well, in spite of my hatred of the German and my desire for revenge, I do
not detest them, I do not hate them by instinct as I hate the English,
the real, hereditary natural enemy of the Normans; for the English
traversed this soil inhabited by my ancestors, plundered and ravaged it
twenty times, and my aversion to this perfidious people was transmitted
to me at birth by my father. See, here is the statue of the general."

"What general?"

"General Blaumont! We had to have a statue. We are not 'the proud people
of Gisors' for nothing! So we discovered General de Blaumont. Look in
this bookseller's window."

He drew me towards the bookstore, where about fifteen red, yellow and
blue volumes attracted the eye. As I read the titles, I began to laugh
idiotically. They read:

Gisors, its origin, its future, by M. X. . . ., member of several learned
societies; History of Gisors, by the Abbe A . . .; Gasors from the time
of Caesar to the present day, by M. B. . . ., Landowner; Gisors and its
environs, by Doctor C. D. . . .; The Glories of Gisors, by a Discoverer.

"My friend," resumed Marambot, "not a year, not a single year, you
understand, passes without a fresh history of Gisors being published
here; we now have twenty-three."

"And the glories of Gisors?" I asked.

"Oh, I will not mention them all, only the principal ones. We had first
General de Blaumont, then Baron Davillier, the celebrated ceramist who