"We will do the best we can," said Henri. "If we can get over the women,
and children, and wounded, the rest of us can fight our way to the
bridge of Ancenis."
"Why not make a raft?" said Chapeau.
"Make one if you can," said Henri, "but it will only go down the stream.
Besides, you have neither timber nor iron ready to do it."
Chapeau, however, determined to try, and he employed the men from
Durbelliere, who knew him, and would work for him, to get together every
piece of timber they could collect. They brought down to the bank of the
river the green trunks of small trees, the bodies of old waggons, the
small beams which they were able to pull down out of the deserted
cottages near the river-side, pieces of bedsteads, and broken fragments
of barn doors. All these Chapeau, with endless care, joined together by
numberless bits of ropes, and at last succeeded in getting afloat a raft
on which some forty or fifty men might stand, but which seemed to be
anything but a safe or commodious means of transit.
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