Page 187 - madame-bovary

of which I am capable, surmounted everything, overcome
everything!’
‘Yet it seems to me,’ said Emma, ‘that you are not to be
pitied.’
‘Ah! you think so?’ said Rodolphe.
‘For, after all,’ she went on, ‘you are free—‘ she hesitated,
‘rich—‘
‘Do not mock me,’ he replied.
And she protested that she was not mocking him, when
the report of a cannon resounded. Immediately all began
hustling one another pell-mell towards the village.
It was a false alarm. The prefect seemed not to be coming,
and the members of the jury felt much embarrassed, not
knowing if they ought to begin the meeting or still wait.
At last at the end of the Place a large hired landau ap-
peared, drawn by two thin horses, which a coachman in a
white hat was whipping lustily. Binet had only just time to
shout, ‘Present arms!’ and the colonel to imitate him. All
ran towards the enclosure; everyone pushed forward. A few
even forgot their collars; but the equipage of the prefect
seemed to anticipate the crowd, and the two yoked jades,
trapesing in their harness, came up at a little trot in front of
the peristyle of the town hall at the very moment when the
National Guard and firemen deployed, beating drums and
marking time.
‘Present!’ shouted Binet.
‘Halt!’ shouted the colonel. ‘Left about, march.’
And after presenting arms, during which the clang of
the band, letting loose, rang out like a brass kettle rolling

1 Madame Bovary