r suit. They
say, very truly: 'According to the terms of the lease, the care of
the woods is left to the owner; he does not protect them, and we are
injured; the owner is bound to pay us damages.' That's fair enough; but
it doesn't follow that they should win their case."

"We must be ready to defend this suit at all costs," said the general,
"and then we shall have no more of them."

"You shall gratify Gaubertin," remarked Sibilet.

"How so?"

"Suing the Gravelots is the same as a hand to hand fight with Gaubertin,
who is their agent," answered Sibilet. "He asks nothing better than
such a suit. He declares, so I hear, that he will bring you if necessary
before the Court of Appeals."

"The rascal! the--"

"If you attempt to work your own woods," continued Sibilet, turning the
knife in the wound, "you will find yourself at the mercy of workmen who
will force you to pay rich men's prices instead of market-prices. In
short, they'll put you, as they did that poor Mariotte, in a position
where you must sell at a loss. If you then try to lease the woods you
will get no tenants, for you cannot expect that any one should take
risks for himself which Mariotte only took for the crown and the State.
Suppose a man talks of his losses to the government! The government is a
gentleman who is, like your obedient servant when he was in its employ,
a worthy man with a frayed overcoat, who reads the newspapers at a
desk. Let his salary be twelve hundred or twelve thousand francs, his
disposition is the same, it is not a whit softer. Talk of reductions
and releases from the public treasury represented by the said gentleman!
He'll only pooh-pooh you as he mends his pen. No, the law is the wrong
road for you, Monsieur le comte."

"Then what's to be done?" cried the general, his blood boiling as he
tramped up and down before the bench.

"Monsieur le comte," said Sibilet, abruptly, "what I say to you is not
for my own interests, certainly; but I advise you to sell Les Aigues and
leave the neighborhood."

On hearing these words the general sprang back as if a cannon-ball had
struck him; then he looked at Sibilet with a shrewd, diplomatic eye.

"A general of the Imperial Guard running away from the rascals, when
Madame la comtesse likes Les Aigues!" he said. "No, I'll sooner box
Gaubertin's ears on the market-place of Ville-aux-Fayes, and force him
to fight me that I may shoot him like a dog."

"Monsieur le comte, Gaubertin is not