The counsellor replied that he did not wish to remain with his leg in the air to await the good pleasure of the burgomaster, and kept on. Van Tricasse retorted with a rude expression. The counsellor responded by an insulting allusion to the burgomaster’s age, destined as he was, by his family traditions, to marry a second time. The burgomaster went down twenty steps more, and warned Niklausse that this should not pass thus. Niklausse replied that, at all events, he would pass down first; and, the space being very narrow, the two dignitaries came into collision, and found themselves in utter darkness. The words “blockhead” and “booby” were the mildest which they now applied to each other. “We shall see, stupid beast!” cried the burgomaster,—“we shall see what figure you will make in this war, and in what rank you will march!” “In the rank that precedes yours, you silly old fool!” replied Niklausse. Then there were other cries, and it seemed as if bodies were rolling over each other. What was going on? Why were these dispositions so quickly changed? Why were the gentle sheep of the tower’s summit metamorphosed into tigers two hundred feet below it? However this might be, the guardian of the tower, hearing the noise, opened the door, just at the moment when the two adversaries, bruised, and with protruding eyes, were in the act of tearing each other’s hair,—fortunately they wore wigs. “You shall give me satisfaction for this!” cried the burgomaster, shaking his fist under his adversary’s nose. “Whenever you please!” growled the Counsellor Niklausse, attempting to respond with a vigorous kick. The guardian, who was himself in a passion,—I cannot say why,— thought the scene a very natural one. I know not what excitement urged him to take part in it, but he controlled himself, and went off to announce throughout the neighbourhood that a hostile meeting was about to take place between the Burgomaster Van Tricasse and the Counsellor Niklausse. CHAPTER XIV. IN WHICH MATTERS GO SO FAR THAT THE INHABITANTS OF QUIQUENDONE, THE READER, AND EVEN THE AUTHOR, DEMAND AN IMMEDIATE DÉNOUEMENT. The last incident proves to what a pitch of excitement the Quiquendonians had been wrought. The two oldest friends in the town, and the most gentle—before the advent of the epidemic, to reach this degree of violence! And that, too, only a few minutes after their old mutual sympathy, their amiable instincts, their contemplative habit, had been restored at the summit of the tower! On learning what was going on, Doctor Ox could not contain his joy. He resisted the arguments which Ygène, who saw what a serious turn affairs were taking, addressed to him. Besides, both of them were infected by the general fury. They were not less excited than the rest of the population, and they ended by quarrelling as violently as the burgomaster and the counsellor.