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🟡 Doctor Ox’s Experiment (Full Audiobook) | Jules Verne · Classic Adventure Audiobooks: Lost Worlds, Treasure Hunts & Survival Stories

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Chapters one through three of Doctor Ox's Experiment. This is
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Recording by Alan Winteroud. Doctor Ox's Experiment by Jules Verne.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Chapter one, how it is useless to seek, even on
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: the best maps for the small town of ke Condone.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: If you try to find on any map of Flanders,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: ancient or modern, the small town of ke Condone, probably
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: you will not succeed. Is key Condone, then, one of
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: those towns which have disappeared. No a town of the future,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: by no means. It exists in spite of geographies, and
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: has done so for some eight or nine hundred years.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: It even numbers two thousand, three hundred and ninety three souls,
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: allowing one soul to each inhabitant. It is situated thirteen
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: and a half kilometers northwest of Unard and fifteen and
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: a quarter kilometers southeast of Bruges, in the heart of Flanders.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: The Var, a small tributary of the Shelt, passes beneath
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: its three bridges, which are still covered with a quaint
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: medieval roof like that at Tournay, an old chateau is
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: to be seen there, the first stone of which was
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: laid so long ago as eleven ninety seven by Count Baldwin,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: afterwards Emperor of Constantinople. And there is a town hall
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: with Gothic windows, crowned by a chapelet of battlements, and
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: surrounded by a turrets at belfry, which rises three hundred
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: and fifty seven feet above the soil. Every hour you
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: may hear there a chime of five octaves, a veritable
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: aerial piano, the renown of which surpasses that of the
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: famous chimes of Bruges. Strangers, if any ever come to kikindone,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: do not quit the curious old town until they have
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: visited its Stockers Hall, adorned by a full length portrait
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: of William of Nassau by Brandon. The loft of the
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: Church of Saint Maguelaire, a masterpiece of sixteenth century architecture.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: The cast iron well in the spacious place Saint Ernouf,
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: the admirable ornamentation of which is attributed to the artist
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: Blacksmith Quintin metsis the tomb formerly erected to Mary of Burgundy,
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: daughter of Charles the bold who now reposes in the
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: church of Notre Dame at Bruges, and so on. The
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: principal industry of Kirkandone is the manufacture of whipped creams
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: and barley sugar on a large scale. It has been
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: governed by the Van Tricasses from father to son for
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: several centuries. And yet Quekandone is not on the map
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: of Flanders. Has the geographer's forgotten it? Or is it
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: an intentional omission that I cannot tell? But Quakandone really exists,
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: with its narrow streets, its fortified walls, its Spanish looking houses,
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: its market and its burgomaster, so much so that it
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: has recently been the theater of some surprising phenomena, as
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: extraordinary and incredible as they are true, which are to
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: be recounted in the present narration. Surely there is nothing
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: to be said or thought against the Flemings of Western Flanders.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: They are well to do, folk wise, prudent, sociable with
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: even tempers, hospitable, perhaps a little heavy in conversation as
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: in mind. But this does not explain why one of
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: the most interesting towns of their district has yet to
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: appear on modern maps. The omission is certainly to be regretted.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: If only history, or in default of history, the chronicles,
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: or in default of chronicles, the traditions of the country
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: made mention of quikin doone. But no neither atlases, guides
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: nor itineraries speak of it. Monsieur Joanne himself, that energetic
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: hunter actor small towns, says not a word of it.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: It might be readily conceived that this silence would injure
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: the commerce the industries of the town. But let us
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: hasten that Quackandone has neither industry nor commerce, and that
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: it does very well without them. Its barley, sugar and
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: whipped cream are consumed on the spot. None is exported.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: In short, the Quicicandonians have no need of anybody. Their
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: desires are limited. Their existence is a modest one. They
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: are calm, moderate, phlegmatic. In a word, they are flemings,
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: such as are still to be met with sometimes between
