is pretty well known about here."

"The Mayor?"

"Ay."

"But I am the Mayor--I," Grabot answered eagerly, tapping himself on
the breast in the most absurd manner. "Don't you know me, my friend?"

"I never saw you before, to my knowledge," the rascal answered
contemptuously; "and I know this country pretty well. I should think
that you have been crossing St. Brieuc's brook, and forgotten to say
your--"

"Hush!" the stout player interposed with some sharpness. "Let him
alone. LE BON DIEU knows that such a thing may happen to the best of
us."

The Mayor clapped his hand to his head. "Sir," he said almost humbly,
addressing the last speaker, "I seem to know your voice. Your name, if
you please?"

"Fracasse," he answered pleasantly. "I am Mayor of Gol."

"You--Fracasse, Mayor of Gol?" Grabot exclaimed between rage and
terror. "But Fracasse is a tall man. I know him as well as I know my
brother."

The pseudo-Fracasse smiled, but did not contradict him.

The Mayor wiped the moisture from his brow. He had all the
characteristics of an obstinate man; but if there is one thing which I
have found in a long career more true than another, it is that no one
can resist the statements of his fellows. So much, I verily believe,
is this the case, that if ten men maintain black to be white, the
eleventh will presently be brought into their opinion. Besides, the
Mayor had a currish side. He looked piteously from one to another of
us, his cheeks seemed to grow in a moment pale and flabby, and he was
on the point of whimpering, when at the last moment he bethought him of
his servant, and turned to him in a spurt of sudden thankfulness.
"Why, Jehan, man, I had forgotten you," he said. "Are these men mad,
or am I?"

But Jehan, a simple rustic, was in a state of ludicrous bewilderment.
"Dol, master, I don't know," he stuttered, rubbing his head.

"But I am myself," the Mayor cried, in a most ridiculous tone of
remonstrance.

"Dol, and I don't know," the man whimpered. "I do believe that there
is a change in you. I never saw you look the like before. And I never
said any PATER either. Holy saints!" the poor fool continued
piteously, "I wish I were at home. And there, for all I know, my wife
has got another man."

He began to blubber at this; which to us was the most ludicrous
thought, so that it was all we could do to restrain our laughter. But
the Mayor saw things in another light. Shaken by our steady