alais!" they shouted, waving their hands, brandishing canes,
and--here and there--even a sword. "To the Palais! Down with M. de
Lesdiguieres! Death to the King's Lieutenant!"

He was master of the wind, indeed. His dangerous gift of oratory--a
gift nowhere more powerful than in France, since nowhere else are men's
emotions so quick to respond to the appeal of eloquence--had given him
this mastery. At his bidding now the gale would sweep away the
windmill against which he had flung himself in vain. But that, as he
straightforwardly revealed it, was no part of his intent.

"Ah, wait!" he bade them. "Is this miserable instrument of a corrupt
system worth the attention of your noble indignation?"

He hoped his words would be reported to M. de Lesdiguieres. He thought
it would be good for the soul of M. de Lesdiguieres to hear the
undiluted truth about himself for once.

"It is the system itself you must attack and overthrow; not a mere
instrument--a miserable painted lath such as this. And precipitancy will
spoil everything. Above all, my children, no violence!"

My children! Could his godfather have heard him!

"You have seen often already the result of premature violence elsewhere
in Brittany, and you have heard of it elsewhere in France. Violence on
your part will call for violence on theirs. They will welcome the chance
to assert their mastery by a firmer grip than heretofore. The military
will be sent for. You will be faced by the bayonets of mercenaries. Do
not provoke that, I implore you. Do not put it into their power, do not
afford them the pretext they would welcome to crush you down into the
mud of your own blood."

Out of the silence into which they had fallen anew broke now the cry of

"What else, then? What else?"

"I will tell you," he answered them. "The wealth and strength of
Brittany lies in Nantes--a bourgeois city, one of the most prosperous in
this realm, rendered so by the energy of the bourgeoisie and the toil of
the people. It was in Nantes that this movement had its beginning, and
as a result of it the King issued his order dissolving the States as now
constituted--an order which those who base their power on Privilege and
Abuse do not hesitate to thwart. Let Nantes be informed of the precise
situation, and let nothing be done here until Nantes shall have given us
the lead. She has the power--which we in Rennes have not--to make her will
prevail, as we have seen already. Let her exert that