Whose hand had diverted the thunderbolt from them?  There seemed to be something quite miraculous about it.  There were rumours of unknown deliverers, of a handful of brave men who had cut off the hydra’s head; but no one seemed acquainted with the exact particulars, and the whole story appeared scarcely credible, until the company from the yellow drawing-room spread through the streets, scattering tidings, ever repeating the same narrative at each door they came to.

It was like a train of powder.  In a few minutes the story had spread from one end of the town to the other.  Rougon’s name flew from mouth to mouth, with exclamations of surprise in the new town, and of praise in the old quarter.  The idea of being without a sub-prefect, a mayor, a postmaster, a receiver of taxes, or authorities of any kind, at first threw the inhabitants into consternation.  They were stupefied at having been able to sleep through the night and get up as usual, in the absence of any settled government.  Their first stupor over, they threw themselves recklessly into the arms of their liberators.  The few Republicans shrugged their shoulders, but the petty shopkeepers, the small householders, the Conservatives of all shades, invoked blessings on those modest heroes whose achievements had been shrouded by the night.  When it was known that Rougon had arrested his own brother, the popular admiration knew no bounds.  People talked of Brutus, and thus the indiscretion which had made Pierre rather anxious, really redounded to his glory.  At this moment when terror still hovered over them, the townsfolk were virtually unanimous in their gratitude.  Rougon was accepted as their saviour without the slightest show of opposition.

“Just think of it!” the poltroons exclaimed, “there were only forty-one of them!”

That number of forty-one amazed the whole town, and this was the origin of the Plassans legend of how forty-one bourgeois had made three thousand insurgents bite the dust.  There were only a few envious spirits of the new town, lawyers without work and retired military men ashamed of having slept ingloriously through that memorable night, who raised any doubts.  The insurgents, these sceptics hinted, had no doubt left the town of their own accord.  There were no indications of a combat, no corpses, no blood-stains.  So the deliverers had certainly had a very easy task.

“But the mirror, the mirror!” repeated the enthusiasts.  “You can’t deny that the mayor’s mirror has been smashed; go and see it for yourselves.”

And, in fact, until night-time, quite a stream of town’s-people flowed, under one pretext or another, into the mayor’s private office, the door of which Rougon left wide open.  The visitors planted themselves in front of the mirror, which the bullet had pierced and starred, and they all gave vent to the same exclamation:  “By Jove; that ball must have had terrible force!”

Then they departed quite convinced.