The despatch had been directed:—
Citizen ANGE PITOU:
Commander of the National Guard of Haramont.
“I am then recognized in my rank, by Lafayette, as commander.
“You are recognized as guards.”
A loud shout of joy and admiration shook the roof of Pitou’s garret.
“I know where we can get arms,” said Pitou.
“You will at once appoint a lieutenant and a sergeant. Those two functionaries will accompany me in the execution of my project.”
All present seemed to hesitate.
“What is your opinion, Pitou?” said Maniquet.
“The matter does not concern me. Meet alone and appoint the two functionaries. But appoint capable ones.”
Pitou bade adieu to his soldiers, and remained, like Agamemnon, in a state of solemn grandeur.
He thus remained in his glory while the soldiers discussed the details of the military power which was to rule Haramont.
The election lasted an hour. The lieutenant and sergeant chosen were Tellier and Maniquet, the latter of whom was the subaltern. They returned and announced the fact to Pitou.
He then said: “Now there is no time to lose.”
“Yes,” said an enthusiast, “let us begin the manual.”
“Wait a moment; let us get guns first.”
“True.”
“But can we not practise with sticks?”
“Let us be military,” said Pitou, who watched the military order with anxiety, but who did not feel himself qualified to teach an art of which he was utterly ignorant.
“It is a difficult matter to teach a raw recruit how to shoot with a stick. Let us not be ridiculous.”
“True. We must have muskets.”
“Come with me, then, Lieutenant and Sergeant. The rest of you wait here.”
All acquiesced respectfully.
“We have six hours’ daylight yet left. That is more time than is needed to go to Villers-Cotterets.”
“Forward!” said Pitou.
The staff of the army of Haramont set off.
When Pitou, however, read again the letter he had received, to assure himself that so much honor was not a dream, he discovered that he had overlooked one phrase:—
“Why did Pitou forget to give Doctor Gilbert some information about Sebastien
“Why does not Sebastien write to his, father?”
Chapter XXXVI
Pitou Triumphs
THE Abbé Fortier was far from suspecting what danger He was in, prepared carefully for him by deep diplomacy. He had no idea of Pitou’s influence.
He was seeking to prove to Sebastien that bad company is the ruin of innocence; that Paris is a pit of perdition; that even angels would be corrupted there,—like those who went astray at Gomorrah,—and seriously impressed by Pitou’s visit, besought Sebastien always to remember to be a good and true loyalist.
By those words the abbé meant a very different thing from what Doctor Gilbert meant.
He forgot that as long as this difference existed, he was committing a very bad action; for he sought to excite the son’s opinions against the father.
He soon found, however, that his labor was lost.
Strange to say, at a period when the minds of most children are, so to say, mere potter’s clay, on which every pressure leaves a mark, Sebastien, in fixity of purpose was a man.
Was that to be attributed to that aristocratic nature which disdains everything plebeian
Or was it plebeianism pushed to stoicism?
The mystery was too deep for the Abbé Fortier. He knew the doctor was an enthusiastic patriot, and with the simplicity of mind peculiar to ecclesiastics, sought, for the glory of God, to reform the son.
Though Sebastien appeared to listen, he did not, but was musing on those strange visions which previously had taken possession of him under the tall trees of the park of Villers-Cotterets when the abbé took his pupils thither, and which had become, so to say, a kind of second life, running parallel with his natural life,—a life of fiction and poetic pleasure in comparison with the dull prosaic days of study and college routine.
All at once a loud knock was heard at the door in the Rue de Soissons, and it immediately opened and admitted several persons.
They were the maire, adjunct, and town clerk.
Behind them were the gendarmes, after whom came several curious persons.
The abbé went at once to the maire, and said:-“Monsieur Longpé, what is the matter?”