You! You, certainly. Who denies it?" the stout man said. "But----"

"But what? But what?"

"We would know what you think we are, that we can bear this suspense."

"I will tell you what I think you are!"

"By your leave?"

"_A fat hog!_" the Syndic shrieked. "And as brainless as a hog fit for
the butcher! That for you! and your like!"

And before the astounded Baudichon, whose brain was slow to take in new
facts, had grasped the full enormity of the insult flung at him, the
Syndic was a dozen paces distant. He had eased his mind, and that for
the moment was much; though he still ground his teeth, and, had
Baudichon followed him, would have struck the Councillor without thought
or hesitation. The pigs! The hogs! To press him with their wretched
affairs: to press him at this moment when the grave yawned at his feet,
and the coffin opened for him!

To be sure he might now do with Basterga as he pleased without thought
or drawback; but for their benefit--never! He paused at his door, and
cast a haggard glance up and down; at the irregular line of gables
which he had known from childhood, the steep, red roofs, the cobble
pavement, the bakers' signs that hung here and there and with the wide
eaves darkened the way; and he cursed all he saw in the frenzy of his
rage. Let Basterga, Savoy, d'Albigny do their worst! What was it to him?
Why should he move? He went into his house despairing.

Unto this last hour a little hope had shone through the darkness. At
times the odds had seemed to be against him, at one time Heaven itself
had seemed to declare itself his foe. But the _remedium_ had existed,
the thing was still possible, the light burned, though distant, feeble,
flickering. He had told himself that he despaired; but he had not known
what real despair was until this moment, until he sat, as he saw now,
among the Dead Sea splendours of his parlour, the fingers of his right
hand drumming on the arm of the abbot's chair, his shaggy eyelids
drooping over his brooding eyes.

Ah, God! If he had stayed to take the stuff when it lay in his power! If
he had refused to open until he held it in his hand! If, even after that
act of folly, he had refused to go until she gave it him! How
inconceivable his madness seemed now, his fear of scandal, his thought
of others! Others? There was one of whom he dared not think; for when he
did his head began to tremble on his shoulders; and he had to clutch the
arms of the chair to stay the