As soon as this answer of old Grevin had circulated through Arcis, a
reaction against him set in. Although for thirty years this provincial
Aristides possessed the confidence of the whole town,--having been
mayor of Arcis from 1804 to 1814 and again during the Hundred Days,
--and although the Opposition had accepted him as their leader until
the triumph of 1830, at which period he refused the honors of the
mayoralty on the ground of his great age, and finally, although the
town, in order to manifest its affection for him, elected his
son-in-law, Monsieur Beauvisage, mayor in his stead, it now revolted
against him and some young striplings went so far as to talk of his
dotage. The partisans of Simon Giguet then turned to Phileas Beauvisage,
the mayor, and won him over the more easily to their side because,
without having quarrelled with his father-in-law, he assumed an
independence of him which had ended in coldness,--an independence that
the sly old notary allowed him to maintain, seeing in it an excellent
means of action on the town of Arcis.

The mayor, questioned the evening before in the open street, declared
positively that he should cast his vote for the first-comer on the
list of eligibles rather than give it to Charles Keller, for whom,
however, he had a high esteem.

"Arcis shall be no longer a rotten borough!" he said, "or I'll
emigrate to Paris."

Flatter the passions of the moment and you will always be a hero, even
at Arcis-sur-Aube.

"Monsieur le maire," said everybody, "gives noble proof of his