re! Where is my signature?"

That was just the question; where was his signature? Leon recognised
that he was in a hole; but his spirit rose with the occasion, and he
blustered nobly, tossing back his curls. The Commissary played up to him
in the character of tyrant; and as the one leaned farther forward, the
other leaned farther back--majesty confronting fury. The audience had
transferred their attention to this new performance, and listened with
that silent gravity common to all Frenchmen in the neighbourhood of the
Police. Elvira had sat down, she was used to these distractions, and it
was rather melancholy than fear that now oppressed her.

"Another word," cried the Commissary, "and I arrest you."

"Arrest me?" shouted Leon. "I defy you!"

"I am the Commissary of Police," said the official.

Leon commanded his feelings, and replied, with great delicacy of
innuendo--

"So it would appear."

The point was too refined for Castel-le-Gachis; it did not raise a
smile; and as for the Commissary, he simply bade the singer follow him
to his office, and directed his proud footsteps towards the door. There
was nothing for it but to obey. Leon did so with a proper pantomime of
indifference, but it was a leek to eat, and there was no denying it.

The Maire had slipped out and was already waiting at the Commissary's
door. Now the Maire, in France, is the refuge of the oppressed. He
stands between his people and the boisterous rigours of the Police. He
can sometimes understand what is said to him; he is not always puffed up
beyond measure by his dignity. 'Tis a thing worth the knowledge of
travellers. When all seems over, and a man has made up his mind to
injustice, he has still, like the heroes of romance, a little bugle at
his belt whereon to blow; and the Maire, a comfortable _deus ex
machina_, may still descend to deliver him from the minions of the law.
The Maire of Castel-le-Gachis, although inaccessible to the charms of
music as retailed by the Berthelinis, had no hesitation whatever as to
the rights of the matter. He instantly fell foul of the Commissary in
very high terms, and the Commissary, pricked by this humiliation,
accepted battle on the point of fact. The argument lasted some little
while with varying success, until at length victory inclined so plainly
to the Commissary's side that the Maire was fain to re-assert himself by
an exercise of authority. He had been out-argued, but he was still the
Maire. And