“And how long, then, did the madmen reign?”

“Oh, a very long time, indeed —­ a month certainly —­ how much longer I can’t precisely say.  In the meantime, the lunatics had a jolly season of it —­ that you may swear.  They doffed their own shabby clothes, and made free with the family wardrobe and jewels.  The cellars of the chateau were well stocked with wine; and these madmen are just the devils that know how to drink it.  They lived well, I can tell you.”

“And the treatment —­ what was the particular species of treatment which the leader of the rebels put into operation?”

“Why, as for that, a madman is not necessarily a fool, as I have already observed; and it is my honest opinion that his treatment was a much better treatment than that which it superseded.  It was a very capital system indeed —­ simple —­ neat —­ no trouble at all —­ in fact it was delicious it was.”

Here my host’s observations were cut short by another series of yells, of the same character as those which had previously disconcerted us.  This time, however, they seemed to proceed from persons rapidly approaching.

“Gracious heavens!” I ejaculated —­ “the lunatics have most undoubtedly broken loose.”

“I very much fear it is so,” replied Monsieur Maillard, now becoming excessively pale.  He had scarcely finished the sentence, before loud shouts and imprecations were heard beneath the windows; and, immediately afterward, it became evident that some persons outside were endeavoring to gain entrance into the room.  The door was beaten with what appeared to be a sledge-hammer, and the shutters were wrenched and shaken with prodigious violence.

A scene of the most terrible confusion ensued.  Monsieur Maillard, to my excessive astonishment threw himself under the side-board.  I had expected more resolution at his hands.  The members of the orchestra, who, for the last fifteen minutes, had been seemingly too much intoxicated to do duty, now sprang all at once to their feet and to their instruments, and, scrambling upon their table, broke out, with one accord, into, “Yankee Doodle,” which they performed, if not exactly in tune, at least with an energy superhuman, during the whole of the uproar.

Meantime, upon the main dining-table, among the bottles and glasses, leaped the gentleman who, with such difficulty, had been restrained from leaping there before.  As soon as he fairly settled himself, he commenced an oration, which, no doubt, was a very capital one, if it could only have been heard.  At the same moment, the man with the teetotum predilection, set himself to spinning around the apartment, with immense energy, and with arms outstretched at right angles with his body; so that he had all the air of a tee-totum in fact, and knocked everybody down that happened to get in his way.  And now, too, hearing an incredible popping and fizzing of champagne, I discovered at length, that it proceeded from the person who performed