e room seemed fraught
with religious solemnity, which inspired Rougon with exquisite delight.
Everything, even the dust and the old documents lying in the corners,
seemed to exhale an odour of incense, which rose to his dilated
nostrils. This room, with its faded hangings redolent of petty
transactions, all the trivial concerns of a third-rate municipality,
became a temple of which he was the god.

Nevertheless, amidst his rapture, he started nervously at every shout
from Macquart. The words aristocrat and lamp-post, the threats of
hanging that form the refrain of the famous revolutionary song, the "Ca
Ira," reached him in angry bursts, interrupting his triumphant dream in
the most disagreeable manner. Always that man! And his dream, in which
he saw Plassans at his feet, ended with a sudden vision of the Assize
Court, of the judges, the jury, and the public listening to Macquart's
disgraceful revelations; the story of the fifty thousand francs, and
many other unpleasant matters; or else, while enjoying the softness of
Monsieur Garconnet's arm-chair, he suddenly pictured himself suspended
from a lamp-post in the Rue de la Banne. Who would rid him of that
wretched fellow? At last Antoine fell asleep, and then Pierre enjoyed
ten good minutes' pure ecstasy.

Roudier and Granoux came to rouse him from this state of beatitude.
They had just returned from the prison, whither they had taken the
insurgents. Daylight was coming on apace, the town would soon be awake,
and it was necessary to take some decisive step. Roudier declared that,
before anything else, it would be advisable to issue a proclamation to
the inhabitants. Pierre was, at that moment, reading the one which the
insurgents had left upon the table.

"Why," cried he, "this will suit us admirably! There are only a few
words to be altered."

And, in fact, a quarter of an hour sufficed for the necessary changes,
after which Granoux read out, in an earnest voice: "Inhabitants of
Plassans--The hour of resistance has struck, the reign of order has
returned----"

It was decided that the proclamation should be printed at the office of
the "Gazette," and posted at all the street corners.

"Now listen," said Rougon; "we'll go to my house; and in the meantime
Monsieur Granoux will assemble here the members of the municipal council
who had not been arrested and acquaint them with the terrible events of
the night." Then he added, majestically: "I am quite prepared to accep