g the
soil with her crooked fingers, as though she were trying to make a hole
in which to hide herself.

The doctor, much affected, said in a low tone:

"Poor old woman!"

Renardet felt a strange sensation. Then he gave vent to a sort of loud
sneeze, and, drawing his handkerchief from his pocket, he began to weep
internally, coughing, sobbing and blowing his nose noisily.

He stammered:

"Damn--damn--damned pig to do this! I would like to seem him
guillotined."

Principe reappeared with his hands empty. He murmured:

"I have found nothing, M'sieu le Maire, nothing at all anywhere."

The mayor, alarmed, replied in a thick voice, drowned in tears:

"What is that you could not find?"

"The little girl's clothes."

"Well--well--look again, and find them--or you''ll have to
answer to me."

The man, knowing that the mayor would not brook opposition, set forth
again with hesitating steps, casting a timid side glance at the corpse.

Distant voices were heard under the trees, a confused sound, the noise of
an approaching crowd, for Mederic had, in the course of his rounds,
carried the news from door to door. The people of the neighborhood, dazed
at first, had gossiped about it in the street, from one threshold to
another. Then they gathered together. They talked over, discussed and
commented on the event for some minutes and had now come to see for
themselves.

They arrived in groups, a little faltering and uneasy through fear of the
first impression of such a scene on their minds. When they saw the body
they stopped, not daring to advance, and speaking low. Then they grew
bolder, went on a few steps, stopped again, advanced once more, and
presently formed around the dead girl, her mother, the doctor and
Renardet a close circle, restless and noisy, which crowded forward at the
sudden impact of newcomers. And now they touched the corpse. Some of them
even bent down to feel it with their fingers. The doctor kept them back.
But the mayor, waking abruptly out of his torpor, flew into a rage, and
seizing Dr. Labarbe's stick, flung himself on his townspeople,
stammering:

"Clear out--clear out--you pack of brutes--clear out!"

And in a second the crowd of sightseers had fallen back two hundred
paces.

Mother La Roque had risen to a sitting posture and now remained weeping,
with her hands clasped over her face.

The crowd was discussing the affair, and young lads' eager eyes curiously
scrutinized this nude youn