off of itself with a frightful report, and filled the room
with smoke. The bullet shattered a magnificent mirror that reached from
the mantelpiece to the ceiling, and was reputed to be one of the
finest mirrors in the town. This shot, fired no one knew why, deafened
everybody, and put an end to the battle.

Then, while the gentlemen were panting and puffing, three other reports
were heard in the courtyard. Granoux immediately rushed to one of the
windows. And as he and the others anxiously leaned out, their faces
lengthened perceptibly, for they were in nowise eager for a struggle
with the men in the guard-room, whom they had forgotten amidst their
triumph. However, Roudier cried out from below that all was right. And
Granoux then shut the window again, beaming with joy. The fact of
the matter was, that Rougon's shot had aroused the sleepers, who had
promptly surrendered, seeing that resistance was impossible. Then,
however, three of Roudier's men, in their blind haste to get the
business over, had discharged their firearms in the air, as a sort of
answer to the report from above, without knowing quite why they did so.
It frequently happens that guns go off of their own accord when they are
in the hands of cowards.

And now, in the room upstairs, Rougon ordered Macquart's hands to be
bound with the bands of the large green curtains which hung at the
windows. At this, Macquart, wild with rage, broke into scornful jeers.
"All right; go on," he muttered. "This evening or to-morrow, when the
others return, we'll settle accounts!"

This allusion to the insurrectionary forces sent a shudder to the
victors' very marrow; Rougon for his part almost choked. His brother,
who was exasperated at having been surprised like a child by these
terrified bourgeois, who, old soldier that he was, he disdainfully
looked upon as good-for-nothing civilians, defied him with a glance of
the bitterest hatred.

"Ah! I can tell some pretty stories about you, very pretty ones!"
the rascal exclaimed, without removing his eyes from the retired oil
merchant. "Just send me before the Assize Court, so that I may tell the
judge a few tales that will make them laugh."

At this Rougon turned pale. He was terribly afraid lest Macquart should
blab then and there, and ruin him in the esteem of the gentlemen who had
just been assisting him to save Plassans. These gentlemen, astounded by
the dramatic encounter between the two brothers, and, foreseeing some