Then the gentlemen proposed to go and meet the prefect.  For a moment Rougon felt both stunned and suffocated; he was unable to believe in this sudden triumph, and stammered like a child.  However, he drew breath, and went downstairs with the quiet dignity suited to the solemnity of the occasion.  But the enthusiasm which greeted the commission and its president outside the town-hall almost upset his magisterial gravity afresh.  His name sped through the crowd, accompanied this time by the warmest eulogies.  He heard everyone repeat Granoux’s avowal, and treat him as a hero who had stood firm and resolute amidst universal panic.  And, as far as the Sub-Prefecture, where the commission met the prefect, he drank his fill of popularity and glory.

Monsieur de Bleriot and Colonel Masson had entered the town alone, leaving their troops encamped on the Lyons road.  They had lost considerable time through a misunderstanding as to the direction taken by the insurgents.  Now, however, they knew the latter were at Orcheres; and it would only be necessary to stop an hour at Plassans, just sufficient time to reassure the population and publish the cruel ordinances which decreed the sequestration of the insurgents’ property, and death to every individual who might be taken with arms in his hands.  Colonel Masson smiled when, in accordance with the orders of the commander of the national guards, the bolts of the Rome Gate were drawn back with a great rattling of rusty old iron.  The detachment on duty there accompanied the prefect and the colonel as a guard of honour.  As they traversed the Cours Sauvaire, Roudier related Rougon’s epic achievements to the gentlemen—­the three days of panic that had terminated with the brilliant victory of the previous night.  When the two processions came face to face therefore, Monsieur de Bleriot quickly advanced towards the president of the Commission, shook hands with him, congratulated him, and begged him to continue to watch over the town until the return of the authorities.  Rougon bowed, while the prefect, having reached the door of the Sub-Prefecture, where he wished to take a brief rest, proclaimed in a loud voice that he would not forget to mention his brave and noble conduct in his report.

In the meantime, in spite of the bitter cold, everybody had come to their windows.  Felicite, leaning forward at the risk of falling out, was quite pale with joy.  Aristide had just arrived with a number of the “Independant,” in which he had openly declared himself in favour of the Coup d’Etat, which he welcomed “as the aurora of liberty in order and of order in liberty.”  He had also made a delicate allusion to the yellow drawing-room, acknowledging his errors, declaring that “youth is presumptuous,” and that “great citizens say nothing, reflect in silence, and let insults pass by, in order to rise heroically when the day of struggle comes.”  He was particularly pleased with this sentence.  His mother thought his article extremely well written.  She kissed her dear child, and placed him on her right hand.  The Marquis de Carnavant, weary of incarcerating himself, and full of eager curiosity, had likewise come to see her, and stood on her left, leaning on the window rail.