Then I started with a sad heart. Little Safel followed me.
As I arrived at the corner of the market, Burguet was coming down the
mayoralty steps, which swarmed with men; he had his musket on his
shoulder, and said with a smile:
"Ah, well, Moses! We are going to turn Maccabees in our old age?"
His cheerfulness encouraged me, and I replied:
"Burguet, how is it they can take rational men, heads of families, and
make them destroy themselves? I cannot comprehend it; no, there is no
sense in it!"
"Ah," said he, "what would you have? If they can't get thrushes, they
must take blackbirds."