"
"I will tell you then," said Chapeau, "for I was by him when he died;
he fell, when he was shot, close at my feet: he never spoke one word,
or gave one groan, but his eyes, as they closed for the last time,
looked up into the face of one--one who, at any rate, loved him very
well," and Chapeau took a handkerchief from a little pocket in his
wife's apron, and applied it to his eyes.
"Yes," he continued," when the bullet struck him, I was as near to him
as I am to her," and he put his hand to his wife's head. "It might have
been me as well as him, only for the chance. I'll tell you how the
manner of it was. You know bow we all strove to cross back into La
Vendee, first at Angers and afterwards at Ancenis; and how M. Henri got
divided from the army at Ancenis. Well, after that, the Vendean army was
no more; the army was gone, it had melted away; the most of those who
were still alive were left in Brittany, and they joined the Chouans.
Here is my friend, Auguste, he was one of them."
"Indeed I was, Monsieur, for a year and eight months.
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