the Grande-Place at the corner of the rue de Brienne. This worthy
landlord, named Poupart, had married the sister of a man-servant
attached to the Comtesse de Cinq-Cygne, the well-known Gothard, one of
the actors and witnesses in the Simeuse affair.

Poupart, though a most devoted adherent of the Cinq-Cygne family, had
been sounded during the last day or two, by Colonel Giguet's valet,
with so much cleverness and perseverance that he thought he was doing
an ill-turn to the Comte de Gondreville, the enemy of the Cinq-Cygnes,
by giving his influence to the election of Simon Giguet; and he was
now conversing on that point with the man who accompanied him, an
apothecary named Fromaget, who, as he did not furnish his wares to the
chateau de Gondreville, desired nothing better than to cabal against
the Kellers.

These two individuals of the lesser bourgeoisie could, in consequence
of their connections, determine a certain number of floating votes,
for they influenced and advised a number of persons to whom the
political opinions of the candidate were a matter of indifference.
Consequently, Simon took possession of Poupart, and delivered the
apothecary Fromaget to his father, who had just come in to make his
bow to the electors.

The sub-engineer of the arrondissement, the secretary of the mayor's
office, four sheriffs, three solicitors, the clerk of the court, and
the clerk of the justice of the peace, the registry-clerk, and the
tax-collector, all officials under government, two doctors, rivals of
Varlet, Grevin's brother-in-law, a miller named Laurent Goussard, the
head of the republicans of Arcis, the two assistant mayors, the
printer and publisher of Arcis, and about a dozen other bourgeois