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The one throve on thefts from nature, the other waxed fat on legal plunder. Both liked to live well. It was the same nature in two species, the one natural, the other whetted by his training in a cloister. It was about four o'clock when Vaudoyer left the tavern of the Grand-I-Vert to consult the former mayor. Rigou was at dinner.
As Tonsard asked the question, Vaudoyer left the house to see Rigou. Langlume, who had already gone out, turned on the door-step, and answered: "Crowd of do-nothings! are you so rich that you think you are your own masters?" Though said with a laugh, the meaning contained in those words was understood by all present, as horses understand the cut of a whip.
"He's right," said Courtecuisse, "I'm the best shot; Vaudoyer, I'll go with you; Bonnebault may watch in my place; he can give a cry; that's easier heard and less suspicious." All three returned to the tavern and the wedding festivities went on; but about eleven o'clock Vaudoyer, Courtecuisse, Tonsard, and Bonnebault went out, carrying their guns, though none of the women took any notice of them.
Finding the front door locked, Vaudoyer looked above the window blinds and called out: "Monsieur Rigou, it is I, Vaudoyer." Jean came round from the porte-cochere and said to Vaudoyer: "Come into the garden; Monsieur has company." He had found the usurer finishing his dessert.
"Don't trouble about that," said Courtecuisse, "I'll stand ten minutes away from you to the right on the road towards Blangy, and Vaudoyer will be ten minutes away on your left towards Conches; if anything comes along, the mail, or the gendarmes, or whatever it is, we'll fire a shot into the ground, a muffled sound, you'll know it." "But suppose I miss him?" said Tonsard.
"We shall glean as we have always gleaned," repeated Vaudoyer. "Well, glean then! Monsieur Sarcus will decide whether you have the right to," said Rigou, seeming to promise the help of the justice of the peace. "We shall glean, and we shall do it in force, or Burgundy won't be Burgundy any longer," said Vaudoyer. "If the gendarmes have sabres we have scythes, and we'll see what comes of it!"
"Which one shall we kill?" asked Laroche. "Michaud," said Courtecuisse. "Vaudoyer is right, he's perfectly right. You'll see that when a keeper is sent to the shades there won't be one of them willing to stay even in broad daylight to watch us. Now they're there night and day, demons!"
"I have been too long among the people who rule us to believe that matters will go as you want them," said Vaudoyer at last, remembering his past official intercourse with the courts and the gendarmerie.
They'd have to give way, as they did on the other side of Burgundy, where they sent a regiment. Bah! that regiment came back again, and the peasants cut the woods just as much as they ever did." "If we kill," said Vaudoyer; "it is better to kill one man; the question is, how to do it without danger and frighten those Arminacs so that they'll be driven out of the place."
"Tonsard is ready for mischief," said Soudry, "I know that; and we'll work him up by Vaudoyer and Courtecuisse." "I'll answer for Courtecuisse," said Rigou. "And I hold Vaudoyer in the hollow of my hand." "Be cautious!" said Rigou; "before everything else be cautious." "Now, papa skull-cap, do you mean to tell me that there's any harm in speaking of things as they are?
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