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.
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