deeper into a horrid, phantom-haunted nightmare; it was as if he saw a
yawning, gaping gulf before him toward which he was inevitably
tending; it meant that he was suffering himself to be degraded to the
level of the miserable beings by whom he was surrounded, that he was
prostituting his talents and his position as a man of education.

"Hold!" he said abruptly to Chouteau, "what you say is right; there is
truth in it."

And already he had deposited his musket upon a pile of stones, when
Jean, who had tried without success to check the shameful proceedings
of his men, saw what he was doing and hurried toward him.

"Take up your musket, at once! Do you hear me? take it up at once!"

Jean's face had flushed with sudden anger. Meekest and most pacific of
men, always prone to measures of conciliation, his eyes were now
blazing with wrath, his voice spoke with the thunders of authority.
His men had never before seen him in such a state, and they looked at
one another in astonishment.

"Take up your musket at once, or you will have me to deal with!"

Maurice was quivering with anger; he let fall one single word, into
which he infused all the insult that he had at command:

"Peasant!"

"Yes, that's just it; I am a peasant, while you, you, are a gentleman!
And it is for that reason that you are a pig! Yes! a dirty pig! I make