.

.

Well, good-night." He was just turning the handle of the door, when Rougon forcibly detained him.
"Listen, Sicardot," he said.
He drew him into a corner, on seeing Vuillet prick up his big ears.

And there he explained to him, in an undertone, that it would be a good plan to leave a few energetic men behind the insurgents, so as to restore order in the town.

And as the fierce commander obstinately refused to desert his post, Pierre offered to place himself at the head of such a reserve corps.
"Give me the key of the cart-shed in which the arms and ammunition are kept," he said to him, "and order some fifty of our men not to stir until I call for them." Sicardot ended by consenting to these prudent measures.