He spoke sublimely. It was in the mayor's private room that the president of the Provisional Commission received the deputation from the new town. The gentlemen of the deputation, after paying homage to his patriotism, besought him to forego all resistance. But he, in a loud voice, talked of duty, of his country, of order, of liberty, and various other things. Moreover, he did not wish to compel any one to imitate him; he was simply discharging a duty which his conscience and his heart dictated to him.
'You see, gentlemen, I am alone,' he said in conclusion. 'I will take all the responsibility, so that nobody but myself may be compromised. And if a victim is required I willingly offer myself; I wish to sacrifice my own life for the safety of the inhabitants.'
A notary, the wiseacre of the party, remarked that he was running to certain death.
'I know it,' he resumed solemnly. 'I am prepared!'
The gentlemen looked at each other. Those words 'I am prepared!' filled them with admiration. Decidedly this man was a brave fellow. The notary implored him to call in the aid of the gendarmes; but he replied that the blood of those brave soldiers was precious, and he would not have it shed, except in the last extremity. The deputation slowly withdrew, feeling deeply moved. An hour afterwards, Plassans was speaking of Rougon as of a hero; the most cowardly called him 'an old fool.'
Towards evening, Rougon was much surprised to see Granoux hasten to him. The old almond-dealer threw himself in his arms, calling him 'great man,' and declaring that he would die with him. The words 'I am prepared!' which had just been reported to him by his maid-servant, who had heard it at the greengrocer's, had made him quite enthusiastic. There was charming naivete in the nature of this grotesque, timorous old man. Pierre kept him with him, thinking that he would not be of much consequence. He was even touched by the poor fellow's devotion, and resolved to have him publicly complimented by the prefect, in order to rouse the envy of the other citizens who had so cowardly abandoned him. And so both of them awaited the night in the deserted building.
At the same time Aristide was striding about at home in an uneasy manner. Vuillet's article had astonished him. His father's demeanour stupefied him. He had just caught sight of him at the window, in a white cravat and black frock-coat, so calm at the approach of danger that all his ideas were upset. Yet the insurgents were coming back triumphant, that was the belief of the whole town. But Aristide felt some doubts on the point; he had suspicions of some lugubrious farce. As he did not dare to present himself at his parents' house, he sent his wife thither. And when Angele returned, she said to him, in her drawling voice: 'Your mother expects you; she is not angry at all, she seems rather to be making fun of you. She told me several times that you could just put your sling back in your pocket.'
Aristide felt terribly vexed. However, he ran to the Rue de la Banne, prepared to make the most humble submission. His mother was content to receive him with scornful laughter. 'Ah! my poor fellow,' said she, 'you're certainly not very shrewd.'
'But what can one do in a hole like Plassans!' he angrily retorted. 'On my word of honour, I am becoming a fool here. No news, and everybody shivering! That's what it is to be shut up in these villainous ramparts. Ah! If I had only been able to follow Eugene to Paris!'
Then, seeing that his mother was still smiling, he added bitterly: 'You haven't been very kind to me, mother. I know many things, I do. My brother kept you informed of what was going on, and you have never given me the faintest hint that might have been useful to me.'
'You know that, do you?' exclaimed Felicite, becoming serious and distrustful. 'Well, you're not so foolish as I thought, then. Do you open letters like some one of my acquaintance?'
'No; but I listen at doors,' Aristide replied, with great assurance.
This frankness did not displease the old woman. She began to smile again, and asked more softly: 'Well, then, you blockhead, how is it you didn't rally to us sooner?'
'Ah! that's where it is,' the young man said, with some embarrassment. 'I didn't have much confidence in you. You received such idiots: my father-in-law, Granoux, and the others!- And then, I didn't want to go too far. . . .' He hesitated, and then resumed, with some uneasiness: 'To-day you are at least quite sure of the success of the Coup d'Etat, aren't you?'
'I!' cried Felicite, wounded by her son's doubts; 'no, I'm not sure of anything.'
'And yet you sent word to say that I was to take off my sling!'
'Yes; because all the gentlemen are laughing at you.'
Aristide remained stock still, apparently contemplating one of the flowers of the orange-coloured wall-paper. And his mother felt sudden impatience as she saw him hesitating thus.
'Ah! well,' she said, 'I've come back again to my former opinion; you're not very shrewd. And you think you ought to have had Eugene's letters to read? Why, my poor fellow you would have spoilt everything, with your perpetual vacillation. You never can make up your mind. You are hesitating now.'
'I hesitate?' he interrupted, giving his mother a cold, keen glance. 'Ah! well, you don't know me. I would set the whole town on fire if it were necessary, and I wanted to warm my feet. But, understand me, I've no desire to take the wrong road! I'm tired of eating hard bread, and I hope to play fortune a trick. But I only play for certainties.'
He spoke these words so sharply, with such a keen longing for success, that his mother recognised the cry of her own blood.
'Your father is very brave,' she whispered.
'Yes, I've seen him,' he resumed with a sneer. 'He's got a fine look on him! He reminded me of Leonidas at Thermopylae. Is it you, mother, who have made him cut this figure?'
And he added cheerfully, with a gesture of determination: 'Well, so much the worse! I'm a Bonapartist! Father is not the man to risk the chance of being killed unless it pays him well.'
'You're quite right,' his mother replied; 'I mustn't say anything; but to-morrow you'll see.'
He did not press her, but swore that she would soon have reason to be proud of him; and then he took his departure, while Felicite, feeling her old preference reviving, said to herself at the window, as she watched him going off, that he had the devil's own wit, that she would never have had sufficient courage to let him leave without setting him in the right path.
And now for the third time a night full of anguish fell upon Plassans. The unhappy town was almost at its death-rattle. The citizens hastened home and barricaded their doors with a great clattering of iron bolts and bars. The general feeling seemed to be that, by the morrow, Plassans would no longer exist, that it would either be swallowed up by the earth or would evaporate in the atmosphere. When Rougon went home to dine, he found the streets completely deserted. This desolation made him sad and melancholy. As a result of this, when he had finished his meal, he felt some slight misgivings, and asked his wife if it were necessary to follow up the insurrection that Macquart was preparing.
'Nobody will run us down now,' said he. 'You should have seen those gentlemen of the new town, how they bowed to me! It seems to me quite unnecessary now to kill anybody-eh? What do you think? We shall feather our nest without that.'
'Ah! what a nerveless fellow you are!' Felicite cried angrily. 'It was your own idea to do it, and now you back out! I tell you that you'll never do anything without me! Go then, go your own way. Do you think the Republicans would spare you if they got hold of you?'
Rougon went back to the town-hall, and prepared for the ambush. Granoux was very useful to him. He despatched him with orders to the different posts guarding the ramparts. The national guards were to repair to the town-hall in small detachments, as secretly as possible. Roudier, that bourgeois who was quite out of his element in the provinces, and who would have spoilt the whole affair with his humanitarian preaching, was not even informed of it. Towards eleven o'clock, the court-yard of the town-hall was full of national guards. Then Rougon frightened them; he told them that the Republicans still remaining in Plassans were about to attempt a desperate
