d her two hands, and they danced round together. In the shadow
behind the house Gigot and Marie followed their example, while Tobie,
having no partner, jumped up and down with his arms akimbo. Mademoiselle
Riette, catching sight of him, laughed so exhaustingly that she could
dance no longer. Then the whole family laughed till the tears ran down
their faces, while the dogs sat round and wagged their tails.

"The good God has protected us," said Gigot, coming forward to his
master. "Does monsieur know that one of those gendarmes was Simon, the
police agent, the Chouan-catcher, they call him? When I saw him, my
heart died within me. But we were too clever for him. He went smelling
about, but he found nothing."

"He smelt something, though," growled Tobie the groom. "He would have
searched the stable and found the inner place if I had not stood in
front of him: luckily I was the biggest man of the two. It is not so
easy, do you see, to make a way past me."

"I gave them enough good food and wine to send them to sleep for the
afternoon," said Marie the cook. "It was a sad waste, but the only way
to keep such creatures quiet."

"What a terrible man, that General!" said Gigot. "How he slept and
snored and kicked the sofa! you can see the marks of his boots now. And
how he resembles the Emperor! I know, for I saw his Majesty once--"

"Stop your recollections, Gigot," said Monsieur Joseph; for Gigot, like
many solemn and silent people, was difficult to check when once set
talking. "We have something else to think of now. Make haste with
dinner, Marie. We must console our poor friends for their captivity.
Come, Riette, we will go and fetch them."

So that evening was a merry one at Les Chouettes, and the moon was high
before the second batch of guests climbed slowly to the moor on their
homeward way. The day's experience had not heightened their courage,
somehow, or advanced their plans for a rising. Even the Comte d'Ombre
agreed that the time was hardly ripe; that five or six men might throw
away their own lives or liberties, but could not make a new revolution;
that the peasants must be sounded, public opinion educated; and that the
Prefect's courteous moderation was an odious quality which made
everything more difficult.

And in the meanwhile, Monsieur de Mauves was justifying their
conclusions in a way that would have startled them.

Beyond the wood, Angelot led the party across stubble-fields, where blue
field flowe