nsieur the Sub-Prefect, the Mayors, and the
Secretaries were seated on their tribune, calling the numbers aloud, as
if pronouncing sentence of death in a court of justice, for all these
numbers were really sentences of death.

We waited a long while.

It seemed as if there was no longer a drop of blood in my veins, when
at last my name was called.

I stepped up, seeing and hearing nothing; I put my hand in the box and
drew a number.

Monsieur the Sub-Prefect cried out:

"Number seventeen."

Then I left without speaking, Catharine and her mother behind me. We
went out into the square, and, the air reviving me, I remembered that I
had drawn number seventeen.

Aunt Gredel seemed confounded.

"And I put something into your pocket, too," said she; "but that rascal
of a Pinacle gave you ill-luck."

At the same time she drew from my coat-pocket the end of a cord. Great
drops of sweat rolled down my forehead; Catharine was white as marble,
and so we went back to Monsieur Goulden's.

"What number did you draw, Joseph?" he asked, as soon as he saw us.

"Seventeen," replied Aunt Gredel, sitting down with her hands upon her
knees.

Monsieur Goulden seemed troubled for a moment, but he said instantly:

"One is as good as another. All will go; the skeletons must be filled.
But it don't matter for Joseph. I will go and see Monsieur the Mayor
and Monsieur the Commandant. It will be telling no lie to say that
Joseph is lame; all the town knows that; but among so many they may
overlook him. That is why I go, so rest easy; do not be anxious."

These words of good Monsieur Goulden reassured Aunt Gredel and
Catharine, who returned to Quatre-Vents full of hope; but they did not
affect me, for from that moment I had not a moment of rest day or night.

The Emperor had a good custom: he did not allow the conscripts to
languish at home. Soon as the drawing was complete, the council of
revision met, and a few days after came the orders of march. He did
not do like those tooth-pullers who first show you their pincers and
hooks and gaze for an hour into your mouth, so that you feel half dead
before they make up their minds to begin work: he proceeded without
loss of time.

A week after the drawing, the council of revision sat at the town-hall,
with all the mayors and a few notables of the country to give advice in
case of need.

The day before Monsieur Goulden had put on his brown great-coat and his
best wig to go to