ne month's advanced pay promised by the
government to these exceptional levies. Though Brittany had hitherto
refused all kinds of military service under the Republic, the levies
were made under the new law on the faith of its promises, and with such
promptness that even the commander was startled. But he was one of those
wary old watch-dogs who are hard to catch napping. He no sooner saw the
contingents arriving one after the other than he suspected some secret
motive for such prompt action. Possibly he was right in ascribing it
to the fact of getting arms. At any rate, no sooner were the Fougeres
recruits obtained than, without delaying for laggards, he took
immediate steps to fall back towards Alencon, so as to be near a loyal
neighborhood,--though the growing disaffection along the route made
the success of this measure problematical. This old officer, who, under
instruction of his superiors, kept secret the disasters of our armies in
Italy and Germany and the disturbing news from La Vendee, was attempting
on the morning when this history begins, to make a forced march on
Mayenne, where he was resolved to execute the law according to his own
good pleasure, and fill the half-empty companies of his own brigade
with his Breton conscripts. The word "conscript" which later became
so celebrated, had just now for the first time taken the place in the
government decrees of the word _requisitionnaire_ hitherto applied to
all Republican recruits.

Before leaving Fougeres the chief secretly issued to his own men ample
supplies of ammunition and sufficient rations of bread for the whole
detachment, so as to conceal from the conscripts the length of the march
before them. He intended not to stop at Ernee (the last stage
before Mayenne), where the men of the contingent might find a way of
communicating with the Chouans who were no doubt hanging on his flanks.
The dead silence which reigned among the recruits, surprised at the
manoeuvring of the old republican, and their lagging march up the
mountain excited to the very utmost the distrust and watchfulness of the
chief--whose name was Hulot. All the striking points in the foregoing
description had been to him matters of the keenest interest; he marched
in silence, surrounded by five young officers, each of whom respected
the evident preoccupation of their leader. But just as Hulot reached the
summit of La Pelerine he turned his head, as if by instinct, to inspect
the anxious faces