"I fear an attack.

You had better take precautions." Rougon would have followed him, to obtain further particulars, but he was already too far away.

After this the Commission was by no means inclined to go to sleep again.

Strange noises! Fires! An attack! And in the middle of the night too! It was very easy to talk of taking precautions, but what were they to do?
Granoux was very near advising the course which had proved so successful the previous evening: that is of hiding themselves, waiting till the insurgents has passed through Plassans, and then triumphing in the deserted streets.

Pierre, however, fortunately remembering his wife's advice, said that Roudier might have made a mistake, and that the best thing would be to go and see for themselves.