to my point, I ask monsieur, who
is here to answer questions, to me as well as to others, what he thinks
about tobacco licenses."

"My opinion on tobacco licenses! That is rather difficult to formulate;
I can, however, say that, if my information is correct, they are usually
very well distributed."

"Hey! hey! you're a man, you!" cried the inebriate elector, "and I'll
vote for you, for they can't fool you,--no! But they do give those
licenses all wrong! Look at that daughter of Jean Remy. Bad neighbor.
Never owned anything but his cart, and fights every day with his wife--"

"But, my good fellow," said the chairman, interposing, "you are abusing
the patience of this assembly."

"No, no! let him talk!" cried voices from all parts of the room.

The voter was amusing, and Sallenauve himself seemed to let the chairman
know he would like to see what the man was driving at.

The elector, being allowed to continue, went on:--

"I was going to say, with due respect to you, colonel, about that
daughter of Jean Remy's,--a man I'll pursue to hell, for my bounds were
in their right place, and them experts was all wrong. Well! what did
that slut do? Left her father and mother and went to Paris! What did she
do there? I didn't go to see, but I'm told she made acquaintance with
a deputy, and has got the tobacco license for the rue Mouffetard, the
longest street in Paris. But I'd like to see my wife, widow of an honest
man, doubled up with rheumatism for having slept in the woods during
that terror in 1815,--I'd like to see my poor widow get a license!"

"But you are not dead yet," they shouted to him from all parts of the
room. The colonel, meantime, to put an end to the burlesque scene,
nodded to a little confectioner who was waiting for the floor, a
well-known Republican. The new questioner, in a falsetto voice, put the
following insidious question to the candidate,--a question which might,
by the way, be called national in Arcis,--

"What does Monsieur think of Danton?"

"Monsieur Dauphin," said the chairman, "I have the honor to remind you
that Danton belongs to history."

"To the Pantheon of history, monsieur; that is the proper expression."

"Well, history, or the Pantheon of history, as you please; but Danton is
irrelevant here."

"Permit me, Mr. Chairman," said Sallenauve, "though the question does
not seem to have much purpose on the bearing of this meeting, I cannot
forego the opportunity thus given me to giv