ause
they read the gazette together. That gazette always says what just
pleases them, but that does not prevent it being very terrible if we
are obliged to take our guns and knapsacks again, and it would be
better to be in Switzerland, either at Geneva, or at Father Rulle's
manufactory or at Chaux-de-Fonds, than at Leipzig, and those other
places. I did not wish to contradict Catherine, but her remarks
annoyed me greatly.

XII

From that moment there was confusion everywhere, the half-pay officers
shouted, "_Vive l'Empereur_." The commandant gave orders to arrest
them, but the battalion did the same thing, and the gendarmes seemed to
be deaf. Nobody was at work; the tax-gatherers and overseers, the
mayor and his counsellors, grew gray with uncertainty, not knowing on
which foot they should dance. Nobody dared to come out for Bonaparte,
or for Louis XVIII., except the slaters and masons and knife-grinders,
who could not lose their offices and who wished for nothing better than
to see others in their places. With their hatchets stuck in their
leather belts and a bag of chips on their shoulders, they did not
hesitate to shout, "Down with the emigres," they laughed at the
troubles, which increased visibly.

One day the gazette said, the usurper is at Grenoble, the next he is at
Lyons, the next at Macon, and the next at Auxerre, and so on. Father
Goulden was in good-humor as he read the news at night, and he would
say:

"They can see now that the Frenchmen are for the Revolution, and that
the others cannot hold out. Everybody says, 'Down with the _emigres_.'
What a lesson for those who can see clearly! Those Bourbons wanted to
make us all Vendeeans, they ought to rejoice that they have succeeded
so well."

But one thing troubled him still, that was the great battle which was
announced between Ney and Napoleon.

"Although Ney has kissed the hand of the King, yet he is an old
soldier, and I will never believe that he will fight against the will
of the people. No, it is not possible, he will remember the old cooper
of Saar-Louis, who would break his head with his hammer, if he were
still living, on learning that Michel had betrayed the country in order
to please the King."

That was what Mr. Goulden said, but that did not prevent people from
being uneasy, when suddenly the news arrived that he had followed the
example of the army and the bourgeoisie and all those who wished to be
rid of the atonements