When Foret and Cathelineau dismounted, and were taken into the house by Henri and the Cure, they left their steeds in the care of Peter Berrier; but Peter has not been left ever since leading them up and down in sight of the white-washed lions.  The revolt of St. Florent had been heard of in the servants’ hall as well as in the salon upstairs, and it was soon known that the heroes of the revolt were in the house, and that their horses were before the door.  A couple of men and two or three boys soon hurried round, and Peter was relieved from his charge, and courteously led into the servants’ hall by Momont, the grey-headed old butler and favourite servant of the Marquis, and Jacques Chapeau, the valet, groom, and confidential factotum of Larochejaquelin.  Peter was soon encouraged to tell his tale, and to explain the mission which had brought him and his two companions to Durbelliere, and under ordinary circumstances the having to tell so good a tale would have been a great joy to him; but at the present moment Peter was not quite satisfied with his own position; why was the postillion in the salon while he was in the kitchen?  Peter usually was a modest man enough, and respectful to his superiors; the kitchen table in a nobleman’s house would generally be an elysium to him; he had no idea that he was good enough to consort with Marquises and their daughters; but he did think himself equal to Cathelineau, the postillion, and as Cathelineau was in the salon, why should he be in the kitchen?  He quite understood that Cathelineau was thus welcomed, thus raised from his ordinary position in consequence of what he had done at St. Florent, but why shouldn’t he, Berrier, be welcomed, and raised also?  He couldn’t see that Cathelineau had done more than he had himself.  He was the first man to resist; he had been the first hero, and yet he was left for half an hour to lead about a horse, an ass, and an old mule, as though he were still the ostler at an auberge, and then he was merely taken into the servants’ hall, and asked to eat cold meat, while Cathelineau was brought into a grand room upstairs to talk to lords and ladies; this made Peter fidgety and uncomfortable; and when he heard, moreover, that Cathelineau was to sup upstairs at the same table with the Marquis and the ladies, all his pleasure in the revolt was destroyed, he had no taste for the wine before him, and he wished in his heart that he had joined the troops, and become a good republican.  He could not bear the aristocratic foppery of that Cathelineau.

“And were you a conscript yourself, Peter Berrier?” said Jacques Chapeau.

“Of course I was,” said Peter.  “Why, haven’t you heard what the revolt of St. Florent was about?”

“Well; we have heard something about it,” said Momont; “but we didn’t exactly hear your name mentioned.”

“You couldn’t have heard much of the truth then,” said Berrier.

“We heard,” said Chapeau, “how good Cathelineau began by taking three soldiers prisoners.”