; we
explained ourselves fully before him, and he brought us all to one mind.
We mean to wait, and if any disturbance breaks out, we shall see."

"Is that your final word?"

"It is our last word."

"Silence!" cried Sleepinbuff, suddenly, as he listened, balancing himself
on his tottering legs. "It is like the noise of a crowd not far off." A
dull sound was indeed audible, which became every moment more and more
distinct, and at length grew formidable.

"What is that?" said Olivier, in surprise.

"Now," replied Morok, smiling with a sinister air, "I remember the host
told me there was a great ferment in the village against the factory. If
you and your other comrades had separated from Hardy's other workmen, as
I hoped, these people who are beginning to howl would have been for you,
instead of against you."

"This was a trap, then, to set one half of M. Hardy's workmen against the
other!" cried Olivier; "you hoped that we should make common cause with
these people against the factory, and that--"

The young man had not time to finish. A terrible outburst of shouts,
howls, and hisses shook the tavern. At the same instant the door was
abruptly opened, and the host, pale and trembling, hurried into the
chamber, exclaiming: "Gentlemen! do any of you work at M. Hardy's
factory?"

"I do," said Olivier.

"Then you are lost. Here are the Wolves in a body, saying there are
Devourers here from M. Hardy's, and offering them battle--unless the
Devourers will give up the factory, and range themselves on their side."

"It was a trap, there can be no doubt of it!" cried Olivier, looking at
Morok and Sleepinbuff, with a threatening air; "if my mates had come, we
were all to be let in."

"I lay a trap, Olivier?" stammered Jacques Rennepont. "Never!"

"Battle to the Devourers! or let them join the Wolves!" cried the angry
crowd with one voice, as they appeared to invade the house.

"Come!" exclaimed the host. Without giving Olivier time to answer, he
seized him by the arm, and opening a window which led to a roof at no
very great height from the ground, he said to him: "Make your escape by
this window, let yourself slide down, and gain the fields; it is time."

As the young workman hesitated, the host added, with a look of terror:

"Alone, against a couple of hundred, what can you do? A minute more, and
you are lost. Do you not hear them? They have entered the yard; they are
coming up."

Indeed, at this moment, the groa