been established between the reservoir which contained the oxygen and that which inclosed the hydrogen. An explosive mixture had resulted from the union of these two gases, to which fire had accidentally been applied.
This changed everything; but when the army got upon its feet again, Doctor Ox and his assistant Ygene had disappeared.
CHAPTER XVI
In which the Intelligent Reader Sees that he has Guessed Correctly, Despite all the Author's Precautions
After the explosion, Quiquendone immediately became the peaceable, phlegmatic, and Flemish town that it formerly was.
After the explosion, which indeed did not cause a very lively sensation, each one, without knowing why, mechanically took his way home, the burgomaster leaning on the counselor's arm, the advocate Schut going arm in arm with Custos the doctor, Frantz Niklausse walking with equal familiarity with Simon Collaert, each going tranquilly, noiselessly, without even being conscious of what had happened, and having already forgotten Virgamen and their revenge. The general returned to his confections, and his aide-decamp to the barley sugar.
Thus everything had become calm again; the old existence had been resumed by men and beasts, beasts and plants; even by the tower of Oudenarde gate, which the explosion—these explosions are sometimes astonishing—had set upright again!
And from that time never a word was spoken more loudly than another, never a discussion took place in the town of Quiquendone. There were no more politics, no more clubs, no more trials, no more policemen! The post of the Commissary Passauf became once more a sinecure, and if his salary was not reduced, it was because the burgomaster and the counselor could not make up their minds to decide upon it.
From time to time, indeed, Passauf flitted, without anyone suspecting it, through the dreams of the inconsolable Tatanemance.
As for Frantz's rival, he generously abandoned the charm-
