f a coat of mail adorned the partition to the
right, and on the other side sharp spikes sustained in a horizontal
position a unique specimen of a halberd.

The second room, into which two steps led down, contained the old books
which they had brought with them from Paris, and those which, on their
arrival, they had found in a press. The leaves of the folding-doors had
been removed hither. They called it the library.

The back of the door was entirely covered by the genealogical tree of
the Croixmare family. In the panelling on the return side, a pastel of a
lady in the dress of the period of Louis XV. made a companion picture to
the portrait of Pere Bouvard. The casing of the glass was decorated with
a sombrero of black felt, and a monstrous galoche filled with leaves,
the remains of a nest.

Two cocoanuts (which had belonged to Pecuchet since his younger days)
flanked on the chimney-piece an earthenware cask on which a peasant sat
astride. Close by, in a straw basket, was a little coin brought up by a
duck.

In front of the bookcase stood a shell chest of drawers trimmed with
plush. The cover of it supported a cat with a mouse in its mouth--a
petrifaction from St. Allyre; a work-box, also of shell work, and on
this box a decanter of brandy contained a Bon Chretien pear.

But the finest thing was a statue of St. Peter in the embrasure of the
window. His right hand, covered with a glove of apple-green colour, was
pressing the key of Paradise. His chasuble, ornamented with
fleurs-de-luce, was azure blue, and his tiara very yellow, pointed like
a pagoda. He had flabby cheeks, big round eyes, a gaping mouth, and a
crooked nose shaped like a trumpet. Above him hung a canopy made of an
old carpet in which you could distinguish two Cupids in a circle of
roses, and at his feet, like a pillar, rose a butter-pot bearing these
words in white letters on a chocolate ground: "Executed in the presence
of H.R.H. the Duke of Angouleme at Noron, 3rd of October, 1847."

Pecuchet, from his bed, saw all these things in a row, and sometimes he
went as far as Bouvard's room to lengthen the perspective.

One spot remained empty, exactly opposite to the coat of arms, that
intended for the Renaissance chest. It was not finished; Gorju was still
working at it, jointing the panels in the bakehouse, squaring them or
undoing them.

At eleven o'clock he took his breakfast, chatted after that with Melie,
and often did not make his appearance