第24章

He was now on his return, escorting an old mail-coach drawn by post-horses, which the weariness of his soldiers, after their forced march, was compelling to advance at a snail's pace.The company of Blues from the garrison at Mortagne, who had escorted the rickety vehicle to the limits of their district, where Hulot and his men had met them, could be seen in the distance, on their way back to their quarters, like so many black specks.One of Hulot's companies was in the rear, the other in advance of the carriage.The commandant, who was marching with Merle and Gerard between the advance guard and the carriage, suddenly growled out: "Ten thousand thunders! would you believe that the general detached us from Mayenne to escort two petticoats?""But, commandant," remarked Gerard, "when we came up just now and took charge I observed that you bowed to them not ungraciously.""Ha! that's the infamy of it.Those dandies in Paris ordered the greatest attention paid to their damned females.How dare they dishonor good and brave patriots by trailing us after petticoats? As for me, I march straight, and I don't choose to have to do with other people's zigzags.When I saw Danton taking mistresses, and Barras too, I said to them: 'Citizens, when the Republic called you to govern, it was not that you might authorize the vices of the old regime!' You may tell me that women--oh yes! we must have women, that's all right.Good soldiers of course must have women, and good women; but in times of danger, no! Besides, where would be the good of sweeping away the old abuses if patriots bring them back again? Look at the First Consul, there's a man! no women for him; always about his business.I'd bet my left mustache that he doesn't know the fool's errand we've been sent on!""But, commandant," said Merle, laughing, "I have seen the tip-end of the nose of the young lady, and I'll declare the whole world needn't be ashamed to feel an itch, as I do, to revolve round that carriage and get up a bit of a conversation.""Look out, Merle," said Gerard; "the veiled beauties have a man accompanying them who seems wily enough to catch you in a trap.""Who? that /incroyable/ whose little eyes are ferretting from one side of the road to the other, as if he saw Chouans? The fellow seems to have no legs; the moment his horse is hidden by the carriage, he looks like a duck with its head sticking out of a pate.If that booby can hinder me from kissing the pretty linnet--""'Duck'! 'linnet'! oh, my poor Merle, you have taken wings indeed! But don't trust the duck.His green eyes are as treacherous as the eyes of a snake, and as sly as those of a woman who forgives her husband.Idistrust the Chouans much less than I do those lawyers whose faces are like bottles of lemonade.""Pooh!" cried Merle, gaily."I'll risk it--with the commandant's permission.That woman has eyes like stars, and it's worth playing any stakes to see them.""Caught, poor fellow!" said Gerard to the commandant; "he is beginning to talk nonsense!"Hulot made a face, shrugged his shoulders, and said: "Before he swallows the soup, I advise him to smell it.""Bravo, Merle," said Gerard, judging by his friend's lagging step that he meant to let the carriage overtake him.Isn't he a happy fellow? He is the only man I know who can laugh over the death of a comrade without being thought unfeeling.""He's the true French soldier," said Hulot, in a grave tone.

"Just look at him pulling his epaulets back to his shoulders, to show he is a captain," cried Gerard, laughing,--"as if his rank mattered!"The coach toward which the officer was pivoting did, in fact, contain two women, one of whom seemed to be the servant of the other.

"Such women always run in couples," said Hulot.

A lean and sharp-looking little man ambled his horse sometimes before, sometimes behind the carriage; but, though he was evidently accompanying these privileged women, no one had yet seen him speak to them.This silence, a proof either of respect or contempt, as the case might be; the quantity of baggage belonging to the lady, whom the commandant sneeringly called "the princess"; everything, even to the clothes of her attendant squire, stirred Hulot's bile.The dress of the unknown man was a good specimen of the fashions of the day then being caricatured as "incroyable,"--unbelievable, unless seen.Imagine a person trussed up in a coat, the front of which was so short that five or six inches of the waistcoat came below it, while the skirts were so long that they hung down behind like the tail of a cod,--the term then used to describe them.An enormous cravat was wound about his neck in so many folds that the little head which protruded from that muslin labyrinth certainly did justify Captain Merle's comparison.The stranger also wore tight-fitting trousers and Suwaroff boots.A huge blue-and-white cameo pinned his shirt; two watch-chains hung from his belt; his hair, worn in ringlets on each side of his face, concealed nearly the whole forehead; and, for a last adornment, the collar of his shirt and that of his coat came so high that his head seemed enveloped like a bunch of flowers in a horn of paper.Add to these queer accessories, which were combined in utter want of harmony, the burlesque contradictions in color of yellow trousers, scarlet waistcoat, cinnamon coat, and a correct idea will be gained of the supreme good taste which all dandies blindly obeyed in the first years of the Consulate.This costume, utterly uncouth, seemed to have been invented as a final test of grace, and to show that there was nothing too ridiculous for fashion to consecrate.The rider seemed to be about thirty years old, but he was really twenty-two; perhaps he owed this appearance of age to debauchery, possibly to the perils of the period.In spite of his preposterous dress, he had a certain elegance of manner which proved him to be a man of some breeding.