shold of a keeper, dressed in green livery,
wearing a hat edged with silver cord, a sabre at his side, a leathern
shoulder-belt bearing the arms of Montcornet charged with those of the
Troisvilles, the regulation red waistcoat, and buckskin gaiters which
came above the knee.

After a moment's hesitation the keeper said, looking at Brunet and
Vermichel, "Here are witnesses."

"Witnesses of what?" said Tonsard.

"That woman has a ten-year-old oak, cut into logs, inside those fagots;
it is a regular crime!"

The moment the word "witness" was uttered Vermichel thought best to
breathe the fresh air of the vineyard.

"Of what? witnesses of what?" cried Tonsard, standing in front of the
keeper while his wife helped up the old woman. "Do you mean to show
your claws, Vatel? Accuse persons and arrest them on the highway,
brigand,--that's your domain; but get out of here! A man's house is his
castle."

"I caught her in the act, and your mother must come with me."

"Arrest my mother in my house? You have no right to do it. My house is
inviolable,--all the world knows that, at least. Have you got a warrant
from Monsieur Guerbet, the magistrate? Ha! you must have the law behind
you before you come in here. You are not the law, though you have sworn
an oath to starve us to death, you miserable forest-gauger, you!"

The fury of the keeper waxed so hot that he was on the point of seizing
hold of the wood, when the old woman, a frightful bit of black parchment
endowed with motion, the like of which can be seen only in David's
picture of "The Sabines," screamed at him, "Don't touch it, or I'll fly
at your eyes!"

"Well, then, undo that pile in presence of Monsieur Brunet," said the
keeper.

Though the sheriff's officer had assumed the indifference that the
routine of business does really give to officials of his class, he threw
a glance at Tonsard and his wife which said plainly, "A bad business!"
Old Fourchon looked at his daughter, and slyly pointed at a pile of
ashes in the chimney. Mam Tonsard, who understood in a moment from that
significant gesture both the danger of her mother-in-law and the advice
of her father, seized a handful of ashes and flung them in the keeper's
eyes. Vatel roared with pain; Tonsard pushed him roughly upon the broken
door-steps where the blinded man stumbled and fell, and then rolled
nearly down to the gate, dropping his gun on the way. In an instant the
load of sticks was unfastened, and the oa