"
She kissed her boy with an awful expression of grief, looked at him,
wiped away her tears, looked at him again, and disappeared.
"Commandant," said Corentin, "this is an occasion when two heads are
better than one. We know all, and yet we know nothing. If you
surrounded Mademoiselle de Verneuil's house now, you will only warn
her. Neither you, nor I, nor your Blues and your battalions are strong
enough to get the better of that girl if she takes it into her head to
save the /ci-devant/. The fellow is brave, and consequently wily; he
is a young man full of daring. We can never get hold of him as he
enters Fougeres. Perhaps he is here already. Domiciliary visit?
Absurdity! that's no good, it will only give them warning."
"Well," said Hulot impatiently, "I shall tell the sentry on the Place
Saint-Leonard to keep his eye on the house, and pass word along the
other sentinels, if a young man enters it; as soon as the signal
reaches me I shall take a corporal and four men and--"
"--and," said Corentin, interrupting the old soldier, "if the young
man is not the marquis, or if the marquis doesn't go in by the front
door, or if he is already there, if--if--if--what then?"
Corentin looked at the commandant with so insulting an air of
superiority that the old soldier shouted out: "God's thousand
thunders! get out of here, citizen of hell! What have I got to do with
your intrigues? If that cockchafer buzzes into my guard-room I shall
shoot him; if I hear he is in a house I shall surround that house and
take him when he leaves it and shoot him, but may the devil get me if
I soil my uniform with any of your tricks.
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