"Oh, how kind you are!" said the young girl, embracing him affectionately. "Yes, yes! thou art flattering me," said he, laughing, "because I do what thou wishest. Who will pay me for my wood and work? It will not be Yégof!" Louise kissed him again, and Hullin, looking lovingly at her, murmured,--"This payment is worth the other." Yégof was then about fifteen yards from their door: the tumult still kept increasing; the boys hung on to the tatters of his coat, crying out, "Diamond! Club! Spade!" Suddenly he turned, raised his sceptre, and called out in a dignified though furious manner,--"Go back, accursed race! Go back, deafen me no longer, or I will loose my bloodhounds against you!" This menace only made the shouts of laughter and hisses redouble; but as at that moment Hullin appeared on the threshold with a long strap in his hand, and distinguishing five or six of the most obstinate among them, he warned them that that evening he would go and pull their ears during their supper--a feat which he had already performed several times with the consent of the parents, the whole band dispersed in great consternation. Then, going toward the madman,--"Enter, Yégof," said the shoemaker, "come and warm thyself by the fire." "I do not call myself Yégof," replied the unhappy man, looking offended. "I call myself Luitprandt, King of Australasia and Polynesia." "Yes, yes, I know," said Jean-Claude--"I know! Thou hast already told me all that. But what does it matter that thou callest thyself Yégof, or Luitprandt? come in all the same. It is cold; try to warm thyself." "I come in," replied the madman; "but it is for a much more serious affair: it is for a state affair--to form an indissoluble alliance between the Germans and the Triboques." "Well, we will talk of that." Yégof, stooping under the door, entered as though in a reverie, and saluted Louise by bowing and lowering his sceptre; but the raven would not come in. Opening his great wings, he made a circuit around the house, and came and fastened himself onto the window-panes to break them. "Hans," shouted the madman, "take care! I am coming!" But the bird did not detach its sharp claws from the casement, and never ceased fluttering its great wings so long as its master remained in the cottage. Louise did not take her eyes off it: she was afraid. As for Yégof, he sat down in the old leathern armchair behind the stove, his legs stretched out as though on a throne; and gazing around him in a triumphant manner, he cried out,--"I come direct from Jérome, to conclude an alliance with thee, Hullin. Thou art not ignorant that I have deigned to cast my eyes on thy daughter, and I come to ask her of thee in marriage." At this proposition Louise blushed to the roots of her hair, and Hullin burst into a loud laugh.