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And, Bonchamps, you little know the dispositions and character of the men, who at our bidding have left their homes and come to Saumur, if you think that at our bidding they will march to Paris; they are even now burning to return home, to recount to their wives and children what they have done.
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."
"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."
"M. Bonchamps," said he, "will of course take the command of the men of Anjou, and M. de Lescure of those from the southern parts of the Bocage, and they will assist me, I hope, in selecting the others. It is very difficult to select, where so many are fit." "Rather say," said Henri, laughing, "where so many are equally unfit.
"He told some of the people here that he was at Fontenay and Saumur; and he talked of knowing Cathelineau and Bonchamps. I was speaking to a man who heard him say so." "And did the man say what he was like?" said Marie. "I don't think he saw him at all," answered Arthur. "It seems that he won't let any one see his face, if he can help it; but they all say he is quite a young man."
"Yes," said Henri. "The whole province, down to the sea, will be with us. Charette is in the Marais ready to take up arms, the moment the collection of the conscripts is commenced, or before, if it be necessary. M. Bonchamps, who is now at Angers, will join us at once, and give us what we so much want military skill.
You wish me well, I doubt not, and your kind heart would grieve, if you heard that I had fallen beneath the swords of the republicans; but you would do the same for Cathelineau or M. de Bonchamps. If I cannot wake a warmer interest in your heart than that, I should prefer that you should forget me altogether." Agatha began to fear that at this rate the interview would have no end.
Stofflet sent a challenge to Bonchamps; and both Stofflet and Charette were ultimately betrayed by their comrades. Success depended on the fidelity of d'Elbée, Bonchamps, and Lescure to each other, through all divergences of character and policy. For two months they continued to hold the Republic at bay.
D'Elbée was chosen to succeed, on the death of Cathelineau. He admitted the superior claims of Bonchamps, but he disliked his policy of carrying the war to the north. The others preferred d'Elbée because they had less to fear from his ascendancy and strength of will. They were not only divided by jealousy, but by enmity.
Bonchamps always urged the need of sending a force to rouse Brittany; but the day when the army crossed the Loire was the day of his death. La Vendée was far from the route of invading armies, and the district threatened by the Germans. There were no fears for hearth and home, no terrors in a European war for those who kept out of it.
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