of place annoyed him, and when they talked
about menhirs and barrows which they calculated on seeing: "I know
better ones," said he to them; "in Algeria, in the South, near the
sources of Bou-Mursoug, you meet quantities of them." He then gave a
description of a tomb which chanced to be open right in front of him,
and which contained a skeleton squatting like an ape with its two arms
around its legs.

Larsoneur, when they informed him of the circumstance, would not believe
a word of it.

Bouvard sifted the matter, and started the question again.

How does it happen that the monuments of the Gauls are shapeless,
whereas these same Gauls were civilised in the time of Julius Caesar? No
doubt they were traceable to a more ancient people.

Such a hypothesis, in Larsoneur's opinion, betrayed a lack of
patriotism.

No matter; there is nothing to show that these monuments are the work of
Gauls. "Show us a text!"

The Academician was displeased, and made no reply; and they were very
glad of it, so much had the Druids bored them.

If they did not know what conclusion to arrive at as to earthenware and
as to Celticism, it was because they were ignorant of history,
especially the history of France.

The work of Anquetil was in their library; but the series of "do-nothing
kings" amused them very little. The villainy of the mayors of the Palace
did not excite their indignation, and they gave Anquetil up, repelled by
the ineptitude of his reflections.

Then they asked Dumouchel, "What is the best history of France?"

Dumouchel subscribed, in their names, to a circulating library, and
forwarded to them the work of Augustin Thierry, together with two
volumes of M. de Genoude.

According to Genoude, royalty, religion, and the national
assemblies--here are "the principles" of the French nation, which go
back to the Merovingians. The Carlovingians fell away from them. The
Capetians, being in accord with the people, made an effort to maintain
them. Absolute power was established under Louis XIII., in order to
conquer Protestantism, the final effort of feudalism; and '89 is a
return to the constitution of our ancestors.

Pecuchet admired his ideas. They excited Bouvard's pity, as he had read
Augustin Thierry first: "What trash you talk with your French nation,
seeing that France did not exist! nor the national assemblies! and the
Carlovingians usurped nothing at all! and the kings did not set free the
communes! Read for your