"You know very well, young man, what we want! We are informed that your grandfather has left this house with a covered litter.That's not surprising; he had the right to do so.But I am the sheriff, and Ihave come to seize everything he has left.On Monday he received a summons to pay three thousand francs, with interest and costs, to Monsieur Metivier, under pain of arrest for debt duly notified to him, and like an old stager who is up to the tricks of his own trade, he has walked off just in time.However, if we can't catch him, his furniture hasn't taken wings.You see we know all about it, young man.""Here are the stamped papers your grandpapa didn't choose to take,"said Madame Vauthier, thrusting three writs into Auguste's hand.
"Remain here, madame," said the sheriff; "we shall make you legal guardian of the property.The law gives you forty sous a day, and that's not to be sneezed at.""Ha! now I shall see the inside of that fine bedroom!" cried the Vauthier.
"You shall not go into my mother's room!" said the young lad, in a threatening voice, springing between the door and the three men in black.
At a sign from the sheriff, two of the men seized Auguste.
"No resistance, young man; you are not master here," said the sheriff.
"We shall draw up the proces-verbal, and you will sleep in jail."Hearing that dreadful word, Auguste burst into tears.
"Ah, how fortunate," he cried, "that mamma has gone! It would have killed her."A conference now took place between the sheriff, the other men, and Vauthier, by which Auguste discovered, although they spoke in a low voice, that his grandfather's manuscripts were what they chiefly wanted.On that, he opened the door of his mother's bedroom.
"Go in," he said, "but take care to do no injury.You will be paid to-morrow morning."Then he went off weeping into the lair, seized his grandfather's notes and stuck them into the stove, in which, as he knew very well, there was not a spark of fire.