This sight, joined to the other aspects of
the strange scene,--the fantastic dress, the savage expressions of the
barbarous and uncouth /gars/,--was so new and so amazing to Monsieur
de Fontaine, accustomed to the nobler and better-regulated appearance
of the Vendean troops, that he seized the occasion to say to the
Marquis de Montauran, "What do you expect to do with such brutes?"
"Not very much, my dear count," replied the Gars.
"Will they ever be fit to manoeuvre before the enemy?"
"Never."
"Can they understand or execute an order?"
"No."
"Then what good will they be to you?"
"They will help me to plunge my sword into the entrails of the
Republic," replied the marquis in a thundering voice. "They will give
me Fougeres in three days, and all Brittany in ten! Monsieur," he
added in a gentler voice, "start at once for La Vendee; if d'Auticamp,
Suzannet, and the Abbe Bernier will act as rapidly as I do, if they'll
not negotiate with the First Consul, as I am afraid they will" (here
he wrung the hand of the Vendean chief) "we shall be within reach of
Paris in a fortnight."
"But the Republic is sending sixty thousand men and General Brune
against us."
"Sixty thousand men! indeed!" cried the marquis, with a scoffing
laugh. "And how will Bonaparte carry on the Italian campaign? As for
General Brune, he is not coming.
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