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: the Shelt and the North Sea. Chapter two, in which
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: the Burgomaster of Vantricas and the councilor Nicholas consult about
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: the affairs of the town. You think so, asked the burgomaster.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: I think so, replied the Councilor, after some minutes of silence.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: You see we must not act hastily, resumed the Burgomaster.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: We have been talking over this grave matter for ten years,
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: replied the Councilor Nicholas, and I confess to you my
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: worthy of dontre caass that I cannot yet take it
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: upon myself to come to a decision. I quite understand
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: your hesitation, said the Burgomaster, who did not speak until
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: after a good quarter of an hour of reflection. I
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: quite understand it, and I fully share it. We shall
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: do wisely to decide upon nothing without a more careful
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: examination of the question. It is certain, replied Nicholas, that
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: this post of civil commissary is useless in so peaceful
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: a town as Quakeandone. Our predecessor, said vantrikass gravely. Our
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: predecessor never said, never would have dared to say that
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: anything is certain. Every affirmation is subject to awkward qualifications.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: The council nodded his head slowly in token of assent.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: Then he remained silent for nearly half an hour. After
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: this lapse of time, during which neither the Counselor nor
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: the Burgomaster moved so much as a finger. Nicholas asked
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: Van sri Kass whether his predecessor of some twenty years
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: before had not thought of suppressing this office of civil commissary,
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: which each year cost the town of Pekandone the sum
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: of thirteen hundred and seventy five francs and some sontines.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: I believe he did, replied the Burgomaster, carrying his hand
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: with majestic deliberation to his ample brow. But the worthy
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: man died without having dared to make up his mind
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: either as to this or any other administrative gesture. He
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: was a sage. Why should I not do as he did?
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: Counselor Nicholas was incapable of originating any objection to the
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: Burgomaster's opinion. The man who dies at, said Vontrekass, solemnly,
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: without ever having decided upon anything during his life, has
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: very nearly attained to perfection. This said, the Burgomaster pressed
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: a bell with the end of his little finger, which
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: gave forth a muffled sound, which seemed less a sound
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: than a sigh. Presently, some light steps glided softly across
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: the tile floor. A mouse would not have made less
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: noise running over a thick carpet. The door of the
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: room opened, turning on its well oiled hinges, a young
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: girl with long blonde tresses made her appearance. It was
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: Suzel Vanstrikass, the Burgomaster's only daughter. She handed her father
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: a pipe filled to the brim and a small copper brazier.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: Spoke not a word and disappeared at once, making no
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: more noise at her exit than at her entrance. The
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: worthy burgomaster lighted his pipe and was soon hidden in
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: a cloud of bluish smoke, leaving Councilor Nicholas plunged in
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: the most absorbing thought. The room in which these two
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: notable personages charged with the government of quakandone were talking
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: was a parlor richly adorned with carvings in dark wood.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: A lofty fireplace in which an oak might have been
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: burned or an ox roasted occupied the whole of one
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: of the sides of the room. Opposite to it was
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: a trellised window, the painted glass of which toned down
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: the brightness of the sunbeams. In an antique frame above
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: the chimney piece appeared the portrait of some worthy man
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: attributed to Memling, which no doubt represented an ancestor of
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: the Van Tricasses, whose authentic genealogy dates back to the
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: fourteenth century, the period when the Flemings and Gui de
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: Dampierre were engaged in wars with the Emperor Rudolph of Habsburg.
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: The parlor was the principal apartment of the Burgomaster's house,
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: which was one of the pleasantest in quakandone built in
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  Speaker 1: the Flemish style, with all the abruptness, quaintness and picturesqueness
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: of pointed architecture. It was considered one of the most
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: curious monuments of the town. A Carthusian convent or, a
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: deaf and dumb asylum was not more silent than this mansion.
