.

They had already heard that the Convention had determined to invade La Vendee on every side with an overwhelming force, and it was necessary to protect the Southern portion of the province; this duty was allotted to our two friends, and they therefore returned home from Saumur, without expecting to enjoy for any length of time the fruits of their recent victory.