Everybody gazed at the hero with respectful awe.

He had heard a bullet whiz past his ear! Certainly, none of the other bourgeois who were there could say as much.
Felicite felt bound to rush into her husband's arms so as to work up the emotion to boiling point.

But Rougon immediately freed himself, and concluded his narrative with this heroic sentence, which has become famous at Plassans: "The shot goes off; I hear the bullet whiz past my ear; and whish! it smashes the mayor's mirror." This caused complete consternation.

Such a magnificent mirror, too! It was scarcely credible! the damage done to that looking-glass almost out-balanced Rougon's heroism, in the estimation of the company.

The glass became an object of absorbing interest, and they talked about it for a quarter of an hour, with many exclamations and expressions of regret, as though it had been some dear friend that had been stricken to the heart.