The forty-one indeed! a fine farce! Why, I believe there were at least two hundred." "No, indeed," said a burly trader, an oil-dealer and a great politician, "there were probably not even ten.

There was no fighting or else we should have seen some blood in the morning.

I went to the town-hall myself to look; the courtyard was as clean as my hand." Then a workman, who stepped timidly up to the group, added: "There was no need of any violence to seize the building; the door wasn't even shut." This remark was received with laughter, and the workman, thus encouraged, continued: "As for those Rougons, everybody knows that they are a bad lot." This insult pierced Felicite to the heart.

The ingratitude of the people was heartrending to her, for she herself was at last beginning to believe in the mission of the Rougons.

She called for her husband.