glaciers, when the squeaking of
a door opening at the other end of the room interrupted him; some one
entered, paler than one of Home's apparitions, directly in front of the
orator.

"_Ve!_ Tartarin!.."

"_Te!_ Gonzague!.."

And this race is so singular, so ready to believe all improbable tales,
all audacious and easily refuted lies, that the arrival of the great man
whose remains were still lying on the table caused only a very moderate
amazement in the assembly.

"It is a misunderstanding, that's all," said Tartarin, comforted,
beaming, his hand on the shoulder of the man whom he thought he had
killed. "I did Mont Blanc on both sides. Went up one way and came down
the other; and that is why I was thought to have disappeared."

He did not mention that he had come down on his back.

"That damned Bompard!" said Bezuquet; "all the same, he harrowed us up
with his tale..." And they laughed and clasped hands, while the drums
and trumpets, which they vainly tried to silence, went madly on with
Tartarin's funeral march.

"_Ve!_ Costecalde, just see how yellow he is!.." murmured Pascalon to
Bravida, pointing to the gunsmith as he rose to yield the chair to the
rightful president, whose good face beamed, Bravida, always sententious,
said in a low voice as he looked at the fallen Costecalde returning
to his subaltern rank: "The fate of the Abbe Mandaire, from being the
rector he now is _vicaire!_"

And the session went on.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Tartarin On The Alps, by Alphonse Daudet

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TARTARIN ON THE ALPS ***

***** This file should be named 25768.txt or 25768.zip *****
This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
http://www.gutenberg.org/2/5/7/6/25768/

Produced by David Widger

Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
will be renamed.

Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules,
set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project
Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
charge for the eBooks, unless y