rendered in writing, except at interminable length.

Just as the bayonets of the four men were finally lost to sight,
Captain Merle returned, having executed the commandant's orders with
rapidity. Hulot, with two or three sharp commands, put his troop in
line of battle and ordered it to return to the summit of La Pelerine
where his little advanced-guard were stationed; walking last himself
and looking backward to note any changes that might occur in a scene
which Nature had made so lovely, and man so terrible. As he reached
the spot where he had left the Chouan, Marche-a-Terre, who had seen
with apparent indifference the various movements of the commander, but
who was now watching with extraordinary intelligence the two soldiers
in the woods to the right, suddenly gave the shrill and piercing cry
of the /chouette/, or screech-owl. The three famous smugglers already
mentioned were in the habit of using the various intonations of this
cry to warn each other of danger or of any event that might concern
them. From this came the nickname of "Chuin" which means /chouette/ or
owl in the dialect of that region. This corrupted word came finally to
mean the whole body of those who, in the first uprising, imitated the
tactics and the signals of the smugglers.

When Hulot heard that suspicious sound he stopped short and examined
the man intently; then he feigned to be taken in by his stupid air,
wishing to keep him by him as a barometer which might indicate the
movements of the enemy. He therefore checked Gerard, whose hand was on
his sword to despatch him; but he placed two soldiers beside the man
he now felt to be a spy, and ordered them in a loud, clear voice to
shoot him at the next sound he made. In spite of his imminent danger
Marche-a-Terre showed not the slightest emotion. The commandant, who
was studying him, took note of this apparent insensibility, and