They only left a few
men downstairs; they surrounded themselves with about thirty of the
national guards, and then they ventured into the slumbering town, where
the moon, creeping over the house roofs, slowly cast lengthened shadows.
They went along the ramparts, from one gate to the other, seeing nothing
and hearing nothing. The national guards at the various posts certainly
told them that peculiar sounds occasionally reached them from the
country through the closed gates. When they strained their ears,
however, they detected nothing but a distant murmur, which Granoux said
was merely the noise of the Viorne.
Nevertheless they remained doubtful. And they were about to return to
the town-hall in a state of alarm, though they made a show of shrugging
their shoulders and of treating Roudier as a poltroon and a dreamer,
when Rougon, anxious to reassure them, thought of enabling them to
view the plain over a distance of several leagues. Thereupon he led the
little company to the Saint-Marc quarter and knocked at the door of the
Valqueyras mansion.
At the very outset of the disturbances Count de Valqueyras had left for
his chateau at Corbiere. There was no one but the Marquis de Carnavant
at the Plassans house. He, since the previous evening, had prudently
kept aloof; not that he was afraid, but because he did not care to be
seen plotting with the Rougons at the critical moment. As a matter
of fact, he was burning with curiosity.
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