Antoine Macquart had returned to Plassans after the fall of the first Napoleon.

He had had the incredible good fortune to escape all the final murderous campaigns of the Empire.

He had moved from barracks to barracks, dragging on his brutifying military life.

This mode of existence brought his natural vices to full development.

His idleness became deliberate; his intemperance, which brought him countless punishments, became, to his mind, a veritable religious duty.