entleman began to feel quite a glow of martial ardour
when Pierre informed him that he had come to recruit his services for
the purpose of saving Plassans. These three saviours then took council
together. They each resolved to go and rouse their friends, and appoint
a meeting at the cart-shed, the secret arsenal of the reactionary
party. Meantime Rougon constantly bethought himself of Felicite's wild
gestures, which seemed to betoken danger somewhere. Granoux, assuredly
the most foolish of the three, was the first to suggest that there must
be some Republicans left in the town. This proved a flash of light,
and Rougon, with a feeling of conviction, reflected: "There must be
something of Macquart's doing under all this."

An hour or so later the friends met again in the cart-shed, which was
situated in a very lonely spot. They had glided stealthily from door to
door, knocking and ringing as quietly as possible, and picking up all
the men they could. However, they had only succeeded in collecting some
forty, who arrived one after the other, creeping along in the dark, with
the pale and drowsy countenances of men who had been violently startled
from their sleep. The cart-shed, let to a cooper, was littered with old
hoops and broken casks, of which there were piles in every corner. The
guns were stored in the middle, in three long boxes. A taper, stuck on
a piece of wood, illumined the strange scene with a flickering glimmer.
When Rougon had removed the covers of the three boxes, the spectacle
became weirdly grotesque. Above the fire-arms, whose barrels shown with
a bluish, phosphorescent glitter, were outstretched necks and heads that
bent with a sort of secret fear, while the yellow light of the taper
cast shadows of huge noses and locks of stiffened hair upon the walls.

However, the reactionary forces counted their numbers, and the smallness
of the total filled them with hesitation. They were only thirty-nine all
told, and this adventure would mean certain death for them. A father
of a family spoke of his children; others, without troubling themselves
about excuses, turned towards the door. Then, however, two fresh
conspirators arrived, who lived in the neighbourhood of the Town
Hall, and knew for certain that there were not more than about twenty
Republicans still at the mayor's. The band thereupon deliberated afresh.
Forty-one against twenty--these seemed practicable conditions. So the
arms were distributed amid a lit