country-side, revived the latent and very general belief in the
ferocity of his character.

One evening, coming away from Troyes in company with several peasants,
among whom was the farmer at Cinq-Cygne, he let fall a paper on the
main road; the farmer, who was walking behind him, stooped and picked
it up. Michu turned round, saw the paper in the man's hands, pulled a
pistol from his belt and threatened the farmer (who knew how to read)
to blow his brains out if he opened the paper. Michu's action was so
sudden and violent, the tone of his voice so alarming, his eyes blazed
so savagely, that the men about him turned cold with fear. The farmer
of Cinq-Cygne was already his enemy. Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne, the
man's employer, was a cousin of the Simeuse brothers; she had only one
farm left for her maintenance and was now residing at her chateau of
Cinq-Cygne. She lived for her cousins the twins, with whom she had
played in childhood at Troyes and at Gondreville. Her only brother,
Jules de Cinq-Cygne, who emigrated before the twins, died at Mayence,
but by a privilege which was somewhat rare and will be mentioned
later, the name of Cinq-Cygne was not to perish through lack of male
heirs.

This affair between Michu and the farmer made a great noise in the
arrondissement and darkened the already mysterious shadows which
seemed to veil him. Nor was it the only circumstance which made him
feared. A few months after this scene the citizen Marion, present
owner of the Gondreville estate, came to inspect it with the citizen
Malin. Rumor said that Marion was about to sell the property to his
companion, who had profited by political events and had just been
appointed on the Council of State by the First Consul, in return for
his services on the 18th Brumaire. The shrewd heads of the little town