They agreed to this, and then he who had been so frightened, and who was plainly the master of the two, told his tale to them, as he filled Arthur's place in the bow of the boat.
"When they had heard," he said, "what his former occupation had been, they would not wonder that the hard work at which they found him was almost too much for him.

He was," he said, "a priest, and had been employed above twenty years as Cure in a small parish on the river side, between St.Florent and Chaudron.

The other man, who was working with him, had been his sexton.

He had, like other Cures, been turned out of his little house by the Republic, but had returned to his parish when he heard that the success of the Vendean arms seemed to promise tranquillity to the old inhabitants of the country.

He had, however, soon been again disturbed.