When it was observed that after three months of waiting the hunter had not packed a single bag, people began to talk.
"This will turn out to be another Shanghai." Said Costecalde, smiling, and this remark spread round the town like wildfire, for people had lost their belief in Tartarin.

The ignorant, the chicken-hearted, people like Bezuquet, whom a flea could put to flight, and who could not fire a gun without closing both eyes, these above all were pitiless.

At the club, on the esplanade, they accosted poor Tartarin with little mocking remarks, "Et autremain, what about this trip then ?" At Costecalde's shop his opinion was no longer law.

The hat hunters had deserted their leader.
Then there were the epigrams.

President Ladeveze who in his spare time dabbled in provencal poetry, composed a little song in dialect which was a great success.