When he appeared, and called on the procession to turn back, he was greeted with howls and threats.

The advantage of numbers was with his opponents, and they seemed thoroughly determined.

At sight of him several guns were loaded, and one shepherd is even said to have levelled his musket at him, but the colonel knocked up the barrel, and said, "Let no man fire without my orders!" The mayor, who, like Panurge, had "a natural fear of blows," refused to give battle, and retired, with his escort.

Then the funeral procession started, carefully choosing the longest way, so as to pass in front of the mayor's house.

As it was filing by, an idiot, who had joined its ranks, took it into his head to shout, "Vive l'Empereur!" Two or three voices answered him, and the Rebbianites, growing hotter, proposed killing one of the mayor's oxen, which chanced to bar their way.