agents for each firm.  For instance, he has so completely put a stop to competition that he has absolute control of the auction sales; the crown and the State are both dependent on him.  Their timber is sold under the hammer and falls invariably to Gaubertin’s dealers; in fact, no others attempt now to bid against them.  Last year Monsieur Mariotte, of Auxerre, urged by the commissioner of domains, did attempt to compete with Gaubertin.  At first, Gaubertin let him buy the standing wood at the usual prices; but when it came to cutting it, the Avonnais workmen asked such enormous prices that Monsieur Mariotte was obliged to bring laborers from Auxerre, whom the Ville-aux-Fayes workmen attacked and drove away.  The head of the coalition, and the ringleader of the brawl were brought before the police court, and the suits cost Monsieur Mariotte a great deal of money; for, besides the odium of having convicted and punished poor men, he was forced to pay all costs, because the losing side had not a farthing to do it with.  A suit against laboring men is sure to result in hatred to those who live among them.  Let me warn you of this; for if you follow the course you propose, you will have to fight against the poor of this district at least.  But that’s not all.  Counting it over, Monsieur Mariotte, a worthy man, found he was the loser by his original lease.  Forced to pay ready money, he was nevertheless obliged to sell on time; Gaubertin delivered his timber at long credits for the purpose of ruining his competitor.  He undersold him by at least five per cent, and the end of it is that poor Mariotte’s credit is badly shaken.  Gaubertin is now pressing and harassing the poor man so that he is driven, they tell me, to leave not only Auxerre, but even Burgundy itself; and he is right.  In this way land-owners have long been sacrificed to dealers who now set the market-prices, just as the furniture-dealers in Paris dictate values to appraisers.  But Gaubertin saves the owners so much trouble and worry that they are really gainers.”

“How so?” asked the general.

“In the first place, because the less complicated a business is, the greater the profits to the owners,” answered Sibilet.  “Besides which, their income is more secure; and in all matters of rural improvement and development that is the main thing, as you will find out.  Then, too, Monsieur Gaubertin is the friend and patron of working-men; he pays them well and keeps them always at work; therefore, though their families live on the estates, the woods leased to dealers and belonging to the land-owners who trust the care of their property to Gaubertin (such as MM. de Soulanges and de Ronquerolles) are not devastated.  The dead wood is gathered up, but that is all—­”

“That rascal Gaubertin has lost no time!” cried the general.