"Auguste, give me the fat," cried Quenu; and when the apprentice had
handed him the dish he let the pieces of bacon-fat slide gently into the
pot, and then stirred them with his spoon. A yet denser steam now rose
from the fireplace.

"What did they give them to eat?" asked little Pauline, who seemed
deeply interested.

"They gave them maggoty rice and foul meat," answered Florent, whose
voice grew lower as he spoke. "The rice could scarcely be eaten. When
the meat was roasted and very well done it was just possible to swallow
it; but if it was boiled, it smelt so dreadfully that the men had nausea
and stomach ache."

"I'd rather have lived upon dry bread," said the child, after thinking
the matter carefully over.

Leon, having finished the mincing, now placed the sausage-meat upon the
square table in a dish. Mouton, who had remained seated with his eyes
fixed upon Florent, as though filled with amazement by his story, was
obliged to retreat a few steps, which he did with a very bad grace. Then
he rolled himself up, with his nose close to the sausage-meat, and began
to purr.

Lisa was unable to conceal her disgust and amazement. That foul
rice, that evil-smelling meat, seemed to her to be scarcely credible
abominations, which disgraced those who had eaten them as much as it did
those who had provided them; and her calm, handsome face and round neck
quivered with vague fear of the man who had lived upon such horrid food.