y that he went each month to
purchase a stock at a neighbouring town, where he pretended it was
sold cheaper. The truth, however, was that he supplied himself from
the osier-grounds of the Viorne on dark nights. A rural policeman even
caught him once in the very act, and Antoine underwent a few days'
imprisonment in consequence. It was from that time forward that he posed
in the town as a fierce Republican. He declared that he had been quietly
smoking his pipe by the riverside when the rural policeman arrested him.
And he added: "They would like to get me out of the way because they
know what my opinions are. But I'm not afraid of them, those rich
scoundrels."

At last, at the end of ten years of idleness, Antoine considered that
he had been working too hard. His constant dream was to devise some
expedient by which he might live at his ease without having to do
anything. His idleness would never have rested content with bread and
water; he was not like certain lazy persons who are willing to put up
with hunger provided they can keep their hands in their pockets. He
liked good feeding and nothing to do. He talked at one time of taking a
situation as servant in some nobleman's house in the Saint-Marc quarter.
But one of his friends, a groom, frightened him by describing the
exacting ways of his masters. Finally Macquart, sick of his baskets,
and seeing the time approach when he would be compelled to purchase
the requisite osier, was on the point of selling himself as an army
substitute and resuming his military life, which he preferred a thousand
times to that of an artisan, when he made the acquaintance of a woman,
an acquaintance which modified his plans.

Josephine Gavaudan, who was known throughout the town by the familiar
diminutive of Fine, was a tall, strapping wench of about thirty. With
a square face of masculine proportions, and a few terribly long hairs
about her chin and lips, she was cited as a doughty woman, one who could
make the weight of her fist felt. Her broad shoulders and huge arms
consequently inspired the town urchins with marvellous respect; and they
did not even dare to smile at her moustache. Notwithstanding all this,
Fine had a faint voice, weak and clear like that of a child. Those who
were acquainted with her asserted that she was as gentle as a lamb, in
spite of her formidable appearance. As she was very hard-working, she
might have put some money aside if she had not had a partiality for
l