Page 450 - madame-bovary

back from the Crusades?’
Or—
‘In spite of the laws against vagabondage, the approaches
to our great towns continue to be infected by bands of beg-
gars. Some are seen going about alone, and these are not,
perhaps, the least dangerous. What are our ediles about?’
Then Homais invented anecdotes—
‘Yesterday, by the Bois-Guillaume hill, a skittish horse—‘
And then followed the story of an accident caused by the
presence of the blind man.
He managed so well that the fellow was locked up. But he
was released. He began again, and Homais began again. It
was a struggle. Homais won it, for his foe was condemned
to life-long confinement in an asylum.
This success emboldened him, and henceforth there was
no longer a dog run over, a barn burnt down, a woman beat-
en in the parish, of which he did not immediately inform the
public, guided always by the love of progress and the hate of
priests. He instituted comparisons between the elementary
and clerical schools to the detriment of the latter; called to
mind the massacre of St. Bartholomew a propos of a grant
of one hundred francs to the church, and denounced abuses,
aired new views. That was his phrase. Homais was digging
and delving; he was becoming dangerous.
However, he was stifling in the narrow limits of journal-
ism, and soon a book, a work was necessary to him. Then he
composed ‘General Statistics of the Canton of Yonville, fol-
lowed by Climatological Remarks.’ The statistics drove him
to philosophy. He busied himself with great questions: the