strength. The aides-de-camp, who had remained in the carriage until
then, now alighted, and asked to be shown to the marshal; but Moulin
ordered the porter to conceal them in an outhouse. Vernet taking one in
each hand, dragged them off despite their struggles, and pushing them
behind some empty barrels, over which he threw an old piece of carpet,
said to them in a voice as solemn as if he were a prophet, "If you move,
you are dead men," and left them. The aides-de-camp remained there
motionless and silent.

At that moment M. de Saint-Chamans, prefect of Avignon, who had arrived
in town at five o'clock in the morning, came out into the courtyard. By
this time the crowd was smashing the windows and breaking in the street
door. The square was full to overflowing, everywhere threatening cries
were heard, and above all the terrible zaou, which from moment to moment
became more full of menace. M. Moulin saw that if they could not hold out
until the troops under Major Lambot arrived, all was lost; he therefore
told Vernet to settle the business of those who were breaking in the
door, while he would take charge of those who were trying to get in at
the window. Thus these two men, moved by a common impulse and of equal
courage, undertook to dispute with a howling mob the possession of the
blood for which it thirsted.

Both dashed to their posts, one in the hall, the other in the
dining-room, and found door and windows already smashed, and several men
in the house. At the sight of Vernet, with whose immense strength they
were acquainted, those in the hall drew back a step, and Vernet, taking
advantage of this movement, succeeded in ejecting them and in securing
the door once more. Meantime M. Moulin, seizing his double-barrelled
gun, which stood in the chimney-corner, pointed it at five men who had
got into the dining-room, and threatened to fire if they did not