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Updated: May 1, 2025
"What a stupid you are!" replied Clef-des-Coeurs, "haven't you guessed, you knave of tricks, that this is the home of the beauty our jovial Merle has been whistling round? He'll marry her to a certainty that's as clear as a well-rubbed bayonet. A woman like that will do honor to the brigade."
As none of them could read, they gazed at it, some with a careless eye, others with curiosity, while two or three hunted about for a citizen who looked learned enough to read it to them. "Now you tell us, Clef-des-Coeurs, what that rag of a paper says," cried Beau-Pied, in a saucy tone to his comrade. "Easy to guess," replied Clef-des-Coeurs.
Take Clef-des-Coeurs; he is very intelligent. This is no laughing matter; I wouldn't give a farthing for our skins if we don't turn the odds in our favor at once." While Merle was executing this order with a rapidity of which he fully understood the importance, the commandant waved his right hand to enforce silence on the soldiers, who were standing at ease, and laughing and joking around him.
"You will each reconnoitre the gardens and search the bushes, and post a sentry before your line." "May we light our fire before starting, adjutant?" asked Clef-des-Coeurs. Gerard nodded. "There! you see, Clef-des-Coeurs," said Beau-Pied, "the adjutant's wrong to run himself into this wasp's-nest. If Hulot was in command we shouldn't be cornered here in a saucepan!"
No sooner was he gone than a voice, which seemed to issue from the lake, called, in a muffled tone: "Madame, madame!" The postilion and the two women shuddered, for several corpses were floating near them. A Blue, hidden behind a tree, cautiously appeared. "Let me get up behind the coach, or I'm a dead man. That damned cider which Clef-des-Coeurs would stop to drink cost more than a pint of blood.
"Look at that, Clef-des-Coeurs," said Beau-Pied; "it would take you a hundred years to find out what that accoutrement is good for." "What should I know about the Pope's uniform?" replied Clef-des-Coeurs, scornfully. "You worthless bog-trotter, you'll never learn anything," retorted Beau-Pied.
"Yes, yes, you canting hypocrite," cried Clef-des-Coeurs; "go and make your report to that Virgin of yours. Didn't he shout in our faces, 'Vive le roi! when we thought him cooked?" "Here are his papers, commandant," said Beau-Pied. "Ho! ho!" cried Clef-des-Coeurs. "Come, all of you, and see this minion of the good God with colors on his stomach!"
At these words the other men clustered round the pair, who were always ready to play their parts. "Look there," continued Clef-des-Coeurs, pointing to a coarse woodcut which headed the proclamation and represented a pair of compasses, which had lately superseded the level of 1793.
They then divided into groups, to whom two peasants began to distribute butter and rye-bread. The marquis appeared in the portico to welcome the officers and take them to the salon. As Gerard went up the steps he looked at both ends of the portico, where some venerable larches spread their black branches; and he called up Clef-des-Coeurs and Beau-Pied.
"Adjutant," said Clef-des-Coeurs, "isn't it a sham attack, to capture our travellers and get a ransom." "The devil is in it, but I believe you are right," replied Gerard, darting back towards the highroad. Just then the Chouan fire slackened, for, in truth, the whole object of the skirmish was to give the chevalier an opportunity to utter his warning to the Gars.
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