n innocent
falsehood, however, of which he himself soon became unconscious, he
asserted that, having been the first to see the insurgents, he had set
about striking the bell, in order to sound the alarm, so that, but for
him, the national guards would have been massacred. This doubled his
importance. His achievement was declared prodigious. People spoke of him
now as "Monsieur Isidore, don't you know? the gentleman who sounded
the tocsin with a hammer!" Although the sentence was somewhat lengthy,
Granoux would willingly have accepted it as a title of nobility; and
from that day forward he never heard the word "hammer" pronounced
without imagining it to be some delicate flattery.

While the corpses were being removed, Aristide came to look at them. He
examined them on all sides, sniffing and looking inquisitively at
their faces. His eyes were bright, and he had a sharp expression of
countenance. In order to see some wound the better he even lifted up the
blouse of one corpse with the very hand which on the previous day had
been suspended in a sling. This examination seemed to convince him and
remove all doubt from his mind. He bit his lips, remained there for a
moment in silence, and then went off for the purpose of hastening the
issue of the "Independant," for which he had written a most important
article. And as he hurried along beside the houses he recalled his
mother's words: "You will see to-morrow!" Well, he had seen now; it was
very clever; it even frightened him somewhat.

In the meantime, Rougon's triumph was beginning to embarrass him. Alone
in Monsieur Garconnet's office, hearing the buzzing of the crowd, he
became conscious of a strange feeling, which prevented him from showing
himself on the balcony. That blood, in which he had stepped, seemed to
have numbed his legs. He wondered what he should do until the evening.
His poor empty brain, upset by the events of the night, sought
desperately for some occupation, some order to give, or some measure to
be taken, which might afford him some distraction. But he could think
about nothing clearly. Whither was Felicite leading him? Was it really
all finished now, or would he still have to kill somebody else? Then
fear again assailed him, terrible doubts arose in his mind, and he
already saw the ramparts broken down on all sides by an avenging army
of the Republicans, when a loud shout: "The insurgents! The insurgents!"
burst forth under the very windows of his room.