take that form.

Nic was entirely French at heart, and ignored his mother's nationality.
He resented the English blood in his veins, and atoned for it by
increased loyalty to his French origin. This was probably not so much
a principle as a fancy. He had a kind of importance also in the parish,
and in his own eyes, because he made as much in three months by buying
and selling horses as most people did in a year. The respect of
Bonaventure for his ability was considerable; and though it had no marked
admiration for his character, it appreciated his drolleries, and was
attracted by his high spirits. He had always been erratic, so that when
he disappeared for days at a time no one thought anything of it, and when
he came home to the Manor at unearthly hours it created no peculiar
notice.

He had chosen very good men for his recruits; for, though they talked
much among themselves, they drew a cordon of silence round their little
society of revolution. They vanished in the night, and Nic with them;
but he returned the next afternoon when the fire of excitement was at its
height. As he rode through the streets, people stopped him and poured
out questions; but he only shrugged his shoulders, and gave no
information, and neither denied nor affirmed anything.

Acting under orders, he had marched his company to make conjunction with
other companies at a point in the mountains twenty miles away, but had
himself returned to get the five thousand dollars gathered by Papineau's
agent. Now that the Rebellion was known, Nicolas intended to try and win
his father and his father's money and horses over to the cause.

Because Ferrol was an Englishman he made no confidant of him, and because