I fancy, from what I have read of your Scottish Highlanders, that the feeling here closely resembles that among the clans.

They regard their seigneurs as their natural heads, and would probably die for them in the field; but in other matters each goes his own way, and the chiefs know better than to strain their power beyond a certain point.
"As you see, they have already their own leaders--Stofflet the gamekeeper, Foret the woodcutter, and Cathelineau, a small peddling wool merchant.

Doubtless many men of rank and family will join them, and will naturally, from their superior knowledge, take their place as officers; but I doubt whether they will displace the men who have, from the beginning, taken the matter in hand.

I am glad that it should be so.

The peasants understand men of their own class, and will, I believe, follow them better than they would men above them in rank.