“It is a long travel,” he answered, after the fashion of their own symbols. “There are high hills to climb; there may be wild beasts in the way; and storms come down the mountains.”
“We have strong hearts, and you have a silver sword, brother.”
“I cannot see your faces, to know if you are true, my children,” he answered.
Instantly the clothes flew off, masks fell, pumpkins came crashing to the ground, the stilts of the marshals dropped, and thirty men stood upon the drays in crude military order, with muskets in their hands and cockades in their caps. At that moment also, a flag—the Tricolor—fluttered upon the staff at Valmond’s window. The roll of a drum came out of the street somewhere, and presently the people fell back before sixty armed men, marching in columns, under Lagroin, while from the opposite direction came Lajeunesse with sixty others, silent all, till they reached the drays and formed round them slowly.
Valmond stood watching intently, and the people were very still, for this seemed like real life, and no burlesque. Some of the soldiery had military clothes, old militia uniforms, or the rebel trappings of ‘37; others, less fortunate, wore their trousers in long boots, their coats buttoned lightly over their chests, and belted in; and the Napoleonic cockade was in every cap.
“My children,” said Valmond at last, “I see that your hearts are strong, and that you have the bodies of true men. We have sworn fealty to each other, and the badge of our love is in your caps. Let us begin our journey home. I will come down among you: I will come down among you, and I will lead you from Pontiac to the sea, gathering comrades as we go; then across the sea, to France; then to Paris and the Tuileries, where an Orleans usurps the place of a Napoleon.”
He descended and mounted his waiting horse. At that moment De la Riviere appeared on the balcony, and, stepping forward, said:
“My friends, do you know what you are doing? This is folly. This man—”
He got no further, for Valmond raised his hand to Lagroin, and the drums began to beat. Then he rode down in front of Lajeunesse’s men, the others sprang from the drays and fell into place, and soon the little army was marching, four deep, through the village.
This was the official beginning of Valmond’s fanciful quest for empire. The people had a phrase, and they had a man; and they saw no further than the hour.