e mountains."

"We have strong hearts, and you have a silver sword, brother."

"I cannot see your faces, to know if you are true, my children," he
answered.

Instantly the clothes flew off, masks fell, pumpkins came crashing to
the ground, the stilts of the marshals dropped, and thirty men stood
upon the drays in crude military order, with muskets in their hands
and cockades in their caps. At that moment also, a flag--the
Tricolor--fluttered upon the staff at Valmond's window. The roll of a
drum came out of the street somewhere, and presently the people fell
back before sixty armed men, marching in columns, under Lagroin, while
from the opposite direction came Lajeunesse with sixty others, silent
all, till they reached the drays and formed round them slowly.

Valmond stood watching intently, and the people were very still, for
this seemed like real life, and no burlesque. Some of the soldiery had
military clothes, old militia uniforms, or the rebel trappings of '37;
others, less fortunate, wore their trousers in long boots, their coats
buttoned lightly over their chests, and belted in; and the Napoleonic
cockade was in every cap.

"My children," said Valmond at last, "I see that your hearts are strong,
and that you have the bodies of true men. We have sworn fealty to each
other, and the badge of our love is in your caps. Let us begin our
journey home. I will come down among you: I will come down among you,
and I will lead you from Pontiac to the sea, gathering comrades as we
go; then across the sea, to France; then to Paris and the Tuileries,
where an Orleans usurps the place of a Napoleon."

He descended and mounted his waiting horse. At that moment De la Riviere
appeared on the balcony, and, stepping forward, said:

"My friends, do you know what you are doing? This is folly. This man--"

He got no further, for Valmond raised his hand to Lagroin, and the
drums began to beat. Then he rode down in front of Lajeunesse's men, the
others sprang from the drays and fell into place, and soon the little
army was marching, four deep, through the village.

This was the official beginning of Valmond's fanciful quest for empire.
The people had a phrase, and they had a man; and they saw no further
than the hour.

As they filed past the house of Elise Malboir, the girl stood in the
glow of a bonfire, beside the oven where Valmond had first seen her. All
around her was the wide awe of night, enriched by the sweet perfume of