Three hours after this scene Mademoiselle de Verneuil, who feared the
man's return, left the town furtively by the Porte Saint-Leonard, and
made her way through the labyrinth of paths to the cottage of
Galope-Chopine, led by the dream of at last finding happiness, and
also by the purpose of saving her lover from the danger that
threatened him.
During this time Corentin had gone to find the commandant. He had some
difficulty in recognizing Hulot when he found him in a little square,
where he was busy with certain military preparations. The brave
veteran had made a sacrifice, the full merit of which may be difficult
to appreciate. His queue and his moustache were cut off, and his hair
had a sprinkling of powder. He had changed his uniform for a goatskin,
wore hobnailed shoes, a belt full of pistols, and carried a heavy
carbine. In this costume he was reviewing about two hundred of the
natives of Fougeres, all in the same kind of dress, which was fitted
to deceive the eye of the most practised Chouan. The warlike spirit of
the little town and the Breton character were fully displayed in this
scene, which was not at all uncommon. Here and there a few mothers and
sisters were bringing to their sons and brothers gourds filled with
brandy, or forgotten pistols. Several old men were examining into the
number and condition of the cartridges of these young national guards
dressed in the guise of Chouans, whose gaiety was more in keeping with
a hunting expedition than the dangerous duty they were undertaking.
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