Page:Napoleon (O'Connor 1896).djvu/185

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As Napoleon appeared to a Relative.
169

which got their livelihood by making wooden shoes. Two days before, a bishop and two of his grand-vicars, who were escaping in a post-coach, had been arrested by them. The coach was searched, and some hundred louis-d'or having been found in it, the peasants thought the best way to gain the property would be to kill the real owners. Their new profession being more lucrative than their former one, they resolved to continue it, and in consequence set themselves on the look-out for all travellers. Our sailors' dresses were not very promising, but we carried our heads high—our manners seemed haughty, and so a little hunchbacked man, an attorney of the village, guessed we might perhaps help to enrich them. The inhabitants being resolved not to make any more wooden shoes, applauded the hunchback's advice. We were brought to the municipality, where the mob followed us. The attorney placed himself on a large table, and began reading with emphasis in a loud voice all our passports—Louis Amédée Auguste d'Aubonne, André Louis Leclerc de la Ronde, Marie Chamans de la Valette. Here the rascal added the de, that was not in my passport. On hearing these aristocratic names a murmur began; all the eyes turned towards us were hostile, and the hunchback cried out that our knapsacks ought to be examined. The harvest would have been rich. I was the poorest of the set, and I had five-