thing so ridiculous in the General's fury that
Angelot could scarcely help laughing in his face as he called out in
answer, "When the cows are gone, monsieur, if you ask me civilly! I had
to take it, or you would have struck me, and that was out of the
question."

Even as he spoke, the cattle were coming. The lane was filled with a
solid mass of padding feet, panting hides, low heads, and long fierce
horns. An old bull of unfriendly aspect led the way, and one or two
younger bulls came pushing and lowing among the quieter cows. Behind the
large horned creatures came a few goats and sheep; then a dog, sharply
barking, and a woman, shouting and flourishing her stick. But in this
narrow space she had no control over the herd, which poured along like
water in a stream's bed, irresistible, unresisted. They knew their own
way home from pasture to the yards at La Mariniere. This was their own
road, worn hollow by no trampling but theirs and that of their
ancestors. Anything or anybody they happened to meet always drew aside
to let them pass, and they were not as a rule ill-tempered.

General Ratoneau thought he could ride through them, and spurred his
restless horse, fresh from Monsieur Joseph's corn, straight at the
wedged heads and shoulders of the advancing herd. The horse plunged,
shied, tried to bolt; and there were a few moments of inextricable
confusion. Angelot shouted to the woman in charge of the cows; she
screamed to the dog, which dived among them, barking. Frightened, they
scrambled and crushed together so that Angelot was pressed up by their
broad sides against the bank, and only lifted himself out of their way
by climbing to the trunk of a tree. The sun was setting; the dazzling
light, in a sky all gold and red and purple, lay right across the lane:
the General's uniform, his horse's smart trappings, flashed and swayed
above the brown mass for a moment or two as it pushed down the slope.
Then the horse fell, either slipping on a stone or pushed over by the
cattle, but fortunately not under their feet. He and his master rolled
over together into the briars on the farther side of the lane, and there
lay struggling till the beasts had crowded by, hurrying on past the rest
of the party, drawn prudently aside in the shelter of the bank.

As soon as they were gone, the Prefect and the gendarmes rode up to help
Angelot, who had already pulled the General out of the briars, unhurt,
except by scratches. The horse had a