when a comrade falls. Gerard was more imposing. Grave and
self-possessed, he seemed to have one of those truly Republican spirits
which, in the days of which we write, crowded the French armies, and
gave them, by means of these noble individual devotions, an energy
which they had never before possessed. "That is one of my men with great
ideals," thought Mademoiselle de Verneuil. "Relying on the present,
which they rule, they destroy the past for the benefit of the future."

The thought saddened her because she could not apply it to her lover;
towards whom she now turned, to discard by a different admiration, these
beliefs in the Republic she was already beginning to dislike. Looking at
the marquis, surrounded by men who were bold enough, fanatical enough,
and sufficiently long-headed as to the future to give battle to
a victorious Republic in the hope of restoring a dead monarchy, a
proscribed religion, fugitive princes, and lost privileges, "He,"
thought she, "has no less an aim than the others; clinging to those
fragments, he wants to make a future from the past." Her mind, thus
grasped by conflicting images, hesitated between the new and the old
wrecks. Her conscience told her that the one was fighting for a man, the
other for a country; but she had now reached, through her feelings, the
point to which reason will also bring us, namely: to a recognition that
the king _is_ the Nation.

The steps of a man echoed in the adjoining room, and the marquis rose
from the table to greet him. He proved to be the expected guest, and
seeing the assembled company he was about to speak, when the Gars made
him a hasty sign, which he concealed from the Republicans, to take his
place and say nothing. The more the two officers analyzed the faces
about them, the more their suspicions increased. The clerical dress of
the Abbe Gudin and the singularity of the Chouan garments were so many
warnings to them; they redoubled their watchfulness, and soon discovered
many discrepancies between the manners of the guests and the topics of
their conversation. The republicanism of some was quite as exaggerated
as the aristocratic bearing of others was unmistakable. Certain glances
which they detected between the marquis and his guests, certain words
of double meaning imprudently uttered, but above all the fringe of
beard which was round the necks of several of the men and was very
ill-concealed by their cravats, brought the officers at last to a full