dog-breaker
defended by his pack, was impossible.

But on that occasion, the chances were more equal. Just then he had only
five dogs in the kennel, and two of them were quite young, though
certainly old _Bourreau_[6] counted for several, but after all, they
could risk a battle against him and the other three, with the two
couples of the custom-house officer, and they must profit by the
occasion.

[Footnote 6: Executioner, hangman.]

And one fine evening, as the brigadier of the custom-house officers was
alone in the shop with Bistaud's wife and was squeezing her waist, she
said to him abruptly:

"Do you really want to have something to do with me, _Mossieu_[7]
Fernand?"

[Footnote 7: Vulgar for Monsieur.]

He kissed her on the lips as he replied: "Do I really want to? I would
give my stripes for it; so you see...."

"Very well," she replied, "do as I tell you, and upon my word, as an
honest woman, I will be your commodity to do what you like with."

And laying a stress on that word _commodity_, which in that part of the
country means mistress, she whispered hotly into his ear:

"A commodity who knows her business, I can tell you, for my beast of a
husband has trained me up in such a way that I am now absolutely
disgusted with him."

Fernand, who was much excited, promised her everything that she wished,
and feverishly, malignantly, she told him how shamefully her husband had
treated her a short time before, how her fair skin had been cut, told
him her hatred and thirst for revenge; and the brigadier acquiesced, and
that same evening he came to the cottage accompanied by his four hounds,
with their spiked collars on.

"What are you going to do with them?" "the man with the dogs" asked.

"I have come to see whether you did not rob me when you sold them to
me," the brigadier replied.

"What do you mean by 'robbed you'?"

"Well, robbed! I have been told that they could not tackle a dog like
your _Bourreau_, and that many smugglers have dogs who are as good as he
is."

"Impossible."

"Well, in case any of them should have one, I should like to see how the
dogs that you sold me could tackle them."

The woman laughed an evil laugh, and her husband grew suspicious, when
he saw that the brigadier replied to it by a wink. But his suspicions
came too late. The _breaker_ had no time to go to the kennel to let out
his pack, for _Bourreau_ had been seized by the custom-house officer's
four dogs. At the same