Chapeau was too well
bred to allude to the disappointment which they had all so keenly felt,
from the want of that very aid; he merely bowed again, and said that he
would tell Monsieur all he knew.
And so he did. From the time when Henri Larochejaquelin left Laval for
Granville, nothing prospered with the Vendeans; the army, as it was
agreed, had left that place for Granville, and their first misfortune
had been the death of de Lescure.
"He died in Laval?" asked the officer.
"No," said Chapeau. "When the moment for starting came, he insisted on
being carried with the army; he followed us in a carriage, but the
jolting of the road was too much for him--the journey killed him. He
died at Fougeres, on the third day after we left Laval."
"And Madame?" asked the stranger.
"It is impossible for me now," said Chapeau, "to tell you all the
dangers through which she passed, all the disguises which she had to
use, and the strange adventures which for a long time threatened almost
daily to throw her in the hands of those who would have been delighted
to murder her; but of course you know that she escaped at last.
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