"Alas, yes," said Hulot, sighing. "Those clowns of Directors have
managed to quarrel with all the men who could sail the ship.
Bernadotte, Carnot, all of them, even Talleyrand, have deserted us.
There's not a single good patriot left, except friend Fouche, who
holds 'em through the police. There's a man for you! It was he who
warned me of a coming insurrection; and here we are, sure enough,
caught in a trap."

"If the army doesn't take things in hand and manage the government,"
said Gerard, "those lawyers in Paris will put us back just where we
were before the Revolution. A parcel of ninnies! what do they know
about governing?"

"I'm always afraid they'll treat with the Bourbons," said Hulot.
"Thunder! if they did /that/ a pretty pass we should be in, we
soldiers!"

"No, no, commandant, it won't come to that," said Gerard. "The army,
as you say, will raise its voice, and--provided it doesn't choose its
words from Pichegru's vocabulary--I am persuaded we have not hacked
ourselves to pieces for the last ten years merely to manure the flax
and let others spin the thread."

"Well," interposed Captain Merle, "what we have to do now is to act as
good patriots and prevent the Chouans from communicating with La
Vendee; for, if they once come to an understanding and England gets
her finger into the pie, I wouldn't answer for the cap of the
Republic, one and invisible."

As he spoke the cry of an owl, heard at a distance, interrupted the