drey addressed the following admonition
to Captain Toussaint Gilles, who strove in vain to escape from his
hands.

"'I well know, Mr Innkeeper, that you have long been in the habit of
speaking against me and my nephew, and hitherto I have treated your
insolence with the contempt it merited. But though I care nothing for
your bark, I shall not allow you to bite. Bear this in mind: to-day I
pardon you, but if you value your mustaches and your ears, don't begin
again.'

"So saying, M. de Vaudrey destroyed, by an irresistible shock, the
equilibrium of Toussaint Gilles, and hurled him to the ground to keep
company with Gautherot and Laverdun.

"Of the five principal members of the club, three were thus humbled to
the dust; the fourth, singed like a fowl in preparation for the spit,
was in no condition to show fight; Vermot, the turbulent clerk of the
justice of peace, who completed this political quintet, had long since
abandoned the field of battle. On beholding the discomfiture of their
leaders, the rioters stared at each other with a disconcerted air.

"'_Messieurs les bourgeois de Chateaugiron_,' said Monsieur de Vaudrey,
looking round at the crowd with a mixture of calm assurance and ironical
contempt--'I thank you, in my nephew's name, for having burned the
absurd tree which obstructed the entrance to his chateau; you planted
it, and it was for you to destroy it.'

"'It was not done on purpose,' said a bystander, with great _naivete_.

"'We will plant another,' cried a voice from the crowd.

"'In the same place?' asked the baron.

"'Yes, in the same place,' replied the voice.

"'Then I beg to be invited to the ceremony,' said M. de Vaudrey, with
imperturbable phlegm; 'some of you seem to have very confused notions
with regard to other people's property, and I undertake to complete your
education.'

"At that moment the poplar, into whose heart the flames had eaten, gave
a loud crack, quivered above the heads of the startled crowd, and broke
in the middle. The lower half remained erect, whilst the upper portion
fell blazing upon the ruins of the triumphal arch, as, in a duel, a
desperately wounded combatant falls expiring upon the body of his slain
foe.

"Toussaint Gilles, Gautherot, and Laverdun had all risen from their
recumbent attitude, but none of them showed a disposition to recommence
the engagement. The butcher wiped his bleeding muzzle with a cotton
handkerchief, and seemed to count, with the end o