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And, Philip, have the fastest horse in Valmy saddled and ready. Go, Philip, go! Make haste, for the love of Heaven, make haste! Beaufoy! Beaufoy!" Uncomprehending, but terror-shaken at the sudden outburst which filled Louis' frail body with passion, Commines hastened to the door.
My dear lad " he began as La Mothe nodded, but Molembrais again interrupted him. "We have no time now. Where is the King?" "In his usual lodgings." "Mort-dieu! monsieur, how should I know his usual lodgings? Am I of Valmy?" "Monsieur, a little civility would do you no harm." "Monsieur, once I have seen the King I will be as civil or as uncivil as you please."
"Then it comes to this: you, a stranger in Amboise, are to arrest a stranger to yourself for an offence of which you are ignorant?" "With my orders clear and explicit I have no need of knowledge." "Is this order public property at Valmy?" "No one knows of it except myself and the King," replied Beaufoy, clinging desperately to the remnants of his authority.
The French troops concentrated at Valmy. There they drew up in line of battle, to arrest the advance of their foes. The second line of the French army was commanded by the Duke of Chartes. The battle which ensued was one of the most memorable and hard-fought in French history. In the early morning a dense mist covered the field of conflict.
"Yes, we grow suspicious in Valmy. There are my instructions, mademoiselle; you will see they leave me no alternative." "Yes, the writing is the King's throughout. 'Go to Amboise," she read, "'Arrest Monsieur Stephen La Mothe, and bring him to Valmy without delay. Tell him his orders are cancelled, and on your life let him hold no communication with the Dauphin.
The hero is killed by an accident with a gun-team soon after the Battle of Valmy. That is the unfamiliar aspect of the hackneyed French Revolution with which Mr. Belloc here chooses to deal: an aspect, we might even say, not merely unfamiliar, but practically unknown to the English reader.
The archers shouted to her, but she was hungry, poor starved soul, and gathered on, bent to all-fours like a beast. Then they shot her like a beast. Down she went with an arrow through the bent back; a woman, Uncle." "She should have hearkened and kept away," said Commines. "Neither man nor woman may come near Valmy without permission when the King is here."
Belloc himself has settled the vexed question of why the Prussians did not charge at Valmy by visiting the battlefield under the conditions of the battle and discovering that they could not have charged. Through the vast store of knowledge acquired in this way Mr. Belloc enjoys an advantage in his treatment of the present war which cannot be overestimated.
In silence he handed his letter to the Captain of the Guard, together with the King's signet, and in silence he rode away; but whereas he came at a gallop he rode away at a slow walk: therefore the wise further deduced that his task was ended. With the King in residence not even the Captain of the Guard could move freely through Valmy, but the signet answered all challenges.
At Valmy guards had thronged at every turn, more vigilant than pickets who hold the lives of a sleeping army in their keeping, but at Amboise the doors swung open to the touch of almost the first comer, though it was not easy to be certain how much of this laxity was due to the guarantee of Villon's presence.
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