"
Rougon hastened back to the town-hall. The afternoon was employed in
taking various measures. The proclamation posted up about one o'clock
produced an excellent impression. It ended by an appeal to the good
sense of the citizens, and gave a firm assurance that order would not
again be disturbed. Until dusk, in fact, the streets presented a picture
of general relief and perfect confidence. On the pavements, the groups
who were reading the proclamation exclaimed:
"It's all finished now; we shall soon see the troops who have been sent
in pursuit of the insurgents."
This belief that some soldiers were approaching was so general that the
idles of the Cours Sauvaire repaired to the Nice road, in order to
meet and hear the regimental band. But they returned at nightfall
disappointed, having seen nothing; and then a feeling of vague alarm
began to disturb the townspeople.
At the town-hall, the Provisional Commission had talked so much, without
coming to any decision, that the members, whose stomachs were quite
empty, began to feel alarmed again. Rougon dismissed them to dine,
saying that they would meet afresh at nine o'clock in the evening. He
was just about to leave the room himself, when Macquart awoke and began
to pommel the door of his prison. He declared he was hungry, then asked
what time it was, and when his brother had told him it was five o'clock,
he feigned great astonishment, and muttered, with diabolical malice,
that the insurgents had promised to return much earlier, and that they
were very slow in coming to deliver him.
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