The last words were spoken out loud, and though they were eagerly responded to by every one else, they fell with a heavy sound on Adolphe Denot’s ear.  To know that he was excluded after he had been named, to feel that he had been proposed merely to be rejected; it was more than he could bear; and as soon as Cathelineau had formally announced the name of M. Charette as one of their leaders, he started abruptly from his chair and said: 

“Oh, of course, gentlemen, if you prefer Charette, so be it!  He, doubtless will be better able to assist your endeavours than I should; but you might have spared me the mortification of putting my name on your list of officers, merely to scratch it off again.”

“What matters it, Adolphe,” said Larochejaquelin, blushing for his friend, “will you not share my command?  Will not your word be as influential in the parishes of Chatillon as my own?”

“I sincerely beg your pardon, M. Denot,” said Cathelineau, “if I have hurt your feelings, but you are as much aware as we are that we should be very wrong to neglect the merits of M. Charette; his achievements claim from us this distinction, and his power and influence would probably be lost to La Vendee, if we did not now incorporate his army with ours.”

“I have nothing further to say,” said Denot.  I must own I do not altogether admire the selection which has been made; but I have nothing further to say on the subject.”

“I am sorry, Adolphe, that you have said so much,” said de Lescure.

“You would have been apt to say more yourself if you had been passed over,” said Adolphe, forgetting in his passion how he had disgraced himself before de Lescure at the bridge of Fouchard.

“I fear you misunderstand the purpose, which has collected here in Saumur so many men in arms,” said he.  “I fear that you think the peasants of our country have turned themselves into soldiers, that we might become generals, and play at being great men.  Indeed, such is not the case; if personal ambition has brought you here, you had better leave us.  We have come here to fight, and very probably to die for our King and our religion; and, being called upon to act as leaders, we must bear a heavier share of the burden, and undergo greater perils than others; but we seek no especial dignity, we look for no other pre-eminence, than that of suffering more than others.  I fear these are not the feelings that influence you.”

“My feelings, Sir, are as pure as your own!” said Denot.

“If so,” said Father Jerome, “you had better teach us all to think so, by taking care that your conduct is also as pure as M. de Lescure’s.”

“Oh, Father Jerome, do not anger him,” said Henri.  “Come with me, Adolphe, and we will quietly talk over this; they don’t exactly understand what you mean yet.”

“But they shall understand what I mean,” said Denot, whose anger was now beyond control, “and they shall know that I will not remain here to be rebuked by a priest, who has thrust himself into affairs with which he has no concern; or to make myself subservient to men who are not fit to be my equals.  I will not deign to be a common soldier, when such a man as Stofflet is made an officer.”