"I have ten
thousand francs in those soles; do you think I would be such a fool as
to fight with that sum about me?"
Mene-a-Bien scratched his ear and looked behind him, but his new
comrades were out of sight.
Hulot and his command stopped at Ernee long enough to place the
wounded in the hospital of the little town, and then, without further
hindrance, they reached Mayenne. There the commandant cleared up his
doubts as to the action of the Chouans, for on the following day the
news of the pillage of the turgotine was received.
A few days later the government despatched to Mayenne so strong a
force of "patriotic conscripts," that Hulot was able to fill the ranks
of his brigade. Disquieting rumors began to circulate about the
insurrection. A rising had taken place at all the points where, during
the late war, the Chouans and Bretons had made their chief centres of
insurrection. The little town of Saint-James, between Pontorson and
Fougeres was occupied by them, apparently for the purpose of making it
for the time being a headquarters of operations and supplies. From
there they were able to communicate with Normandy and the Morbihan
without risk. Their subaltern leaders roamed the three provinces,
roused all the partisans of monarchy, and gave consistence and unity
to their plans. These proceedings coincided with what was going on in
La Vendee, where the same intrigues, under the influence of four
famous leaders (the Abbe Vernal, the Comte de Fontaine, De Chatillon,
and Suzannet), were agitating the country.
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