Therefore, he replied to me, quietly: "Mr. Mayor, look after your elections! See that certain rogues up there--as there are rogues everywhere--don't stuff into the ballot-box handfuls of _Yeses_ instead of _Noes_ while your back is turned. This has often happened! And then pray don't trouble yourself about me. In the Government Gazette, it is declared that every man shall be free to maintain his own opinions, and to vote as he pleases; if my mouth is stopped, I shall protest in the newspapers." Hearing that he would protest, to avoid a worse scandal I answered him: "Say what you please; no one shall declare that we have put any constraint upon the elections; but, you men, you know what you have to do." "Yes, yes," shouted all the people in the room and down the passage, lifting their hats. "Yes, Monsieur le Maire; we will listen to nothing at all. Whether they talk all day or say nothing, it is all the same to us." And they all went off to vote, leaving George alone. M. le Cure Daniel, seeing them coming out, came from his parsonage to place himself at their head. He had preached in the morning in favor of the Plebiscite, and there was not a single _No_ in the box. If my cousin had not had the large meadow above the mill, and the finest acres in the country, he would have been an object of contempt for the rest of his days; but a rich man, who has just bought a house, an orchard, a garden, and has paid ready money for everything, may say whatever he pleases: especially when he is not listened to, and the people go and do the very opposite of what he has been advising them. Well, this is the way with the elections for the Plebiscite with us, and just the same thing went on throughout our canton: at Phalsbourg--which had been abundantly placarded against the Plebiscite, and where they carried their audacity even to watching the mayor and the ballot-box--out of fifteen hundred electors, military and civil, there were only thirty-two _Noes_. It is quite clear that things were making favorable progress, and that M. le Sous-prefet could not be otherwise than perfectly satisfied with our behavior.