were halfway up the hill they opened a scattered fire; they had
armed themselves with the muskets they had taken from the troops.

"Their guns will be of little use to them, for few of them can
ever have had firearms in their hands before; do not fire a shot,
MacIntosh, until I give the order. It is clear that someone must
have told them that we have thrown up this intrenchment today, or
they would not have wasted their ammunition."

Not a shot was fired until the leaders of the peasants were within
forty yards. Up to this time no torches had been shown in the
intrenchments, but now these were suddenly brought forward, and
Hector, in his helmet and body armour, mounted on to the breastwork.
The head of the column paused on seeing a row of levelled muskets
and three rows of pikes forming a hedge of steel.

"My men," Hector shouted in a loud clear voice, "halt, I beseech you,
before harm comes to you! I know that you have sore grievances, I
know that you and your wives and families are well nigh famishing, but
how do you think that you will better your condition by assaulting
castles and burning down chateaux? You are but preparing labour
for yourselves and heaping up fresh imposts on your own heads, for
it is you who will have to rebuild them, it is you who will have
to pay for the damage that you have done. At any rate, none can
say that you have cause for enmity against me and mine, for I have
done all in my power to mitigate the sufferings of my people, and
the proof is that not one of them has joined you. The taxes that
press so heavily upon you are not the work of your feudal lords,
they are caused by the necessity for defending France against the
assaults of foreign enemies, and were every noble in the land slain