to find us, and tell us the road that
you have taken. However, of course we shall make all these
arrangements later on, when affairs become more serious. I don't
think there is any chance, whatever, of the enemy making their way
into the country for weeks, perhaps for months, to come."

The next morning, Jean Martin and Leigh started early. Each carried
a rifle slung behind him, a brace of pistols in his holsters, and a
sword in his belt. Patsey had recovered from her depression of the
previous evening, and her natural good spirits enabled her to
maintain a cheerful face at parting; especially as her husband's
assurances, that there would be no serious fighting for some time,
had somewhat calmed her fears for their safety.

"The horses are useful to us, for carrying us about, Leigh," Jean
Martin said, as they rode along; "but unless there are enough
mounted men to act as cavalry, we shall have to do any fighting
that has to be done on foot. The peasants would not follow a
mounted officer as they would one who placed himself in front of
them, and fought as they fought.

"I hope that, later on, we may manage to get them to adopt some
sort of discipline; but I have great doubts about it. The peasantry
of La Vendee are an independent race. They are respectful to their
seigneurs, and are always ready to listen to their advice; but it
is respect, and not obedience. I fancy, from what I have read of
your Scottish Highlanders, that the feeling here closely resembles
that among the clans. They regard their seigneurs as their natural
heads, and would probably die for them in the field; but in other
matters each goes his own way, and the chiefs know better than to
strain their power beyond a certain point.

"As you see, they have already their own leaders--Stofflet the
gamekeeper, Foret the woodcutter, and Cathelineau, a small peddling
wool merchant. Doubtless many men of rank and family will join
them, and will naturally, from their superior knowledge, take their
place as officers; but I doubt whether they will displace the men
who have, from the beginning, taken the matter in hand. I am glad
that it should be so. The peasants understand men of their own
class, and will, I believe, follow them better than they would men
above them in rank. They will, at least, have no suspicion of them;
and the strength of the insurrection lies in the fact that it is a
peasant rising, and not an insurrection stirred up by men of
family."