Pichegru leaned toward him and said laughingly, "Do not tell him about the foraging-cap." "Oh! indeed, no!" replied Charles, "ever since he told me that he had had his best friend shot I have distrusted him." "You are right to do so." Saint-Just came up to Pichegru and congratulated him in a few brief and trenchant words. Then, recognizing Charles, he said: "Ah! it seems that between the toga and arms you have chosen arms. Don't let him get killed, citizen Pichegru; he is a good boy, and bids fair to become a good man, a rare thing in these days." Then taking Pichegru aside, he said: "My police tell me--though I would not believe them--that you had an interview with an emissary from the Prince de Condé. I don't believe a word of it." "It is true, nevertheless, citizen Saint-Just." "What did he have to say?" "He came to make me some treasonable propositions." "What were they?" "I do not know; my pipe had just gone out, so I lighted it again with the Prince de Condé's letter without taking the trouble to read it." "And you had the messenger shot?" "Indeed I did not." "Why not?" "If he had been dead, how could he tell his prince what I had done with his propositions?" "Pichegru, you did not conceal some other motive beneath this clemency?" "Yes, that of beating the enemy the next day at Froeschwiller; of taking Woerth the day following, and of forcing the lines to-day." "Then you and Hoche are ready to march upon the enemy?" "We are always ready, citizen representative, particularly when we are honored with your company." "Then forward!" said Saint-Just; and he sent Lebas to direct Hoche to attack on his side. The drums and trumpets, sounded all along the line, and the army moved forward. As chance would have it, that same day, the 22d of December, the Prussians and the Austrians had resolved to resume the offensive, and when the French army reached the top of a small eminence they found the enemy drawn up in line of battle from Weissembourg to the Rhine. The position was a good one for offence but not for defence, for in the latter case the Lauter formed an abyss, and there was much danger of their being driven into it. When Pichegru and Hoche marched against them they found that the enemy was also on the march. Supposing that the fiercest struggle would be in the centre, the generals massed thirty-five thousand men there, while three divisions of the Army of the Moselle threatened the right wing of the allies by the passes of the Vosges, and two divisions, commanded by one of General Broglie's aides-de-camp, advanced to the attack by way of Lauterbourg. The young aide-de-camp, whose name was Antoine Desaix, was scarcely twenty-seven years old. Suddenly Saint-Just and Lebas, who were marching respectively in front of the columns of Pichegru and Hoche, called out: "Halt!" They were not more than a cannon-shot from the enemy, and it was evident that the two armies would meet before another half hour.