A father of a family spoke of his children; others, without troubling themselves about excuses, turned towards the door.

Then, however, two fresh conspirators arrived, who lived in the neighbourhood of the Town Hall, and knew for certain that there were not more than about twenty Republicans still at the mayor's.

The band thereupon deliberated afresh.
Forty-one against twenty--these seemed practicable conditions.

So the arms were distributed amid a little trembling.

It was Rougon who took them from the boxes, and each man present, as he received his gun, the barrel of which on that December night was icy cold, felt a sudden chill freeze him to his bones.