“Mistress Billet and Miss Catherine and all the household are well, and beg to be remembered to Master Billet.”
Thus he entangled neither himself nor others.
The reply to this was not slow in coming. Two days subsequently, a mounted express messenger dashed into Haramont and asked for Captain Ange Pitou. His horse was white with foam. He wore the uniform of a staff-officer of the Parisian National Guards.
Judge of the effect he produced and the trouble and throbs of Pitou! He went up to the officer who smiled, and pale and trembling he took the paper he bore for him. It was a response from Billet, by the hand of Gilbert.
Billet advised Pitou to move moderately in his patriotism.
He enclosed General Lafayette’s order, countersigned by the War Minister, to arm the Haramont National Guards.
The bearer was an officer charged to see to the arming of cities on the road.
Thus ran the Order:
“All who possess more than one gun or sword are hereby bound to place the excess at the disposal of the chief officials in their cantons. The Present Measure is to be executed throughout the entire country.”
Red with joy, Pitou thanked the officer, who smiled again, and started off for the next post for changing horses.