the young notary.

"Oh!" said Pigoult, on whose forehead the perspiration, which had not
dried, bore testimony to his efforts, "Simon has just told some news
that made them all unanimous. Except five persons,--Poupart, my
grandfather, Mollot, Sinot, and I,--all present swore, as at the Jeu
de Paume, to employ every means to promote the triumph of Simon
Giguet, of whom I have made a mortal enemy. Oh! we got warm, I can
tell you! However, I led the Giguets to fulminate against the
Gondrevilles. That puts the old count on my side. No later than
to-morrow he will hear what the _soi-disant_ patriots of Arcis have
said about him and his corruptions and his infamies, to free their
necks, as they called it, of his yoke."

"Unanimous, were they?" said Olivier Vinet, laughing.

"Unanimous, _to-day_," remarked Monsieur Martener.

"Oh!" exclaimed Pigoult, "the general sentiment of the electors is for
one of their own townsmen. Whom can you oppose to Simon Giguet,--a man
who has just spent two hours in explaining the word _progress_."

"Take old Grevin!" cried the sub-prefect.

"He has no such ambition," replied Pigoult. "But we must first of all
consult the Comte de Gondreville. Look, look!" he added; "see the
attentions with which Simon is taking him that gilded booby,
Beauvisage."

And he pointed to the candidate, who was holding the mayor by the arm