f Quiquendone fell to the earth]

What had happened?

Something very simple, as was soon learned; the gasworks had just
blown up. During the absence of the doctor and his assistant,
some careless mistake had no doubt been made. It is not known how
or why a communication had been established between the reservoir
which contained the oxygen and that which enclosed the hydrogen.
An explosive mixture had resulted from the union of these two
gases, to which fire had accidentally been applied.

This changed everything; but when the army got upon its feet
again, Doctor Ox and his assistant Ygene had disappeared.

CHAPTER XVI.

IN WHICH THE INTELLIGENT READER SEES THAT HE HAS GUESSED CORRECTLY,
DESPITE ALL THE AUTHOR'S PRECAUTIONS.

After the explosion, Quiquendone immediately became the peaceable,
phlegmatic, and Flemish town it formerly was.

After the explosion, which indeed did not cause a very lively
sensation, each one, without knowing why, mechanically took his
way home, the burgomaster leaning on the counsellor's arm, the
advocate Schut going arm in arm with Custos the doctor, Frantz
Niklausse walking with equal familiarity with Simon Collaert,
each going tranquilly, noiselessly, without even being conscious
of what had happened, and having already forgotten Virgamen and
their revenge. The general returned to his confections, and his
aide-de-camp to the barley-sugar.

Thus everything had become calm again; the old existence had been
resumed by men and beasts, beasts and plants; even by the tower
of Oudenarde gate, which the explosion--these explosions are
sometimes astonishing--had set upright again!

And from that time never a word was spoken more loudly than
another, never a discussion took place in the town of Quiquendone.
There were no more politics, no more clubs, no more trials, no
more policemen! The post of the Commissary Passauf became once
more a sinecure, and if his salary was not reduced, it was because
the burgomaster and the counsellor could not make up their minds
to decide upon it.

From time to time, indeed, Passauf flitted, without any one
suspecting it, through the dreams of the inconsolable Tatanemance.

As for Frantz's rival, he generously abandoned the charming Suzel
to her lover, who hastened to wed her five or six years after
these events.

And as for Madame Van Tricasse, she died ten years later, at the
proper time, and the burgomaster married Mademoiselle Pelagie Van
T