The march was accomplished in a silence which demonstrated the troopers' lack of enthusiasm for the expedition in which they were taking part. Even the anarchistic Baudoin, still sheepish over the lesson of the day before, had not tried to proselytize his comrades. They rode in fours, closely wrapped, because of the nipping air of that rugged country, in their ample blue cloaks, against which gleamed the barrels of their carbines. The sappers were distinguishable by the axes hanging from the saddle-bows. Another lieutenant brought up the rear. There was no sound save that of the horses' shoes on the frozen ground and the clinking of the sabres against the stirrups. Those sounds would not have sufficed to announce their approach. The people of Hugueville-en-Plaine and the neighboring villages had been warned, no doubt, by the swift and inexplicable circulation of news in the country districts, the most amazing example of which was the contagious terror of the summer of 1789, which spread in a few days from one end of France to the other. In the patois of the Centre it is still spoken of as "the great _pourasse_." "Aha!" said Landri, between his teeth, "we are expected." In truth, some three hundred people were on the lookout at the entrance to the main street, and they ran off at once toward the centre of the village, shouting: "The dragoons! The dragoons!" They were only the rearguard of a crowd assembled around the church on the square, a sketch of which was annexed to the "supplementary instructions." There were more than twelve hundred peasants there, men and women, who opposed a living barrier to the horses. It took the troopers nearly fifteen minutes to reach the square, forcing back the enthusiasts with the cautious consideration which was expressly enjoined upon them. Their greatest difficulty was to control their horses, excited as they were by that great crowd singing with its thousand voices the well-known chant: "Nous voulons Dieu!" Another quarter of an hour was required to execute the same operation in front of the church and to establish the lines as ordered.