It's abominable, abominable."
However, Roudier calmed Granoux by assuring him that the town was free.
And the worthy gentleman began to feel quite a glow of martial ardour
when Pierre informed him that he had come to recruit his services for
the purpose of saving Plassans. These three saviours then took council
together. They each resolved to go and rouse their friends, and appoint
a meeting at the cart-shed, the secret arsenal of the reactionary
party. Meantime Rougon constantly bethought himself of Felicite's wild
gestures, which seemed to betoken danger somewhere. Granoux, assuredly
the most foolish of the three, was the first to suggest that there must
be some Republicans left in the town. This proved a flash of light,
and Rougon, with a feeling of conviction, reflected: "There must be
something of Macquart's doing under all this."
An hour or so later the friends met again in the cart-shed, which was
situated in a very lonely spot. They had glided stealthily from door to
door, knocking and ringing as quietly as possible, and picking up all
the men they could. However, they had only succeeded in collecting some
forty, who arrived one after the other, creeping along in the dark, with
the pale and drowsy countenances of men who had been violently startled
from their sleep. The cart-shed, let to a cooper, was littered with old
hoops and broken casks, of which there were piles in every corner. The
guns were stored in the middle, in three long boxes.
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