"But is this the
way you reward obedience?"
The abbe's reply was interrupted by Pierre, who stepped forward with
flashing eyes and almost shouted:
"Our hearts are _not_ with the English! We are the children of France!"
The abbe, strange to say, seemed not offended by this hot contradiction.
The outburst rather pleased him. He thought he saw in Pierre the making
of an effective partisan. Diverted by this thought, and feeling sure of
Antoine after the threat he had uttered, he rose abruptly, blessed the
household, all unconscious of the irony of the act, and stepped out into
the raw evening. There was silence in the cabin for some minutes after
his going forth. The blow had fallen, even that which Lecorbeau had most
dreaded.
CHAPTER V.
THE MIDNIGHT MARCH.
The children crept forth from their corners and looked wonderingly at
their sobbing mother.
"O, you will certainly be killed," wailed the good woman, thoroughly
frightened.
"There is little danger of _that_," rejoined Lecorbeau. "The abbe prefers
to strike where there is small likelihood of a return blow. There will be
as little of peril as there will be of glory in attacking a few sleeping
villagers and perhaps murdering them in their beds. The thought of such
cold-blooded butchery is terrible, but anything is better than that you
and the little ones should be exposed to the rage of those savages.
It may mean ruin for us, however, for the English governor at Halifax
is likely to hear of me being concerned in the raid; and, you remember,
I was one of those that took the oath when I was a lad.
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