The men were mystified, but wine and rhetoric had fired them, and they cheered him--no one knew why.

The Cure, as he turned to leave, with Monsieur Garon, shook his head in bewilderment; but even he did not smile, for the man's eloquence had impressed him; and more than once he looked back at the dispersing crowd and the quaint figure posing on the veranda.

The avocat was thinking deeply, and as, in the dusk, he left the Cure at his own door, all that he ventured was: "Singular--a most singular person!" "We shall see, we shall see," said the Cure abstractedly, and they said good-night.
Medallion joined the Little Chemist in his shop door and watched the habitants scatter, till only Parpon and the stranger were left, and these two faced each other, and, without a word, passed into the hotel together.
"H'm, h'm!" said Medallion into space, drumming the door-jamb with his fingers; "which is it, my Parpon--a dauphin, or a fool ?" He and the Little Chemist talked long, their eyes upon the window opposite, inside which Monsieur Valmond and Parpon were in conference.
Up the dusty street wandered fitfully the refrain: "To a gentleman of the king, Vive Napoleon!" And once they dimly saw Monsieur Valmond come to the open window and stretch out his hand, as if in greeting to the song and the singer..