the tale to Madame Chalice.

Contrary to his expectations, she laughed a great deal, then soothed his
wounded feelings and advised him as Medallion had done. And because
Valmond commanded the old sergeant to silence, the matter ended for the
moment. But it would have its hour yet, and Valmond knew this as well
as did the young Seigneur.




CHAPTER VII

It was no jest of Valmond's that he would, or could, have five hundred
followers in two weeks. Lagroin and Parpon were busy, each in his own
way--Lagroin, open, bluff, imperative; Parpon, silent, acute, shrewd.
Two days before the feast of St. John the Baptist, the two made a
special tour through the parish for certain recruits. If these could be
enlisted, a great many men of this and other parishes would follow. They
were, by name, Muroc the charcoalman, Duclosse the mealman, Lajeunesse
the blacksmith, and Garotte the limeburner, all men of note, after their
kind, with influence and individuality.

Lagroin chafed that he must play recruiting-sergeant and general also.
But it gave him comfort to remember that the Great Emperor had not at
times disdained to be his own recruiting-sergeant; that, after Friedland,
he himself had been taken into the Old Guard by the Emperor; that Davoust
had called him brother; that Ney had shared his supper and slept with him
under the same blanket. Parpon would gladly have done this work alone,
but he knew that Lagroin in his regimentals would be useful.