“You understand, I don’t like parting with my things. Articles loaned run risks. It makes one so anxious. But if it is in the national interest—the country before all. You and Monsieur Frémont will choose what should be exhibited.”
“All the same,” said Jacques de Cadde, as they left the table, “you are wrong, Dellion, not to try Father François’ expedient.”
Coffee was served in the small drawing-room.
Jambe-d’Argent, the Chouan singer, sat down at the piano. He had just added to his repertoire a few Royalist songs dating from the Restoration, which he thought would make a hit in fashionable drawing-rooms. He sang to the tune of La Sentinelle:
“Au champ d’honneur frappé d’un coup mortel,
Le preux Bayard, dans l’ardeur qui l’enflamme,
Fier de périr pour le sol paternel,
Avec ivresse exhalait sa grande âme:
Ah! sans regret je puis mourir,
Mon sort, dit-il, sera digne d’envie,