ss disgusted him; and through this fiber of
his mind he seemed to the peasants to belong to them; they were in the
habit of saying, "Pere Niseron doesn't like the rich; he's one of us."

The civic crown won by this noble life throughout the valley lay in
these words: "That good old Niseron! there's not a more honest man."
Often taken as umpire in certain kinds of disputes, he embodied the
meaning of that archaic term,--the village elder. Always extremely
clean, though threadbare, he wore breeches, coarse woollen stockings,
hob-nailed shoes, the distinctively French coat with large buttons and
the broad-brimmed felt hat to which all old peasants cling; but for
daily wear he kept a blue jacket so patched and darned that it looked
like a bit of tapestry. The pride of a man who feels he is free, and
knows he is worthy of freedom, gave to his countenance and his whole
bearing a _something_ that was inexpressibly noble; you would have felt
he wore a robe, not rags.

"Hey! what's happening so unusual?" he said, "I heard the noise down
here from the belfry."

They told him of Vatel's attack on the old woman, talking all at once
after the fashion of country-people.

"If she didn't cut the tree, Vatel was wrong; but if she did cut it, you
have done two bad actions," said Pere Niseron.

"Take some wine," said Tonsard, offering a full glass to the old man.

"Shall we start?" said Vermichel to the sheriff's officer.

"Yes," replied Brunet, "we must do without Pere Fourchon and take the
assistant at Conches. Go on before me; I have a paper to carry to the
chateau. Rigou has gained his second suit, and I've got to deliver the
verdict."

So saying, Monsieur Brunet, all the livelier for a couple of glasses of
brandy, mounted his gray mare after saying good-bye to Pere Niseron; for
the whole valley were desirous in their hearts of the good man's esteem.

No science, not even that of statistics, can explain the rapidity with
which news flies in the country, nor how it spreads over those ignorant
and untaught regions which are, in France, a standing reproach to the
government and to capitalists. Contemporaneous history can show that a
famous banker, after driving post-horses to death between Waterloo
and Paris (everybody knows why--he gained what the Emperor had lost,
a commission!) carried the fatal news only three hours in advance of
rumor. So, not an hour after the encounter between old mother Tonsard
and Vatel, a number of th