Towards dusk the garde-champtre appeared and left orders that George and Leon must take their turns at mounting guard.  Four hours right out of the sleep of a peasant boy especially when he is overworked, is likely to leave him useless the next day.  It provoked me a little, but then it was duty and they must obey.  The boys came on at eleven and having decided it would be better to get in an hour or so of rest beforehand, they retired to the hay loft.  I promised to look in on them in case they should fail to waken, and at the appointed time I put on my sweater and went down to find, as I had expected, both youths slumbering peacefully, blissfully unconscious of the time.  Poor little chaps, it seemed a pity to wake them, but what was to be done?  Presently an idea of replacing them myself dawned upon me:  a second later it so enchanted me that I wouldn’t have had them wake for anything.  The whole thing was beginning to be terribly romantic.

Slipping quietly away, I went to my room and got my revolver, and then going to the south front of the chateau, I softly whistled for my dogs.  Three big greyhounds, a shepherd dog and a setter responded immediately, and just as I was about to shut the little yellow door, old Betsy, my favorite Boston bull, came panting around the corner of the house.  With these five as bodyguard I sauntered up the road in the brilliant moonlight, arriving in front of the town hall just as the clock was striking eleven.  I must say that my appearance and announcement rather shocked two elderly men who had been on the watch since seven o’clock.

Monsieur Demarcq protested that such a thing as a woman mounting guard had never been beard of, but I swiftly argued him out of that idea.  What was required of me?  That I stop every passer-by and every vehicle?  Didn’t he think me capable of doing so?  And I pointed to my dogs and my revolver.  The weight of the argument was so evidently on my side that they had nothing to do but to submit, and laughingly Mr. Foeter put me in possession of a heavy old gun, three packages of cartridges, and the lantern.  Then once again they asked if I couldn’t be dissuaded, to which I jokingly replied that I would set my dogs after them and drive them home if they didn’t make haste to go there at once.  That admonition proved more efficacious than I had dared hope, and assured me that my faithful beasts rejoiced in a ferocious reputation.

All sorts of fantastic ideas flitted through my brain as I took possession of my post.  I began, however, by setting the lantern in the middle of the road, exactly in the center of the chain, as a warning to any on-comer.  Then by the moonlight, I proceeded to examine my gun.  It was a very primitive arm, and after carefully weighing it in my hands, I decided to abandon all thought of stalking up and down the road with such an implement on my shoulder.  That kind of glory was not worth the morrow’s ache, so I deposited the antiquated weapon in the hallway of the school house and resolved to rely on my Browning.