them
like a bomb, and whose herculean strength had just performed this feat.
The country gentleman was perfectly calm, but his complexion was high,
and his brow moist with perspiration, as if he had walked very fast. A
few paces in his rear stood the faithful Rabusson, motionless and in a
martial attitude; in one hand he grasped a knotted stick, more like a
mace than a walking-cane; with the other he led Sultan, the baron's
enormous watch-dog.

"The stupified silence that ensued was at last broken by Toussaint
Gilles.

"'What means this?' he demanded, his voice trembling with rage.

"'It is easy to understand,' coolly replied M. de Vaudrey.

"'Why have you upset our pump?'

"'To prevent your pumping.'

"'And why do you prevent our pumping?'

"'Because those who lighted the fire shall not put it out. It pleased
you to see yonder wooden columns burn, it pleases me to see the poplar
blaze.'

"'Raise the pump,' said the captain to his men, with an imperious air.
'We will see who dares upset it again.'

"'And we will see who dares raise it, when I forbid!' retorted the
baron, calmly folding his muscular arms across his vast chest.

"A murmur was heard; but nobody stirred.

"'Cowards!' cried Toussaint Gilles, with a furious glance at his
friends; 'are you all afraid of one man?'

"'In the first place, there are two of them,' said the prudent Laverdun
to his neighbour, 'and two who are worth ten; to say nothing of their
monster of a dog, who demolishes a wolf with a single bite.'

"'M. Toussaint Gilles,' said the baron, smiling ironically, 'when an
officer gives an order, and is not obeyed, do you know what he should
do?'

"'I want none of your advice,' cried the captain of firemen, in a brutal
tone.

"'He should execute his order himself,' said M. de Vaudrey with
immovable calmness.

"'So I will,' said Toussaint Gilles, advancing roughly. But at the very
moment that he stooped to raise the engine, the baron grasped his
collar, and compelled him to stand upright.

"'M. Toussaint Gilles,' he said, 'listen to me. You are a bad fellow,
needing correction, and I undertake to correct you.'

"'To correct me!' cried the captain, struggling, as ineffectually as a
hare in the clutches of an eagle, in the powerful grasp that restrained
him.

"'He is strangling the captain! Help the captain!' exclaimed several of
the spectators.

"But words were all the help they offered to their chief, so greatly
were the b