The Chimes of Quiquendone
At this moment the chimes of Quiquendone rang out. The clear bells played one of their most melodious airs. The two friends listened in ecstasy.
Then in his calm voice, van Tricasse said: "But what, friend Niklausse, did we come to the top of this tower to do?"
"In fact," replied the counselor, "we have permitted ourselves to be carried away by our reveries"
"What did we come here to do?" repeated the burgomaster.
"We came," said Niklausse, "to breathe this pure air, which human weaknesses have not corrupted."
"Well, shall we descend, friend Niklausse?"
"Let us descend, friend van Tricasse."
They gave a parting glance at the splendid panorama which was spread before their eyes; then the burgomaster passed down first, and began to descend with a slow and measured pace. The counselor followed a few steps behind. They reached the landing stage at which they had stopped on ascending. Already their cheeks began to redden. They tarried a moment, then resumed their descent.
In a few moments van Tricasse begged Niklausse to go more slowly, as he felt him on his heels, and it "worried him." It even did more than worry him; for twenty steps lower down he ordered the counselor to stop, that he might get on some distance ahead.
The counselor replied that he did not wish to remain with his leg in the air to await the good pleasure of the burgomaster, and kept on.
Van Tricasse retorted with a rude expression.
The counselor responded by an insulting allusion to the burgomaster's age, destined as he was, by his family traditions, to marry a second time.
The burgomaster went down twenty steps more and warned Niklausse that this should not pass thus.
Niklausse replied that, at all events, he would pass down first; and, the space being very narrow, the two dignitaries came into collision, and found themselves in utter darkness. The words "blockhead" and "booby" were the mildest which they now applied to each other.
"We shall see, stupid beast!" cried the burgomaster,—"we shall see what figure you will make in this war, and in what rank you will march!"
"In the rank that precedes yours, you silly old fool!" replied Niklausse.
The Dispute Begins Again
Then there were other cries, and it seemed as if bodies were rolling over each other. What was going on? Why were these dispositions so quickly changed? Why were the gentle sheep of the tower's summit metamorphosed into tigers two hundred feet below it?
However this might be, the guardian of the tower, hearing the noise, opened the door, just at the moment when the two adversaries, bruised, and with protruding eyes, were in the act of tearing each other's hair,—fortunately they wore wigs.
"You shall give me satisfaction for this!" cried the burgomaster, shaking his fist under his adversary's nose.
"Whenever you please!" growled the Counselor Niklausse, attempting to respond with a vigorous kick.
The guardian, who was himself in a passion,—I cannot say why,—thought the scene a very natural one. I know not what excitement urged him to take part in it, but he controlled himself, and went off to announce throughout the neighborhood that a hostile meeting was about to take place between the Burgomaster van Tricasse and the Counselor Niklausse.
CHAPTER XIV.
In which Matters go so far that the Inhabitants of Quiquendone, the Reader, and even the Author, Demand an Immediate Denouement
The last incident proves to what a pitch of excitement the Quiquendonians had been wrought. The two oldest friends in the town,—and the most gentle before the advent of the epidemic,—to reach this degree of violence! And that, too, only a few minutes after their old mutual sympathy, their amiable instincts, their contemplative habit, had been restored at the summit of the tower!
On learning what was going on, Doctor Ox could not contain his joy. He resisted the arguments which Ygene, who saw what a serious turn affairs were taking, addressed to him. Besides, both of them were infected by the general fury. They were not less excited than the rest of the population, and they ended by quarreling as violently as the burgomaster and the counselor.
Besides, one question eclipsed all others, and the intended duels were postponed by issue of the Virgamenian difficulty. No man had the right to shed his blood uselessly, when it belonged, to the last drop, to his country in danger. The affair was, in short, a grave one, and there was no withdrawing from it.
Beginning the War
Ahe Burgomaster van Tricasse, despite the war-like ardor with which he was filled, had not thought it best to throw himself upon the enemy without warning him. He had, therefore, through the medium of the rural policeman, Hottering, sent to demand reparation of the Virgamenians for the offense committed, in 1195, on the Quiquendonian territory.
The authorities of Virgamen could not at first imagine of what the envoy spoke, and the latter, despite his official character, was conducted back to the frontier very cavalierly.
Van Tricasse then sent one of the aides-de-camp of the confectioner-general, citizen Hildevert Shuman, a manufacturer of barley sugar, a very firm and energetic man, who carried to the authorities of Virgamen the original minute of the indictment drawn up in 1195 by order of the Burgomaster Natalis van Tricasse.
The authorities of Virgamen burst out laughing, and served the aide-de-camp in the same manner as the rural policeman.
The burgomaster then assembled the dignitaries of the town.
A letter, remarkably and vigorously drawn up, was written as an ultimatum; the cause of quarrel
