The two companies were
therefore advancing on parallel lines. The trees and shrubs, draped by
the rich arabesques of the hoarfrost, threw whitish reflections which
enabled the watcher to see the gray lines of the squads in motion.
When Hulot reached the summit of the rocks, he detached all the
soldiers in uniform from his main body, and made them into a line of
sentinels, each communicating with the other, the first with Gudin,
the last with Hulot; so that no shrub could escape the bayonets of the
three lines which were now in a position to hunt the Gars across field
and mountain.
"The sly old wolf!" thought Corentin, as the shining muzzle of the
last gun disappeared in the bushes. "The Gars is done for. If Marie
had only betrayed that damned marquis, she and I would have been
united in the strongest of all bonds--a vile deed. But she's mine, in
any case."
The twelve young men under Gudin soon reached the base of the rocks of
Saint-Sulpice. Here Gudin himself left the road with six of them,
jumping the stiff hedge into the first field of gorse that he came to,
while the other six by his orders did the same on the other side of
the road. Gudin advanced to an apple-tree which happened to be in the
middle of the field. Hearing the rustle of this movement through the
gorse, seven or eight men, at the head of whom was Beau-Pied, hastily
hid behind some chestnut-trees which topped the bank of this
particular field.
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