dog
to the stable pig, from the canary in its cage to the turkey
of the back-court. It must be said that in ordinary times these
animals were not less phlegmatic than their masters. The dogs and
cats vegetated rather than lived. They never betrayed a wag of
pleasure nor a snarl of wrath. Their tails moved no more than if
they had been made of bronze. Such a thing as a bite or scratch
from any of them had not been known from time immemorial. As for
mad dogs, they were looked upon as imaginary beasts, like the
griffins and the rest in the menagerie of the apocalypse.

But what a change had taken place in a few months, the smallest
incidents of which we are trying to reproduce! Dogs and cats
began to show teeth and claws. Several executions had taken place
after reiterated offences. A horse was seen, for the first time,
to take his bit in his teeth and rush through the streets of
Quiquendone; an ox was observed to precipitate itself, with
lowered horns, upon one of his herd; an ass was seen to turn
himself ever, with his legs in the air, in the Place Saint
Ernuph, and bray as ass never brayed before; a sheep, actually a
sheep, defended valiantly the cutlets within him from the
butcher's knife.

Van Tricasse, the burgomaster, was forced to make police
regulations concerning the domestic animals, as, seized with
lunacy, they rendered the streets of Quiquendone unsafe.

But alas! if the animals were mad, the men were scarcely less so.
No age was spared by the scourge. Babies soon became quite
insupportable, though till now so easy to bring up; and for the
first time Honore Syntax, the judge, was obliged to apply the rod
to his youthful offspring.

There was a kind of insurrection at the high school, and the
dictionaries became formidable missiles in the classes. The
scholars would not submit to be shut in, and, besides, the
infection took the teachers themselves, who overwhelmed the boys
and girls with extravagant tasks and punishments.

Another strange phenomenon occurred. All these Quiquendonians, so
sober before, whose chief food had been whipped creams, committed
wild excesses in their eating and drinking. Their usual regimen
no longer sufficed. Each stomach was transformed into a gulf, and
it became necessary to fill this gulf by the most energetic
means. The consumption of the town was trebled. Instead of two
repasts they had six. Many cases of indigestion were reported.
The Counsellor Niklausse could not satis