"Now, I want to talk to you all," Leigh said, after they had drunk their wine and eaten their bread. "In the first place, do I understand that all who were first with me are ready to run a considerable risk to attempt, with us, to carry off Madame Martin from the hands of the Blues, and to save her from the fate that falls upon every one that they once lay a hand upon?" "They are all willing, captain," Andre said. "We spoke to them again, just before we came in last night, and they all said that they were willing and anxious." "Good. Remember, lads, that it is not too late to draw back now." "We should not dare show our face in the village again," Pierre said, "if we were to hang back when there was a chance of our being of service to so good a lady." "I thank you with all my heart," Leigh said. "I tell you fairly that I expected such an answer. Those who have shown such courage as you have done, and have been so loyal to the promises made me when I first enrolled you, would, I felt certain, not hang back now. Now, do you draw aside for a minute or two, while I speak to the others." There was a movement, and the two groups stood apart. "Your case is different from that of the others," he said. "In the first place, you have not been with me so long; and secondly--and this is more important--that Madame Martin is not the wife of your seigneur, and that you owe no duty to her. The enterprise on which we are going to start does not concern the cause for which we are fighting. It is a private business, and there is no occasion whatever for you to take part in it. You are free either to choose an officer among yourselves; or to rejoin the army, find Monsieur de la Rochejaquelein, and tell him that I sent you to him in order that he might find a suitable leader for you, among the gentlemen with him. I would rather that you talked the matter over among yourselves, and came and gave me an answer, in half an hour." "Will you tell us what we shall have to do, captain?" one of them said. "That I can hardly do, for I do not know myself. However, I think it probable that the greater portion of the band would remain outside the town. There are copses, down by the riverside, where you could wait in safety until you were wanted. Possibly you might not be wanted at all. Possibly you might be summoned to take part in so desperate an enterprise as storming one of the prisons. Of course it would be done at night, when we should have the advantage of a surprise. I can tell you no more than that. "Now, my last word is, I shall not think any the worse of you, if you decide not to go with me." It wanted five minutes of the time, when two of the boys returned to where he was talking with Pierre and Andre.