Jean-Claude’s face was as lank and yellow as a wax candle. He raised his long arms and cried— “I have not finished! I have not yet read the passage of Nebuchadnezzar changed into an ox with the plumes of an eagle for his pride! Listen, Jacques—Herbert—Christian!” But nobody would listen; the whole village was on the track of Mathéus, shouting, hissing, the dogs barking, as if the end of the world had come. Very soon they saw the Doctor mount the Falberg at a gallop; he had crossed the Zinsel swimming, and was holding on to Bruno’s neck, the tails of his coat flying in the air from the speed at which he was going. At length he disappeared in the woods, and the peasants looked at one another aghast. Jean-Claude greatly wanted to return to the continuation of his beautiful discourse, but everybody turned their backs upon him, saying— “What’s the use of your discourse since we have lost our Doctor? Ah! if we had only thought of it, some one might have held him by the bridle!” It was thus that the illustrious Doctor Frantz Mathéus, thanks to his heroic resolution, to his presence of mind, and to the vigorous legs of Bruno, succeeded in recovering his independence. CHAPTER IV. His delight may be imagined when he saw himself safe from Jean-Claude and all the others. The distant cries of the village soon died on his ears, and gave place to the vast silence of the forest. Then the good man, praising God for all things, let his bridle fall on Bruno’s neck, and tranquilly ascended the hill of Saverne. The sun was high when he reached the road; but though the heat struck full upon the nape of his neck, though perspiration trickled down his spine, and Bruno stopped from time to time to crop a few tufts of grass by the wayside, the illustrious philosopher perceived nothing of it. He already beheld himself in the theatre of his triumphs, going from city to city, from village to village, overthrowing sophists, and planting throughout the world the beneficent germs of anthropo-zoology. “Frantz Mathéus,” he cried, “you are truly predestined! For you alone was reserved the glory of making the human race happy, and of diffusing the eternal light! See these broad-spread lands, these towns, these farms, these hamlets, these cottages—they await your coming! Everywhere the need is felt of a new doctrine, founded on the three kingdoms of nature; everywhere men are moving in doubt and uncertainty. Frantz, I tell you this without vanity, but also without false modesty, the Being of beings has His eye fixed on you! March! march! and your name, like that of Pythagoras, of Moses, of Confucius, and of the most sublime lawgivers, will be repeated from echo to echo to the end of time!” The illustrious Doctor was reasoning thus in all the sincerity of his soul, and descending the side of the Falberg under the shadow of the firs, when merry shouts, peals of laughter, and the rasping sounds of a violin, drew him from his profound meditations.