cers followed the troop slowly, hoping to get
safely to Ernee where the wounded could be cared for. The fight we have
just described, which was almost forgotten in the midst of the greater
events which were soon to occur, was called by the name of the mountain
on which it took place. It obtained some notice at the West, where the
inhabitants, observant of this second uprising, noticed on this occasion
a great change in the manner in which the Chouans now made war. In
earlier days they would never have attacked so large a detachment.
According to Hulot the young royalist whom he had seen was undoubtedly
the Gars, the new general sent to France by the princes, who, following
the example of the other royalist chiefs, concealed his real name
and title under one of those pseudonyms called "noms de guerre." This
circumstance made the commandant quite as uneasy after his melancholy
victory as he had been before it while expecting the attack. He turned
several times to consider the table-land of La Pelerine which he
was leaving behind him, across which he could still hear faintly at
intervals the drums of the National Guard descending into the valley of
Couesnon at the same time that the Blues were descending into that of La
Pelerine.

"Can either of you," he said to his two friends, "guess the motives of
that attack of the Chouans? To them, fighting is a matter of business,
and I can't see what they expected to gain by this attack. They have
lost at least a hundred men, and we"--he added, screwing up his right
cheek and winking by way of a smile, "have lost only sixty. God's
thunder! I don't understand that sort of speculation. The scoundrels
needn't have attacked us; we might just as well have been allowed to
pass like letters through the post--No, I don't see what good it has
done them to bullet-hole our men," he added, with a sad shake of his
head toward the carts. "Perhaps they only intended to say good-day to
us."

"But they carried off our recruits, commander," said Merle.

"The recruits could have skipped like frogs into the woods at any time,
and we should never have gone after them, especially if those fellows
had fired a single volley," returned Hulot. "No, no, there's something
behind all this." Again he turned and looked at La Pelerine. "See!" he
cried; "see there!"

Though they were now at a long distance from the fatal plateau, they
could easily distinguish Marche-a-Terre and several Chouans who were
again o