“And a very ancient one,” replied the rector, “for it is, of course, clear that nowadays we live in unity, peace and concord, with one another!” He spoke these words with a bitterness not natural to him, but for some time past his thoughts and speech had changed. However, Riquet continued to bark and growl; he was evidently doing his best to scare away the stranger by his voice and fearsome appearance, but, as fast as the enemy advanced, he retreated. He was a faithful house-dog, but cautious withal. At last his master, growing impatient, picked him up by the scruff of the neck, and gave him two or three taps on his nose, whereupon Riquet immediately stopped barking, wriggled, and put out a pink, curling tongue to lick the hand that had chastised him, his beautiful eyes full of gentle sadness the while. “Poor Riquet,” sighed M. Leterrier, “that is all you get for your zeal.” “I must drive things into his head,” replied M. Bergeret, pushing him behind him at the back of his chair. “Now he knows he was wrong to greet you in such fashion. Riquet conceives of one evil only, physical suffering, and of but one happiness, the absence of suffering. He identifies crime and punishment, inasmuch as for him a misdeed is a deed that is punished. If by accident I step on his paw, he feels himself to be the guilty party, and begs my pardon; justice and injustice do not trouble his infallible wisdom.” “Such philosophy spares him the mental anguish some of us are experiencing to-day,” said M. Leterrier. Since the day he had signed the protest of the “Intellectuals” M. Leterrier lived in a state of perpetual astonishment. He had set forth his reasons in a letter to the local newspapers, and could not understand his opponents who called him a Jew, a Prussian, an “Intellectual,” and said that he had been bought. What also surprised him was that Eusèbe Boulet, the editor of the _Phare_, referred to him daily as a disloyal citizen and an opponent of the Army. “Would you believe it?” he cried. “They have dared to put in the _Phare_ that I insult the Army! _I_ insult the Army! I who have a son serving with the colours!” The two professors spoke at length of the Affair, and M. Leterrier, of the still guileless soul, repeated: “I cannot understand why political considerations and party passions should be brought into the affair at all. It is a question of moral right, and far above such things!”