Yet Louis, though he bore his uniform of the bodyguard, which the fancy occasionally seized him to put on, wore no sword, and Gilbert’s sheathed blade was keeping down a refractory map upon the table. For they were neither of them going with their comrades to take Luçon. D’Elbée had been anxious to leave some post occupied in his rear, for disaster had already overtaken him on the plains of Luçon, and Gilbert had offered to stay behind and hold Chantemerle. The house was not fortified, and could by no means stand a siege, but it could very well prove a check to any detached body of troops with which the Republicans in the neighbouring department of Deux-Sèvres might have a fancy to harass D’Elbée’s rear-guard. That this idea would occur to them was extremely unlikely, for all their available troops were already in Luçon. As, therefore, there was no prospect of the occupation being anything but a sinecure, Louis had been proportionately disgusted when the decision was first communicated to him, but he had refused to desert his cousin. Even as he made his rather irreverent remark there was a stir in the little group at the end of the table. Lescure stood up, saying: “Well, gentlemen, I suppose we must get to horse;” and as he removed his hands the map of Luçon rolled itself resolutely together. Stofflet noticed it. “Is that a good or a bad omen?” he asked. He was of Lorraine, and his accent showed it. “The third time is always lucky,” answered Charette in his curiously clear and biting voice. “Are you ready, Henri?” asked Lescure of his cousin and adjutant. “Good-bye, M. de Château-Foix: it is in vain to try to thank you for your hospitality, or for your self-sacrifice in remaining behind.” “You should thank me instead for my self-sacrifice in depriving myself of him,” said old Royrand, as he shook hands with his best lieutenant. And Charette said: “To-day to me, to-morrow to you. But before you are hard pressed, Monsieur le Marquis, you shall see my Maraîchins cutting their way through to you.” “You are very kind, gentlemen,” answered Gilbert, smiling, as he escorted them through the hall. “But I do not anticipate any necessity of the sort.” “Worse luck!” finished Louis behind him.