re the
dominant ones, they did not manifest themselves to an equal degree
in all present. The shades were graduated according to the sex, age,
character, we may almost say, the social positions of the hearers. The
wine merchant, Jean Picot, the principal personage in the late event,
recognizing at first sight by his dress, weapons, mask, one of the
men who had stopped the coach on the preceding day, was at first sight
stupefied, then little by little, as he grasped the purport of this
mysterious brigand's visit to him, he had passed from stupefaction to
joy, through the intermediate phases separating these two emotions. His
bag of gold was beside him, yet he seemingly dared not touch it; perhaps
he feared that the instant his hand went forth toward it, it would melt
like the dream-gold which vanishes during that period of progressive
lucidity which separates profound slumber from thorough awakening.

The stout gentleman of the diligence and his wife had displayed, like
their travelling companions, the most absolute and complete terror.
Seated to the left of Jean Picot, when the bandit approached the wine
merchant, the husband, in the vain hope of maintaining a respectable
distance between himself and the Companion of Jehu, pushed his chair
back against that of his wife, who, yielding to the pressure, in turn
endeavored to push back hers. But as the next chair was occupied by
citizen Alfred de Barjols, who had no reason to fear these men whom
he had just praised so highly, the chair of the stout man's wife
encountered an obstacle in the immovability of the young noble; so,
as at Marengo, eight or nine months later, when the general in command
judged it time to resume the offensive, the retrograde movement was
arrested.

As for him--we are speaking of the citizen Alfred de Barjols--his
attitude, like that of the abbe who had given the Biblical explanation
about Jehu, King of Israel, and his mission from Elisha, his attitude,
we say, was that of a man who not only experiences no fear, but who even
expects the event in question, however unexpected it may be. His lips
wore a smile as he watched the masked man, and had the guests not been
so preoccupied with the two principal actors in this scene, they might
have remarked the almost imperceptible sign exchanged between the eyes
of the bandit and the young noble, and transmitted instantly by the
latter to the abbe.

The two travellers whom we introduced to the table d'hote,