the
transparencies of a lake of molten silver. Suddenly the north wind swept
this phantasmagoric scene and scattered the mists which laid a dew full
of oxygen on the meadows.

Mademoiselle de Verneuil was now able to distinguish a dark mass of men
on the rocks of Fougeres. Seven or eight hundred Chouans were running
like ants through the suburb of Saint-Sulpice. The sleeping town would
certainly have been overpowered in spite of its fortifications and its
old gray towers, if Hulot had not been alert. A battery, concealed on a
height at the farther end of the basin formed by the ramparts, replied
to the first fire of the Chouans by taking them diagonally on the road
to the castle. The balls swept the road. Then a company of Blues made
a sortie from the Saint-Sulpice gate, profited by the surprise of the
royalists to form in line upon the high-road, and poured a murderous
fire upon them. The Chouans made no attempt to resist, seeing that the
ramparts of the castle were covered with soldiers, and that the guns of
the fortress sufficiently protected the Republican advance.

Meantime, however, other Chouans, masters of the little valley of the
Nancon, had swarmed up the rocks and reached the Promenade, which was
soon covered with goatskins, giving it to Marie's eyes the appearance
of a thatched roof, brown with age. At the same moment loud reports were
heard from the part of the town which overlooks the valley of Couesnon.
Evidently, Fougeres was attacked on all sides and completely surrounded.
Flames rising on the western side of the rock showed that the Chouans
were setting fire to the suburbs; but these soon ceased, and a column of
black smoke which succeeded them showed that the fire was extinguished.
Brown and white clouds again hid the scene from Mademoiselle de
Verneuil, but they were clouds of smoke from the fire and powder, which
the wind dispersed. The Republican commander, as soon as he saw his
first orders admirably executed, changed the direction of his battery
so as to sweep, successively, the valley of the Nancon, the Queen's
Staircase, and the base of the rock of Fougeres. Two guns posted at the
gate of Saint-Leonard scattered the ant-hill of Chouans who had seized
that position, and the national guard of the town, rushing in haste to
the square before the Church, succeeded in dislodging the enemy. The
fight lasted only half an hour, and cost the Blues a hundred men. The
Chouans, beaten on all sides, retrea