street.

Rage had now taken such a hold upon me, that I forgot my ridiculous
appearance in my thirst for vengeance. I marched on through the grinning
crowd, with the step of a martyr. I suppose my heroic bearing and
warlike deportment must have heightened the drollery of the scene; for
the devils only laughed the more. The bureau of the maire could not
contain one-tenth of the anxious and curious individuals who thronged
the entrance, and for about twenty minutes the whole efforts of the
gens-d'armes were little enough to keep order and maintain silence. At
length the maire made his appearance, and accustomed as he had been for
a long life to scenes of an absurd and extraordinary nature, yet the
ridicule of my look and costume was too much, and he laughed outright.
This was of course the signal for renewed mirth for the crowd, while
those without doors, infected by the example, took up the jest, and I
had the pleasure of a short calculation, a la Babbage, of how many
maxillary jaws were at that same moment wagging at my expense.

However, the examination commenced; and I at length obtained an
opportunity of explaining under what circumstances I had left my room,
and how and why I had been induced to don this confounded cause of all my
misery.

"This may be very true," said the mayor, "as it is very plausible; if you
have evidence to prove what you have stated--"

"If it's evidence only is wanting, Mr. Maire, I'll confirm one part of
the story," said a voice in the crowd, in an accent and tone that assured
me the speaker was the injured proprietor of the stolen blankets. I
turned round hastily to look at my victim, and what was my surprise to