ake you a corporal. You seem to me trustworthy.
Select a man to send to Fougeres; but stay yourself with me. In the
first place, however, take two or three of your comrades and bring
in the muskets and ammunition of the poor fellows those brigands have
rolled into the ditch. These Bretons," added Hulot to Gerard, "will make
famous infantry if they take to rations."

Gudin's emissary started on a run to Fougeres by a wood-road to the
left; the soldiers looked to their arms, and awaited an attack; the
commandant passed along their line, smiling to them, and then placed
himself with his officers, a little in front of it. Silence fell once
more, but it was of short duration. Three hundred or more Chouans, their
clothing identical with that of the late recruits, burst from the woods
to the right with actual howls and planted themselves, without any
semblance of order, on the road directly in front of the feeble
detachment of the Blues. The commandant thereupon ranged his soldiers in
two equal parts, each with a front of ten men. Between them, he placed
the twelve recruits, to whom he hastily gave arms, putting himself
at their head. This little centre was protected by the two wings, of
twenty-five men each, which manoeuvred on either side of the road under
the orders of Merle and Gerard; their object being to catch the Chouans
on the flank and prevent them from posting themselves as sharp-shooters
among the trees, where they could pick off the Blues without risk to
themselves; for in these wars the Republican troops never knew where to
look for an enemy.

These arrangements, hastily made, gave confidence to the soldiers, and
they advanced in silence upon the Chouans. At the end of a few seconds
each side fired, with the loss of several men. At this moment the two
wings of the Republicans, to whom the Chouans had nothing to oppose,
came upon their flanks, and, with a close, quick volley, sent death
and disorder among the enemy. This manoeuvre very nearly equalized the
numerical strength of the two parties. But the Chouan nature was so
intrepid, their will so firm, that they did not give way; their losses
scarcely staggered them; they simply closed up and attempted to surround
the dark and well-formed little party of the Blues, which covered so
little ground that it looked from a distance like a queen-bee surrounded
by the swarm.

The Chouans might have carried the day at this moment if the two wings
commanded by Merle and