Mademoiselle Brun took up the basket and continued to pick the French
beans.

"My poor child! my poor child!" she muttered twice, with a hard face.




CHAPTER XIV.


GOSSIP.

"Cupid is a casuist,
A mystic, and a cabalist.
Can your lurking thought surprise,
And interpret your device?"


That which has been taken by the sword must be held by the sword. In
Corsica the blade is sheathed, but it has never yet been laid aside. The
quick events of July thrust this sheathed weapon into the hand of Colonel
Gilbert, who, as he himself had predicted, was left behind in the general
exodus.

"If you are placed in command at Bastia, how many, or how few men will
suffice?" asked the civil authority, who was laid on the shelf by the
outbreak of war.

And Colonel Gilbert named what appeared to be an absurd minimum.