When you reach the summit of the slope we are now
ascending you will see the plateau of Mont Pelerine in the distance.
Let us hope the Chouans won't take their revenge there. Now, in going
up hill and going down hill one doesn't make much headway. From La
Pelerine you will still see--"
The young /emigre/ made a movement at the name which Marie alone
noticed.
"What is La Pelerine?" she asked hastily, interrupting the captain's
description of Breton topography.
"It is the summit of a mountain," said Merle, "which gives its name to
the Maine valley through which we shall presently pass. It separates
this valley from that of Couesnon, at the end of which is the town of
Fougeres, the chief town in Brittany. We had a fight there last
Vendemiaire with the Gars and his brigands. We were escorting Breton
conscripts, who meant to kill us sooner than leave their own land; but
Hulot is a rough Christian, and he gave them--"
"Did you see the Gars?" she asked. "What sort of man is he?"
Her keen, malicious eyes never left the so-called vicomte's face.
"Well, mademoiselle," replied Merle, nettled at being always
interrupted, "he is so like citizen du Gua, that if your friend did
not wear the uniform of the Ecole Polytechnique I could swear it was
he."
Mademoiselle de Verneuil looked fixedly at the cold, impassible young
man who had scorned her, but she saw nothing in him that betrayed the
slightest feeling of alarm.
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