What was he to tell Madame de Lescure of her husband?
How was he to convey the three ladies and the Marquis from Chatillon to St.Florent, through a country, the greater portion of which would then be in the hands of the blues?
Make the best he could of it, the news was fearfully bad.

He told Madame de Lescure that her husband was certainly wounded, but that as certainly he was not killed; and that he had every reason, though he could not say what reason, to believe that the wound was not likely to be fatal.

The doubt conveyed in these tidings was, if possible, more fearful than any certainty; added to this was the great probability that Chatillon would, in a day or two, be in the hands of the republicans.

They decided, or rather Chapeau decided for them, that they should start immediately for St.Florent; and that, instead of attempting to go by the direct road, they should make their way thither by bye-lanes, and through small villages, in which they possibly might escape the ferocity of their enemies.
A huge waggon was procured, and in it a bed was laid, on which the unfortunate old man could sit, and with the two horses which they had brought with them from Durbelliere, they started on their journey.

They rested the first night at St.Laurent, the place where Agatha had established an hospital, and where Cathelineau had died.