That night Valmond and his three new recruits, to whom Garotte the limeburner had been added, met in the smithy and swore fealty to the great cause.

Lajeunesse, by virtue of his position in the parish, and his former military experience, was made a captain, and the others sergeants of companies yet unnamed and unformed.

The limeburner was a dry, thin man of no particular stature, who coughed a little between his sentences, and had a habit, when not talking, of humming to himself, as if in apology for his silence.

This humming had no sort of tune or purpose, and was but a vague musical sputtering.

He almost perilled the gravity of the oath they all took to Valmond by this idiosyncrasy.