ot searched the kitchen much, as they had only opened
the closets large enough for a man to hide in and, not expecting to
find anything worth taking, had not troubled themselves to look
into the small ones; so Marthe had only to take the child out.
Fortunately it had not awoke. When we found that it was hopeless to
try and put the fire out, Marthe took the child over to the farm of
Madame Rehan who, as soon as she got the news of the mistress being
carried off, had sent her son away on horseback to tell you."

"Thank God, the child has been spared!" Jean Martin said,
reverently. "We will go to the cure's.

"The boys will all be back tonight. Give the horses a good feed. We
shall set out perhaps tonight, perhaps tomorrow morning."

"Ah, Monsieur Martin," the cure said, as they entered his house,
"this is a sad homecoming for you. If we had known that the Blues
were coming, but a quarter of an hour before they arrived, we could
have got madame away to a place of safety. I knew nought about it
until the church bells began to ring. Just as I was about to go
out, five minutes later, to learn the cause, I saw them ride past
with Madame Martin in their midst. We did not know that there were
any of them within twenty miles of us, and thought that there was
no chance, whatever, of their coming to a little village like
ours."

"They came, no doubt, for me," Jean said gloomily. "If they had
found Leigh and myself at home, they would not have taken the place
so easily. He and I and the two men could have made a stout
defence. I hear that there were not more than twenty of them, and I
warrant that there would not have been many of them left, when the
fight was over."

"I am sure," the cure said, "that if you had been there, and the
place had been defended, all the women within sound of the church
bell would have come in with arms, and would have fought like men
in the defence of yourself and madame; but as it was, the whole
thing was such a surprise, with everyone in bed and asleep, that
the enemy were off before anyone could think of what had best be
done. As it was, the women from all the farms round were here,
armed with hatchets or pitchforks, half an hour after the bell
began to ring. Of course, in the village here we knew that it was
too late to do anything, but to flock to the church and pray for
the safety of our good lady."

"Thank you, my friend. Leigh and I are going to Nantes, to see if
anything can be done to g