Aunt Grédel did not take this view. She came to see us the morning after
the scene in the café, when all the town was discussing the great news,
and began at once, "So it seems the villain has run away from his
island?"

Both M. Goulden and I were anxious to avoid a dispute, for Aunt Grédel
was really angry, and she couldn't leave the subject.

M. Goulden admitted that he preferred Napoleon to the Bourbons, with
their nobles and missionary priests, because the emperor was bound to
respect the national property, whereas the later would have destroyed
all that the Revolution had accomplished. "Still, I am now, and always
shall be till death, for the Republic and the rights of man," M. Goulden
concluded.

The old gentleman took his hat and went out to escape further argument,
and Aunt Grédel turned to me and told me that M. Goulden was an old fool
and always had been, and that I should have to go to Switzerland now,
unless Buonaparte was taken before he reached Paris.

In the evening, however, when Aunt Grédel had gone, and we three were
together, Catherine said quietly, "M. Goulden is right; he knows more
about these things than my mother does, and we will always listen to his
advice."

I thought to myself, "Yes, that's all very well; but it will be a
horrible thing to have to put on one's knapsack again and be off. I
would rather be in Switzerland than in Leipzig."