this man to go out of your sight, he is a Royalist; keep him at work, and bring him back here with the provisions." "I understand, colonel." It was many years since the upper and lower town of La Roche-Pont had been so animated. The upper town resounded with the noise of arms, of the excavators going to the works, of guns being taken from the arsenal and mounted in the batteries, and of the repairing of the carriages. In another part the carpenters were at work making platforms. As in former times, women mingled with the workmen and brought bundles of willows cut from the side of the pool to make gabions. Behind every window some were to be seen sewing bags for earth. Wheelwrights were repairing wheels; and all engaged were singing and laughing as if they were preparing for a fête. The meal and forage carts were coming in, while pigs, cows, and sheep were rendering the streets almost impassable. The lower town presented a different aspect: the _cafés_ were full, and all were talking at once and very loud. The mayor, followed by the major, who kept close to his elbow, and by his staff of assistants, was making his visits to the shops and houses. The whole of the population was at the windows or at the door-sills. Carts were got ready, and the twenty pressed men filled them in no time; if horses could not be found to draw them, the workmen pushed at the wheels. Some large houses, however, remained closely shut. They had to go through the valley and visit the farmers and millers of the neighbourhood. Many inhabitants of the upper town went down in search of hams, meal, and grains. The grocers' shops and the pork shops were emptied one after the other; provisions were rising in price, so that the last ham was sold, at three o'clock in the afternoon, for sixty francs. At four o'clock the mayor, followed like his shadow by the major, presented himself before the colonel and gave him the list of all the provisions he had been able to bring into the upper town. The colonel bade him sit down, and examined the account carefully, asking many questions and appealing to the major's testimony respecting the correctness of the statements. The twenty-five days' rations for the two thousand men were found complete, thanks to a good stock of un-ground corn which made up for what was wanting in meal. The colonel expressed himself satisfied, especially as they had found in the castle some few hundred-weight of biscuit in good condition. "Thank you, Monsieur le maire," said he; "you must be fatigued, and may return home; but as I am not unaware of the ill-feeling of some bad sort of people towards you, you shall have a man on guard posted at your door; and I must beg you not to quit your house except to go to your office, which fortunately is situated in the upper town, which will enable you, when we are invested, to fulfil your functions with the zeal you have just manifested.