onsieur le Maire, without any
resources or money, so he says, who was arrested in the act of begging,
but he is provided with good testimonials, and his papers are all in
order."

"Show me his papers," the mayor said. He took them, read them, reread,
returned them, and then said: "Search him;" so they searched him, but
found nothing, and the Mayor seemed perplexed, and asked the workman:

"What were you doing on the road this morning?" "I was looking for
work." "Work?... On the highroad?" "How do you expect me to find any, if
I hid in the woods?"

They looked at each other, with the hatred of two wild beasts which
belong to different, hostile species, and the magistrate continued: "I
am going to have you set at liberty but do not be brought up before me
again." To which the carpenter replied: "I would rather you locked me
up; I have had enough running about the country." But the magistrate
replied severely: "Be silent." And then he said to the two gendarmes:
"You will conduct this man two hundred yards from the village, and let
him continue his journey."

"At any rate, give me something to eat," the workman said; but the other
grew indignant: "It only remains for us to feed you! Ah! ah! ah! that is
rather strong!" But Randel went on firmly: "If you let me nearly die of
hunger again, you will force me to commit a crime, and then, so much the
worse for you other fat fellows."

The Mayor had risen, and he repeated: "Take him away immediately, or I
shall end by getting angry."

The two gendarmes thereupon seized the carpenter by the arms and
dragged him out. He allowed them to do it without resistance, passed
through the village again, and found himself on the highroad once more;
and when the men had accompanied him two hundred yards beyond the
village, the brigadier said: "Now off with you, and do not let me catch
you about here again, for if I do you will know it."

Randel went off without replying, or knowing where he was going. He
walked on for a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes, so stupefied that
he no longer thought of anything. But suddenly, as he was passing a
small house, where the window was half open, the smell of the soup and
boiled meat stopped him suddenly in front of it, and hunger, fierce,
devouring, maddening hunger seized him, and almost drove him against the
walls of the house, like a wild beast.

He said aloud, in a grumbling voice: "In heaven's name! they must give
me some, this time." And