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Updated: May 19, 2025
In an armchair sat a cousin from Paris, attired in a blue coat and wearing an air of insolence. The two bronze lamps, the whatnot containing a number of curiosities, ballads embellished with vignettes on the piano, and small water-colours in huge frames, had always excited astonishment in Chavignolles. But this evening all eyes were directed towards the mahogany table.
They cut themselves a forked branch from a hazel tree, and one morning set forth to discover the treasure. "It must be given up," said Bouvard. "Oh, no! bless your soul!" After they had been three hours travelling, a thought made them draw up: "The road from Chavignolles to Bretteville! was it the old or the new road? It must be the old!"
The workmen of Acqueville, Liffard, Pierre-Pont, and Saint-Rémy were marching on Chavignolles. The sheds were shut up. The municipal council assembled and passed a resolution, to prevent catastrophes, that no resistance should be offered. The gendarmes were kept in, and orders were given to them not to show themselves. Soon was heard, as it were, the rumbling of a storm.
The mayor and the Abbé Jeufroy had at once recognised him. He had formerly been a joiner at Chavignolles. "Come, Gorju! take yourself off," said M. Foureau. "You ought not to be asking for alms." "I! Alms!" cried the exasperated man. "I served seven years in the wars in Africa. I've only just got up out of a hospital. Good God! must I turn cutthroat?"
But when they learned that the Court of Cassation, the Court of Appeal, the Court of Exchequer, the Chamber of Notaries, the order of advocates, the Council of State, the University, the generals, and M. de la Roche-Jacquelein himself had given promise of their adherence to the provisional government, their breasts began to expand; and, as trees of liberty were planted at Paris, the municipal council decided that they ought to have them at Chavignolles.
However, since even the rarest trees flourish in the gardens of the capital, they must needs grow successfully at Chavignolles; and Pécuchet provided himself with the Indian lilac, the Chinese rose, and the eucalyptus, then in the beginning of its fame. But all his experiments failed; and at each successive failure he was vastly astonished. Bouvard, like him, met with obstacles.
However, one might still discover some at Chavignolles; for example, there was, close to the cemetery wall in the lane, a holy-water basin buried under the grass from time immemorial. They were pleased with the information, then exchanged a significant glance "Is it worth the trouble?" but already the Count was opening the door. Mélie, who was behind it, fled abruptly.
On the morning of the 25th of February, 1848, the news was brought to Chavignolles, by a person who had come from Falaise, that Paris was covered with barricades, and the next day the proclamation of the Republic was posted up outside the mayor's office. This great event astonished the inhabitants.
He knew what their dream was, and one fine day he called on them to let them know that he had been told about an estate at Chavignolles, between Caen and Falaise. This comprised a farm of thirty-eight hectares, with a kind of château, and a garden in a very productive state. They proceeded to Calvados, and were quite enraptured. Bouvard did not want to give more than a hundred and twenty thousand.
The public conveyance from Falaise was surrounded, and there was much excitement about a convict named Touache, who was wandering about the country. The conductor had met him at Croix-Verte between two gendarmes, and the people of Chavignolles breathed a sigh of relief.
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