Have you got a warrant from Monsieur Guerbet, the magistrate?
Ha! you must have the law behind you before you come in here.

You are not the law, though you have sworn an oath to starve us to death, you miserable forest-gauger, you!" The fury of the keeper waxed so hot that he was on the point of seizing hold of the wood, when the old woman, a frightful bit of black parchment endowed with motion, the like of which can be seen only in David's picture of "The Sabines," screamed at him, "Don't touch it, or I'll fly at your eyes!" "Well, then, undo that pile in presence of Monsieur Brunet," said the keeper.
Though the sheriff's officer had assumed the indifference that the routine of business does really give to officials of his class, he threw a glance at Tonsard and his wife which said plainly, "A bad business!" Old Fourchon looked at his daughter, and slyly pointed at a pile of ashes in the chimney.

Mam Tonsard, who understood in a moment from that significant gesture both the danger of her mother-in-law and the advice of her father, seized a handful of ashes and flung them in the keeper's eyes.

Vatel roared with pain; Tonsard pushed him roughly upon the broken door-steps where the blinded man stumbled and fell, and then rolled nearly down to the gate, dropping his gun on the way.

In an instant the load of sticks was unfastened, and the oak logs pulled out and hidden with a rapidity no words can describe.