are we to be butchered like so many cattle ?..." Somebody makes the suggestion: "It is a threat...

they would not dare!..." "Would not dare ?..." 'Tis old Andre Lemoine who has spoken, and he spits vigorously on the ground.

Andre Lemoine has been a soldier; he was in La Vendee.

He was wounded at Tours...

and he knows! "Would not dare ?..." he says in a whisper.