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the followers of the antirevolutionary uprising. He is giving Halmalo the following instructions: |
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''Now listen. Do you know the woods?" |
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"All of them." |
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"Of the whole district?" |
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"From Noirmoutier to Laval." |
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"Do you know their names too?" |
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"I know the woods; I know their names, I know about everything." |
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. . . . |
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"Listen well to this. This is the order: Up! Revolt! No quarter! On the edge of this wood of Saint-Aubin you will give the call. You will repeat it thrice. The third time you will see a man spring out of the ground." |
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"Out of a hole under the trees. I know." |
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"This man will be Planchenault, who is also called the King's Heart. You will show him this knot. He will understand. Then, by routes you must find out, you will go to the wood of Astillé: there you will find a cripple, who is surnamed Mousqueton, and who shows pity to none. You will tell him I love him, and that he is to set the parishes in motion. From there you will go to the wood of Couesbon, which is a league from Ploërmel. You will give the owl-cry; a man will come out of a hole; he will be Thuault, seneschal of Ploërmel, who has belonged to what is called the Constituent Assembly, but on the good side. You will tell him to arm the castle of Couesbon, which belongs to the Marquis de Guer, a refugee. Ravines, little woods, ground unevena good place. Thuault is a clever, straightforward man. Thence you will go to Saint-Guen-les-Toits, and you will talk with Jean Chouan, who is, in my mind, the real chief. From there you will go to the wood of Ville-Anglose, where you will see Guitter, whom they call Saint-Martin: you will bid him have his eye on a certain Courmesnil, who is the son-in-law of old Goupil de Préfelu. . . . " |
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The list continues for several pages. Obviously, Hugo was not interested in describing definite places and persons but only in suggesting the size and complexity of the antirevolutionary network. The Reader is not supposed to know anything about the location of the forest of Saint-Aubin or about the life of Planchenault; otherwise the whole Encyclopedie Larousse would not be sufficient to understand what happens in Hugo's novel. The Reader is supposed to take all these names as mere rigid designators referring to imprecise baptismal ceremonies. The reader willing to replace each of them with a description could only use such expressions as "a place in Northern France" or "an individual known by Lantenac". |
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The Model Reader does not have to figure out each place and individual mentioned by the novel. It is sufficient he or she pretends to believe to know them. The Model Reader is not only required to display an |
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