exasperating in that?"

"God's thunder! nothing at all--except that we are fooled."

When the commandant gave vent to this military oath (an object it must
be said of Republican atheistical remonstrance) it gave warning of
a storm; the diverse intonations of the words were degrees of a
thermometer by which the brigade could judge of the patience of its
commander; the old soldier's frankness of nature had made this knowledge
so easy that the veriest little drummer-boy knew his Hulot by heart,
simply by observing the variations of the grimace with which the
commander screwed up his cheek and snapped his eyes and vented his oath.
On this occasion the tone of smothered rage with which he uttered the
words made his two friends silent and circumspect. Even the pits of the
small-pox which dented that veteran face seemed deeper, and the skin
itself browner than usual. His broad queue, braided at the edges, had
fallen upon one of his epaulettes as he replaced his three-cornered
hat, and he flung it back with such fury that the ends became untied.
However, as he stood stock-still, his hands clenched, his arms crossed
tightly over his breast, his mustache bristling, Gerard ventured to ask
him presently: "Are we to start at once?"

"Yes, if the men have ammunition."

"They have."

"Shoulder arms! Left wheel, forward, march!" cried Gerard, at a sign
from the commandant.

The drum-corps marched at the head of the two companies designated by
Gerard. At the first roll of the drums the commandant, who still stood
plunged in thought, seemed to rouse himself, and he left the town
accompanied by his two officers, to whom he said not a word. Merle and
Gerard looked at each other silently as if to ask, "How long is he going
to keep us in suspense?" and, as they marched, they cautiously kept
an observing eye on their leader, who continued to vent rambling words
between his teeth. Several times these vague phrases sounded like oaths
in the ears of his soldiers, but not one of them dared to utter a word;
for they all, when occasion demanded, maintained the stern discipline
to which the veterans who had served under Bonaparte in Italy were
accustomed. The greater part of them had belonged, like Hulot, to the
famous battalions which capitulated at Mayenne under a promise not to
serve again on the frontier, and the army called them "Les Mayencais."
It would be difficult to find leaders and men who more thoroughly
understood each other.