He was not sure how far his
enthusiasm would carry him. Muroc shook his shaggy head in mirth.
"Well, 'tis true we're getting off to France," said the lime-burner. "We
can drill as we travel, and there's plenty of us for a start."
"Morrow we go," said Lajeunesse. "The proclamation's to be out in an
hour, and you're all to be ready by ten o'clock in the morning. His
Excellency is to make a speech to us to-night; then the General--ah, what
a fine soldier, and eighty years old!--he's to give orders, and make a
speech also; and I'm to be colonel,"--he paused dramatically,--"and you
three are for captains; and you're to have five new yellow buttons to
your coats, like these." He drew out gold coins and jingled them. Every
man got to his feet, and Muroc let the coffee-tin fall. "There's to be a
grand review in the village this afternoon. There's breakfast for you, my
dears!"
Their exclamations were interrupted by Lajeunesse, who added: "And so my
Madelinette is to go to Paris, after all, and Monsieur Parpon is to see
that she starts right."
"Monsieur" Parpon was a new title for the dwarf. But the great comedy, so
well played, had justified it.
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