What could have prompted Vuillet's change of front?
The idea of that wretched semi-sacristan carrying a musket and firing on the ramparts of Plassans seemed to her one of the most ridiculous things imaginable.

There was certainly some determining cause underlying all this which escaped her.

Only one thing seemed certain.

Vuillet was too impudent in his abuse and too ready with his valour, for the insurrectionary band to be really so near the town as some people asserted.
"He's a spiteful fellow, I always said so," Rougon resumed, after reading the article again.

"He has only been waiting for an opportunity to do us this injury.