They will go on any special mission with which you may charge them; and will, at other times, watch all the roads by which an enemy would be likely to advance." "If they will do that, Monsieur Stansfield, they will be valuable, indeed; that is just what I cannot get the peasants to do.

When it comes to fighting, they will obey orders; but at all other times they regard themselves as their own masters, and neither entreaties nor the offer of pay suffices to persuade them to undertake such work as you are proposing to carry out.

Consequently, it is only by chance that we obtain any news of the enemy's movements.

I wish we had fifty such parties." "They would be valuable, indeed," Monsieur d'Elbee said.

"The obstinacy of the peasantry is maddening.
"How do you propose to feed your men ?" "When we are within reach of their homes, two will go back to fetch bread for the whole; when we are too far away, I shall buy it in one of the villages." "When you are within reach of my headquarters, wherever that may be, you have only to send in; and they shall have the loaves served out to them, the same as the band who remain here.