The truth was, however, he did not know what to do.  His inability to hit upon any immediate expedient for obtaining his share of the money and satisfying his desire of revenge increased his fury.  He went back to his mother and subjected her to a disgraceful cross-examination.  The wretched woman could do nothing but again refer him to Pierre.

“Do you think you are going to make me run to and fro like a shuttle?” he cried, insolently.  “I’ll soon find out which of you two has the hoard.  You’ve already squandered it, perhaps?”

And making an allusion to her former misconduct he asked her if there were still not some low fellow to whom she gave her last sous?  He did not even spare his father, that drunkard Macquart, as he called him, who must have lived on her till the day of his death, and who left his children in poverty.  The poor woman listened with a stupefied air; big tears rolled down her cheeks.  She defended herself with the terror of a child, replying to her son’s questions as though he were a judge; she swore that she was living respectably, and reiterated with emphasis that she had never had a sou of the money, that Pierre had taken everything.  Antoine almost came to believe it at last.

“Ah! the scoundrel!” he muttered; “that’s why he wouldn’t purchase my discharge.”

He had to sleep at his mother’s house, on a straw mattress flung in a corner.  He had returned with his pockets perfectly empty, and was exasperated at finding himself destitute of resources, abandoned like a dog in the streets, without hearth or home, while his brother, as he thought, was in a good way of business, and living on the fat of the land.  As he had no money to buy clothes with, he went out on the following day in his regimental cap and trousers.  He had the good fortune to find, at the bottom of a cupboard, an old yellowish velveteen jacket, threadbare and patched, which had belonged to Macquart.  In this strange attire he walked about the town, relating his story to everyone, and demanding justice.

The people whom he went to consult received him with a contempt which made him shed tears of rage.  Provincial folks are inexorable towards fallen families.  In the general opinion it was only natural that the Rougon-Macquarts should seek to devour each other; the spectators, instead of separating them, were more inclined to urge them on.  Pierre, however, was at that time already beginning to purify himself of his early stains.  People laughed at his roguery; some even went so far as to say that he had done quite right, if he really had taken possession of the money, and that it would be a good lesson to the dissolute folks of the town.

Antoine returned home discouraged.  A lawyer had advised him, in a scornful manner, to wash his dirty linen at home, though not until he had skilfully ascertained whether Antoine possessed the requisite means to carry on a lawsuit.  According to this man, the case was very involved, the pleadings would be very lengthy, and success was doubtful.  Moreover, it would require money, and plenty of it.