This room, with its faded hangings redolent of petty transactions, all the trivial concerns of a third-rate municipality, became a temple of which he was the god.
Nevertheless, amidst his rapture, he started nervously at every shout from Macquart.

The words aristocrat and lamp-post, the threats of hanging that form the refrain of the famous revolutionary song, the "Ca Ira," reached him in angry bursts, interrupting his triumphant dream in the most disagreeable manner.

Always that man! And his dream, in which he saw Plassans at his feet, ended with a sudden vision of the Assize Court, of the judges, the jury, and the public listening to Macquart's disgraceful revelations; the story of the fifty thousand francs, and many other unpleasant matters; or else, while enjoying the softness of Monsieur Garconnet's arm-chair, he suddenly pictured himself suspended from a lamp-post in the Rue de la Banne.

Who would rid him of that wretched fellow?
At last Antoine fell asleep, and then Pierre enjoyed ten good minutes' pure ecstasy.
Roudier and Granoux came to rouse him from this state of beatitude.
They had just returned from the prison, whither they had taken the insurgents.

Daylight was coming on apace, the town would soon be awake, and it was necessary to take some decisive step.