to take part in it, but he controlled himself, and went
off to announce throughout the neighbourhood that a hostile
meeting was about to take place between the Burgomaster Van
Tricasse and the Counsellor Niklausse.

CHAPTER XIV.

IN WHICH MATTERS GO SO FAR THAT THE INHABITANTS OF QUIQUENDONE,
THE READER, AND EVEN THE AUTHOR, DEMAND AN IMMEDIATE DENOUEMENT.

The last incident proves to what a pitch of excitement the
Quiquendonians had been wrought. The two oldest friends in the
town, and the most gentle--before the advent of the epidemic, to
reach this degree of violence! And that, too, only a few minutes
after their old mutual sympathy, their amiable instincts, their
contemplative habit, had been restored at the summit of the
tower!

On learning what was going on, Doctor Ox could not contain his
joy. He resisted the arguments which Ygene, who saw what a
serious turn affairs were taking, addressed to him. Besides, both
of them were infected by the general fury. They were not less
excited than the rest of the population, and they ended by
quarrelling as violently as the burgomaster and the counsellor.

Besides, one question eclipsed all others, and the intended duels
were postponed to the issue of the Virgamenian difficulty. No man
had the right to shed his blood uselessly, when it belonged, to
the last drop, to his country in danger. The affair was, in
short, a grave one, and there was no withdrawing from it.

The Burgomaster Van Tricasse, despite the warlike ardour with
which he was filled, had not thought it best to throw himself
upon the enemy without warning him. He had, therefore, through
the medium of the rural policeman, Hottering, sent to demand
reparation of the Virgamenians for the offence committed, in
1195, on the Quiquendonian territory.

The authorities of Virgamen could not at first imagine of what
the envoy spoke, and the latter, despite his official character,
was conducted back to the frontier very cavalierly.

Van Tricasse then sent one of the aides-de-camp of the
confectioner-general, citizen Hildevert Shuman, a manufacturer of
barley-sugar, a very firm and energetic man, who carried to the
authorities of Virgamen the original minute of the indictment
drawn up in 1195 by order of the Burgomaster Natalis Van
Tricasse.

The authorities of Virgamen burst out laughing, and served the
aide-de-camp in the same manner as the rural policeman.

The burgomaster then assembled the dignitar