one another, and I say there can be no choice where there is no
freedom of action."

"He is right," said the sixty auditors.

"Therefore, let us each write two names on a ballot, and the two
gentlemen who are elected will then feel themselves the real choice of
this assembly; they will have the right, conjointly with our honorable
chairman, to pronounce upon the majority when we come to a vote on the
resolutions to be offered. We are here, I think, to promise to a
candidate the fullest support that each can give at the coming primary
meeting of all the electors of the arrondissement. This act is
therefore, and I so declare it, a grave one. Does it not concern one
four-hundredth part of the governing power,--as our excellent mayor
has lately said with the ready wit that characterizes him and for
which we have so high an appreciation?"

During these remarks Colonel Giguet was cutting a sheet of paper into
strips, and Simon had sent for pens and ink.

This preliminary discussion on forms had already made Simon extremely
uneasy, and had also aroused the attention of the sixty assembled
bourgeois. Presently they began to write their ballots, and the wily
Pigoult contrived to obtain a majority for Monsieur Mollot, the clerk
of the court, and Monsieur Godivet, the registrar. These nominations
were naturally very displeasing to Fromaget, the apothecary, and
Marcelin the solicitor.

"You enable us," said Achille Pigoult, "to manifest our independence.
Therefore you may feel more pride in being rejected than you could