He smiled in return, replying, "It ought to see all you Reformers rot before it surrenders, if the people in it knew what they were about; but there's Argence, and Grignaud, and Meziere, brave enough men when they are in the field, but without the slightest idea of holding a walled place. The old woman who has just dressed your arm would make a better governor of Angoulême. But, however, as soon as you get into Angoulême you shall have the money. The Jews will give it me on my bond. It is crammed full of Jews to the very doors, and that is another reason it will fall. But, however, I hope this is not the house, the hospitality of which you invite me to partake;" and he looked round the shed in which we were still standing with some dismay.
"Oh, no!" replied. "This and the hovel near was my only lodging last night; but I have got better quarters to-day, and, if you will come up with me, I will show you where they are."
The old lady who fulfilled the office of surgeon to the soldiery and inferior officers had managed to bind up my arm very skilfully, pouring in some peculiar compound of her own devising, which healed the wound so rapidly that I can scarcely say I received any farther inconvenience from it. After she had done and received her reward, we walked up to my new dwelling, and I assigned to the young lord a room immediately beneath that which I had chosen for myself.
Having done this, and given some little regularity to my affairs, I went out to visit the different quarters of the camp, and to see more with my own eyes than I had hitherto been able to see. The day passed over without any farther effort on our side than the erection and opening of the new battery; but, as I went round every part of the encampment, I twice met the Prince de Condé and D'Andelot, and once the Admiral de Coligny. They noticed me, I saw, though neither of them spoke; and while their conduct showed me there was no want of activity or vigilance on the part of our leaders, my appearance at different points of the camp was construed by them, I afterward found, into proofs of my zeal and industry. I mentioned that each of these generals had praised my conduct highly in the morning; but the most satisfactory proof to myself of having really acted well was afforded to me that night. On my return, towards supper-time, I found, besides one of my men on guard at the door, good Moric Endem standing talking to him while waiting my arrival.
"No want of men now, sir," he said. "This morning's work has got your name up famously. You have nothing to do but to whistle, and you'll have all the stray men of the camp. I have had a hundred talking to me about it already, at least; but, of course, I could do but little till I spoke to you. There were five or six rare old hands, however, that I could not let go away; so that we now muster seventeen. How many more would you like engaged?"
"At present." I replied, "not more than five-and-twenty or thirty in all, Moric. We can do a good deal with that number; more may be difficult to manage; and, though we are well provided for at present, they might, in the end, be difficult to feed."
"You are quite right, sir, you are quite right," replied my good lieutenant. "A small band, every one a good man, depend upon it, is better than an army, with every other man an ass or a sheep; and sure I am that I can fill up your troop till there shall not be thirty more desperate, fearless, skilful ragamuffins in the whole place."
"Well, do so," I replied, "as speedily as possible. And now, where is this Monsieur de Blaye?"
"Oh! you will find him down there, at the house by the river," replied Moric, with a grin, applying to the house at the same time an epithet which I had never heard before, but which instantly designated it as a place where no man of any refinement of mind or feeling could be found. "There he has been ever since you went away almost; and I hear from a soldier who served with him two years ago, that he is never satisfied except he is there, or with a dice-box in his hand. If you don't send Andriot after him, he'll not be up to supper."
"Andriot is a mere youth," I replied. "I wish you would go yourself, Moric."