but pretty, with rolls of fat all over his pink body, even on his forehead and round his eyes. We soon found that he knew what we were after, and was equal to the situation. He flashed an angry glare at us out of his sharp gray eyes, under their puffy eyelids; but he controlled himself at once, and with an authoritative air, inquired by what right we thus invaded the precincts of the law. I answered that we only wanted to drag him out of bed. This made him furiously angry, but Saulsoy said to him, "Master Racquin, you are not the one to threaten us; the boot is on the other leg now. We are here to accuse you, so defend yourself if you can."
He changed his tune at once. "Fellow-citizens," said he blandly, "what would you have of me? What complaint do you bring? I have stayed in the town to protect you at the risk of my own life, when all my brother officials fled before the plague and the riots. I alone have remained faithful at my post. The evils which have come upon you are surely none of my causing, so what fault can any of you find with me?"
"You are the physician of the town, Racquin," said I," and as the proverb says, 'Clever doctors make bad sores.'—You have fattened on the plague and the riots, you and your creatures; you are in league with the robbers to burn down our houses,
