d down, he heard a voice exclaiming:

"I propose to you that we appoint our leader here, Le Chapelier, to be
that delegate."

Le Chapelier reared his elegantly dressed head, which had been bowed
in thought, and it was seen that his countenance was pale. Nervously he
fingered a gold spy-glass.

"My friends," he said, slowly, "I am deeply sensible of the honour
that you do me. But in accepting it I should be usurping an honour
that rightly belongs elsewhere. Who could represent us better, who more
deserving to be our representative, to speak to our friends of Nantes
with the voice of Rennes, than the champion who once already to-day has
so incomparably given utterance to the voice of this great city? Confer
this honour of being your spokesman where it belongs--upon Andre-Louis
Moreau."

Rising in response to the storm of applause that greeted the proposal,
Andre-Louis bowed and forthwith yielded. "Be it so," he said, simply.
"It is perhaps fitting that I should carry out what I have begun, though
I too am of the opinion that Le Chapelier would have been a worthier
representative. I will set out to-night."

"You will set out at once, my lad," Le Chapelier informed him, and now
revealed what an uncharitable mind might account the true source of his
generosity. "It is not safe after what has happened for you to linger an
hour in Rennes. And you must go secretly. Let none of you allow it to
be known that he has gone. I would not have you come to harm over this,
Andre-Louis. But you must see the risks you run, and if you are to be
spared to help in this work of salvation of our afflicted motherland,
you must use caution, move secretly, veil your identity even. Or else
M. de Lesdiguieres will have you laid by the heels, and it will be
good-night for you."

CHAPTER VIII. OMNES OMNIBUS

Andre-Louis rode forth from Rennes committed to a deeper adventure than
he had dreamed of when he left the sleepy village of Gavrillac. Lying
the night at a roadside inn, and setting out again early in the morning,
he reached Nantes soon after noon of the following day.

Through that long and lonely ride through the dull plains of Brittany,
now at their dreariest in their winter garb, he had ample leisure in
which to review his actions and his position. From one who had taken
hitherto a purely academic and by no means friendly interest in the new
philosophies of social life, exercising his wits upon these new ideas
merely as a fe