As Chapeau had said, great preparations were made at Durbelli猫re for the coming campaign. The old Marquis had joined with his son in furnishing everything which their limited means would admit of, for the wants of the royalists. Durbelli猫re had become quite a dep么t; the large granaries at the top of the house were no longer empty; they were stored with sacks of meal, with pikes and muskets³, and with shoes for the soldiers. Agatha’s own room looked like an apartment in a hospital; it was filled with lint⁴, salves, and ointments⁵, to give ease to those whom the wars should send home wounded; all the contents of the cellars were sacrificed; wine, beer, and brandy, were alike given up to aid the spirits of the combatants; the cattle were drawn⁶ in from the farms, and kept round the house in out-houses and barns, ready to be slaughtered⁷, as occasion might require, an abattoir⁸ was formed in the stable yard, and a butcher kept in regular employment; a huge oven was built in an outhouse attached to the stables, and here bakers⁹, from neighbouring parishes, were continually kept at work: they neither expected, or received wages; they, and all the others employed got their meals in the large kitchen of the ch芒teau, and were content to give their work to the cause without fee or reward. Provisions, cattle, and implements¹⁰, were also sent from M. de Lescure’s house to Durbelli猫re, as it was considered to be more central, and as it was supposed that there were still some republicans in the neighbourhood of Bressuire, whereas, it was well known that there were none in the rural districts; the more respectable of the farmers also, and other country gentlemen sent something; and oxen, sheep, and loads of meal; jars of oil, and casks of wine were coming in during the whole week before the siege of Saumur, and the same horses took them out again in the shape of bread, meat, and

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