"
"It's a poor place, truly, M. Chapeau," said the smith, looking round
on the bare walls of the little hut.
"Indeed it is, my friend, and sorry am I to see you and Annot so badly
lodged. But what then; we shall be in Laval tomorrow, and have the best
of everything--that is, if not tomorrow, the day after."
"I don't much care about the best of everything, M. Chapeau. I've not
used myself to the best, but I would it had pleased God. to have allowed
me to labour out the rest of my days in the little smithy at
Echanbroignes. I never wanted more than the bread which I could earn."
"You never did, Michael, you never did," said Chapeau, trying to flatter
the old man; "and, like an honest man, you endure without flinching what
you suffer for your King. Give us your hand, my friend, we've no wine
to drink his health, but as long as our voices are left, let us cry:
Vive le Roi!"
The old man silently rejected Chapeau's proposal that he should evince
his loyalty just at present by shouting out the Vendean war-cry.
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