However, Rougon sent them all back to their posts, after reprimanding them severely for abandoning the gates of the town.

Thrown into consternation by this reproach--for in their panic, they had, in fact, left the gates absolutely defenceless--they again set off at a gallop, hurrying through the streets with still more frightful uproar.

Plassans might well have thought that an infuriated army was crossing it in all directions.

The fusillade, the tocsin, the marches and countermarches of the national guards, the weapons which were being dragged along like clubs, the terrified cries in the darkness, all produced a deafening tumult, such as might break forth in a town taken by assault and given over to plunder.

It was the final blow of the unfortunate inhabitants, who really believed that the insurgents had arrived.