said, "What an excitement there is, what a
rush! It is easy to see that there is another spirit in the land.
Nobody is marching now with candles in his hand and a surplice on his
back."

He seemed to be satisfied, and that proved how much all these
ceremonies had annoyed him. At last about eight o'clock it was
necessary to set about our work again, and Catherine went out as usual
to buy our butter and eggs and vegetables for the week. At ten o'clock
she came back again.

"Oh! Heavens!" said she, "everything is topsy-turvy." And then she
related how the half-pay officers were promenading with their
sword-canes, with the Commandant Margarot in their midst, that on the
square, in the market, in the church, and around the stands, everywhere
the peasants and citizens were shaking hands and taking snuff together,
and saying, "Ah! now trade is brisk again."

And she told us also that during the night proclamations had been
posted up at the town-house and on the three doors of the church, and
even against the pillars of the market, but that the gendarmes had torn
them down early in the morning, in fact, that everything was in
commotion. Father Goulden had risen from the counter in order to
listen to her, and I turned round on my chair and thought:

"All that is good, very good, but at this rate your leave of absence
will soon be recalled. Everything is moving and you must also move,
Joseph! Instead of remaining here quietly with your wife, you will
have to take your cartridge-box and knapsack and musket and two
packages of cartridges on your back."

As I looked at Catherine, who did not think of the bad side of affairs,
Weissenfels, Lutzen, and Leipzig passed through my mind, and I was
quite melancholy. While we were all so sober, the door opened and Aunt
Gredel walked in. At first you would have thought she was quite
composed.

"Good-morning, Mr. Goulden; good-morning, my children," said she,
putting down her basket behind the stove.

"Are you well too, Mother Gredel?" asked Mr. Goulden.

"Ah! well! well!" said she.

I saw that she had set her teeth, and that two red spots burned on her
cheeks. She crammed her hair which was hanging down over her ears,
with a single thrust into her cap, and looked at us one after the other
with her gray eyes to see what we thought, and then she commenced.

"It seems that the rascal has escaped from his island."

"Of what rascal do you speak?" asked Mr. Goulden calmly.