The captain was silent, not daring to ask further; but it was evident that the general's explanation had explained nothing to his mind. Dermoncourt understood the captain's silence. "It is very simple," he said; "the men who have just murdered our guide have followed us ever since we left Montaigu for the purpose of rescuing the prisoner. The arrest must be a more important matter than I thought it was. These men who have followed us were at the fair, and wore hats, as they always do when they go to the towns; whereas our guide was called from his bed suddenly by the man who sent him to us, and he would of course put on the cap he was in the habit of wearing; it may even have been on his head as he slept." "Do you really think, general," said the captain, "that those Chouans would dare to come so near our line of march?" "They have come step by step with us from Montaigu; they have not let us out of their sight one single instant. Heavens and earth! people complain of our inhumanity in this war, and yet at every step we are made to feel, to our cost, that we have not been inhuman enough. Fool and simpleton that I have been!" "I understand you less and less, general," said the captain, laughing. "Do you remember that beggar-woman who spoke to us just after we left Montaigu?" "Yes, general." "Well, it was that old hag who put up this attack. I wanted to send her back into the town; I did wrong not to follow my own instinct; I should have saved the life of this poor devil. Ah! I see now how it was done. The _Ave Marias_ for which the prisoner asked have been answered here." "Do you think they will dare to attack us?" "If they were in force it would have been done before now. But there are only six or eight of them at the most." "Shall I bring over the men on the other bank, general?" "No, wait; the horses lost foothold and the infantry would drown. There must be some better ford near by." "You think so, general?" "Damn it! I'm sure." "Then you know the river?" "Never saw it before." "Then why--?" "Ah! captain, it is easy to see that you didn't go through the great war, as I did,--that war of savages, in which we had to go by induction. These Vendéan fellows were not posted here on this side of the river in ambuscade at the moment when we came up on the other: that is clear." "For you, general." "Hey! bless my soul,--clear to anybody! If they had been posted there, they would have heard the guide and killed him or captured him before we came; consequently the band were on our flank as we came along." "That is probably so, general." "And they must have reached the bank of the river just before us. Now the interval between the time we arrived and halted and the moment our guide was attacked was too short to allow of their making a long detour to another ford--no, they must have forded close by." "Why couldn't they have crossed here?"