"We mustn't escape; we must retreat. Why haven't you used the artillery?"
"They lost their heads, and then the officers were not here."
"I will attend to it."
"Monseigneur, I have sent all that I could of the baggage, the women, and everything of no use, towards Fougères. What is to be done with the three little children?'
"Ah! those children?"
"Yes."
"They are our hostages. Have them taken to la Tourgue."
Having said this, the marquis went to the barricade. The coming of the chief put a new face on the matter. The barricade was badly constructed for artillery, as there was room for but two cannon; the marquis put in position two sixteen-pounders, for which they made embrasures. As he was leaning over one of the cannons, looking at the battery of the enemy through the embrasure, he noticed Gauvain.
"It is he!" he cried out.
Then he took the sponge and rammer himself, loaded the piece, adjusted the sight, and aimed.
Three times he aimed at Gauvain, and missed him. The third shot only succeeded in knocking off his hat.
"Stupid!" muttered Lantenac. "A little lower and I should have had his head."
Suddenly the torch went out, and he had nothing before him but darkness.
"So be it," he said.
And turning toward the peasant gunner, he cried,—
"Fire away!"
Gauvain, on his side, was no less in earnest. The situation grew more serious. A new phase of the struggle presented itself. The barricade had begun to make use of cannon. Who knew but it might pass from the defensive to the offensive? He had before him, not counting the dead and those who had fled, at least five thousand combatants, and he himself had only twelve hundred able men left. What would become of the Republicans, if the enemy should notice their small number? The rôles would be reversed. They were attacking, they would
