This piteous tale soon turned their anger into admiration and friendship.  They thanked the kind old man for all that he had done for them, and Arthur once, and over again, turned round to beg his pardon for the violence he had offered him.

“Indeed, then, I picked you out for this job,” said he, “because you always worked so hard, and seemed so skilful and anxious, and because I observed that your boat always made the passage quicker than the others.  You must not be angry when I tell you that I thought you had been a boatman all your life.”

He said he was not angry at all, but flattered; indeed he had spent much of his leisure time in rowing, and was heartily glad that his little skill was now useful to his friends.  He soon offered to take his place again at the oar, and when neither his old servant or Arthur would allow him to do so, he declared that he was quite himself again, and that those few minutes’ rest had wonderfully recruited him.  The ladies both thanked him kindly, but begged him to remain a while where he was, and Marie, from time to time, asked him questions about the past, and tried to hold out hopes to him for the future.  The tears came into his eyes, and rolled down his cheeks, and after a while he took the sexton’s oar, literally to relieve himself from having to speak.

“It is not he work alone that has upset me,” said he after a while, “but the poor people seem so callous.  We have worked hard these two days, as the young gentleman knows, and all for charity, and yet till this moment we have not had a kind word.  They urge us on to the work, and when we land them at the shore, they do not even thank us as they go away; then we turn back with a heavy heart for another load.”

They reached the shore of Brittany in safety, and when de Lescure was placed in the carriage which had been provided for him, he desired that the poor priest might be begged to accompany them on their journey.  He declined, however, saying that he had found a sphere in which he could be useful, and that he would stick to the work till it was all done, or till his strength failed him.  De Lescure pressed his hand, and begged his blessing, and told him that if there were many such as him in the country, La Vendee might still carry her head high, in spite of all that the Republic could do against her.  This praise made the old man’s heart light once again, and he returned to his bat, and passed. back to St. Florent with his comrade and Arthur, ready to recommence his labours.  In the meantime de Lescure and his wife and sister were warmly welcomed on the Breton side of the river, and before night he, for the first time since the battle of Cholet, found himself in comparative security and peace.

When Arthur got back he found that another plan had been started for carrying over the Vendeans, which, if it did not drown them altogether, would be certainly much more expeditious than that of the boats.  It had originated with Chapeau, under whose guidance the operations were about to commence.