it in force, or Burgundy won't be
Burgundy any longer," said Vaudoyer. "If the gendarmes have sabres we
have scythes, and we'll see what comes of it!"

At half-past four o'clock the great green gate of the former parsonage
turned on its hinges, and the bay horse, led by Jean, was brought round
to the front door. Madame Rigou and Annette came out on the steps and
looked at the little wicker carriage, painted green, with a leathern
hood, where their lord and master was comfortably seated on good
cushions.

"Don't be late home, monsieur," said Annette, with a little pout.

The village folk, already informed of the measures the general proposed
to take, were at their doors or standing in the main street as Rigou
drove by, believing that he was going to Soulanges in their defence.

"Well, Madame Courtecuisse, so our mayor is on his way to protect us,"
remarked an old woman as she knitted; the question of depredating in
the forest was of great interest to her, for her husband sold the stolen
wood at Soulanges.

"Ah! the good man, his heart bleeds to see the way we are treated; he is
as unhappy as we are about it," replied the poor woman, who trembled at
the very name of her husband's creditor, and praised him out of fear.

"And he himself, too,--they've shamefully ill-used him! Good-day,
Monsieur Rigou," said the old knitter to the usurer, who bowed to her
and to his debtor's wife.

As Rigou crossed the Thune, fordable at all seasons, Tonsard came out of
the tavern and met him on the high-road.

"Well, Pere Rigou," he said, "so the Shopman means to make dogs of us?"

"We'll see about that," said the usurer, whipping up his horse.

"He'll protect us," said Tonsard, turning to a group of women and
children who were near him.

"Rigou is thinking as much about you as a cook thinks of the gudgeons he
is frying in his pan," called out Fourchon.

"Take the clapper out of your throat when you are drunk," said Mouche,
pulling his grandfather by the blouse, and tumbling him down on a bank
under a poplar tree. "If that hound of a mayor heard you say that, he'd
never buy any more of your tales."

The truth was that Rigou was hurrying to Soulanges in consequence of the
warning given him by the steward of Les Aigues, which, in his heart, he
regarded as threatening the secret coalition of the valley.

PART II

CHAPTER I. THE LEADING SOCIETY OF SOULANGES

About six kilometres (speaking legally) from Blangy,