The Commissary of Police threw himself upon them.

"Idiot," said Charras to him, "if they had been loaded, you would have been a dead man." These pistols, we may note, had been given to Charras upon the taking of Mascara by General Renaud, who at the moment of Charras' arrest was on horseback in the street helping to carry out the _coup d'etat_.

If these pistols had remained loaded, and if General Renaud had had the task of arresting Charras, it would have been curious if Renaud's pistols had killed Renaud.

Charras assuredly would not have hesitated.

We have already mentioned the names of these police rascals.