He had been compelled to shut
himself up in order to resist the temptation of hastening to the yellow
drawing-room. When the footman came to tell him, in the middle of the
night, that there were some gentlemen below asking for him, he could not
hold back any longer. He got up and went downstairs in all haste.
"My dear Marquis," said Rougon, as he introduced to him the members
of the Municipal Commission, "we want to ask a favour of you. Will you
allow us to go into the garden of the mansion?"
"By all means," replied the astonished marquis, "I will conduct you
there myself."
On the way thither he ascertained what their object was. At the end of
the garden rose a terrace which overlooked the plain. A large portion of
the ramparts had there tumbled in, leaving a boundless prospect to the
view. It had occurred to Rougon that this would serve as an excellent
post of observation. While conversing together the members of the
Commission leaned over the parapet. The strange spectacle that spread
out before them soon made them silent. In the distance, in the valley of
the Viorne, across the vast hollow which stretched westward between the
chain of the Garrigues and the mountains of the Seille, the rays of the
moon were streaming like a river of pale light. The clumps of trees, the
gloomy rocks, looked, here and there, like islets and tongues of land,
emerging from a luminous sea; and, according to the bends of the Viorne
one could now and again distinguish detached portions of the river,
glittering like armour amidst the fine silvery dust falling from the
firmament.
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