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"What a healthy part of the country this must be then the inhabitants need not to fear epidemics for to begin with there are no inhabitants. At this rate our Captain Fracasse will not have a chance very soon to make his debut." By this time it was nearly dark, the sky was overcast with heavy leaden clouds, and only a faint lurid glow on the horizon in the west showed where the sun had gone down.
The fact that he knew better made him far more culpable, he thought, than little Peterkin or any of his comrades. Yes, he was despicable; he was a coward! All were lulled into a sense of security except Captain Fracasse, who had a set frown of apprehension which came of a professional knowledge not theirs. Little Peterkin, warmed by the autumn sunlight, began to believe in his star.
"Yes, my dear father," Isabelle replied, with a most lovely and becoming blush, "he is an actor, a member of our troupe; but if I may venture to betray his secret, which is already known to the Duke of Vallombreuse, I will tell you that the so-called Captain Fracasse conceals under his mask a noble countenance, as indeed you already know, and under his theatrical pseudonym, the name of an illustrious family."
Captain Fracasse, who had heard only the disturbance without knowing the cause, interfered in a low, sharp tone: "Silence! As I have told you before, silence! We don't want them to know that we are here. Go to sleep! You may get no rest to-morrow night!" But little Peterkin, the question in his mind breaking free of his lips, unwittingly asked: "Shall shall we fight in the morning?"
Scarcely had he entered the outer door ere he was summoned to the presence of the duke, who was all impatient to learn the details of the tremendous thrashing that, he took it for granted, they had given to Captain Fracasse.
"Keep quiet!" whispered Fracasse. "Let us hope it isn't known that we're here." They became as still as men of stone. "Well, if they are going to throw grenades then they will throw them!" exclaimed Peterkin with the bravery of fear. He must do or say something worthy of a hero, he thought, in order to prove that he was not as scared as he knew he had looked and still felt.
Hugo stood, half ashamed, half frightened, yet ready for another encounter. Fracasse, entering at this moment, was too intent on his mission to consider the rights of a personal difference between two of his company, though he heard and noted Pilzer's growling complaint that he had been struck an unfair blow. "There's work to do! Out of here, quick!
The Mayor clapped his hand to his head. "Sir," he said almost humbly, addressing the last speaker, "I seem to know your voice. Your name, if you please?" "Fracasse," he answered pleasantly. "I am Mayor of Gol." "You Fracasse, Mayor of Gol?" Grabot exclaimed between rage and terror. "But Fracasse is a tall man. I know him as well as I know my brother."
"Yes, sir," answered Hugo, with the automatic deference of private to officer but with a reserved and studious inquiry that made the captain bite his lip. "I'll have Aronson and Pilzer watch you, too!" Fracasse added. "Yes, sir!" said Pilzer promptly. Then, under the restraint of the captain's presence, there was a silence that endured.
"That's what you get if you forget instructions," said Fracasse with no sense of brutality, only professional exasperation, "Keep down, you wounded men!" he shouted at the top of his voice. The colonel of the 128th had not looked for immediate resistance. He had told Fracasse's men to occupy the knoll expeditiously.
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