whom he had taken for the herald of an approaching carnage, he
suddenly noticed that the hair, the smock, and the goatskin leggings
of the stranger were full of thorns, scraps of leaves, and bits of
trees and bushes, as though this Chouan had lately made his way for a
long distance through thickets and underbrush. Hulot looked
significantly at his adjutant Gerard who stood beside him, pressed his
hand firmly, and said in a low voice: "We came for wool, but we shall
go back sheared."

The officers looked at each other silently in astonishment.

It is necessary here to make a digression, or the fears of the
commandant will not be intelligible to those stay-at-home persons who
are in the habit of doubting everything because they have seen
nothing, and who might therefore deny the existence of Marche-a-Terre
and the peasantry of the West, whose conduct, in the times we are
speaking of, was often sublime.

The word "gars" pronounced "ga" is a relic of the Celtic language. It
has passed from low Breton into French, and the word in our present
speech has more ancient associations than any other. The "gais" was
the principal weapon of the Gauls; "gaisde" meant armed; "gais"
courage; "gas," force. The word has an analogy with the Latin word
"vir" man, the root of "virtus" strength, courage. The present
dissertation is excusable as of national interest; besides, it may
help to restore the use of such words as: "gars, garcon, garconette,
garce, garcette," now discarded from our speech as unseemly; whereas
their origin is so warlike that we shall use them from time to time in
the course of this history. "She is a famous 'garce'!" was a
compliment little understood by Madame de Stael when it was paid to