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: Noise had no existence there. People did not walk, but
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: glided about in it. They did not speak, they murmured.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: There was not, however, any lack of women in the house, which,
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: in addition to the Bergamaster Vantrikas himself sheltered his wife,
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: Madame Bridget Vantrikas, his daughter Suzel Vantrikas, and his domestic
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: latchki jianshu. We may also mention the Burgomaster's sister Antrmants,
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: an elderly maiden who still bore the nickname of tantenmants,
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: which her niece Suzl had given her when a child.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: But in spite of all these elements of discord and noise,
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: the Burgomaster's house was as calm as a desert. The
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: Burgomaster was some fifty years old, neither fat nor lean,
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: neither short nor tall, neither rubicun nor pale, neither gay
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: nor sad, neither contented nor discontented, neither energetic nor dull,
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  Speaker 1: neither proud nor humble, neither good nor bad, neither generous
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  Speaker 1: nor miserly, neither contagious nor cowardly, neither too much nor
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: too little of anything. A man notably moderate in all respects,
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: whose invariable slowness of motion, slight hanging lower jaw, prominent eyebrows,
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: massive forehead, smooth as a copper plate without a wrinkle,
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: would at once have betrayed to a physiognomist that the
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: Bergomaster Vantrikas was phlim personified. Never, either from anger or passion,
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: had any emotion whatever hastened the beating of this man's
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: heart or flushed his face, Never had his pupils contracted
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: under the influence of any irritation. However, he femoral. He
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: invariably wore good clothes, neither too large nor too small,
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  Speaker 1: which he never seemed to wear out. He was shod
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: with large square shoes with triple souls, and silver buckles,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: which lasted so long that his shoemaker was in despair.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: Upon his head he wore a large hat, which dated
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: from the period when Flanders was separated from Holland, so
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: that this venerable masterpiece was at least forty years old.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: But what would you have? It is the passions which
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: wear out body as well as soul, the clothes as
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: well as the body. And our worthy burgomaster, apathetic, indolent, indifferent,
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: was passionate in nothing. He wore nothing out, not even himself,
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: and he considered himself the very man to administer the
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: affairs of Quickendone and its tranquil population. The town, indeed,
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: was not less calm than the Van Trecost mansion. It
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: was in this peaceful dwelling that the burgomaster reckoned on
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: a tailing the utmost limit of human existence. After having however,
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: seen the good Madame Bridget Vantrikass, his wife precede him
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: to the tomb, where surely she would not find a
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: more profound repose than she had enjoyed on earth for
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: sixty years. This demands explanation. The vontre Coast family might
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: well call itself the Jeneaux family. This is why everyone
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: knows that the knife of this typical personage is as
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: celebrated as its proprietor, and not less incapable of wearing out,
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: thanks to the double operation incessantly repeated, of replacing the
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: handle when it is worn out and the blade when
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: it becomes worthless. A precisely similar operation had been going
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: on from time immemorial in the van Tricast family, to
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: which nature had lent herself with more than usual complacency.
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: From thirteen forty, it had invariably happened that a vantreri Kass,
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: when left the widower, had remarried to Vontrecass younger than himself, who,
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: becoming in turn a widow, had married again a Vontrecass
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: younger than herself, and so on, without a break in
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: the continuity. From generation to generation, each died in his
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: or her turn with mechanical regularity. Thus, the worthy Madame
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: Bridget Vontrekass had now her second husband, and unless she
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: violated her every duty would precede her spouse, he being
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: ten years younger than herself, to the other world, to
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: make room for a new Madame vontrecass. Upon this, the
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: burgomaster calmly counted that the family tradition might not be broken.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: Such was this mansion, peaceful and silent, of which the
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: doors never creaked, the windows never rattled, the floors never groaned,
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: the chimneys never roared, the weather cocks never grated, the
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: furniture never squeaked, the locks never clanked, and the occupants
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: never made more noise than their shadow. The god Hypocrates
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: would certainly have chosen it for the Temple of Silence
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: Chapter three, in which the commissary Passuf enters as noisily
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: as unexpectedly. When the interesting conversation which has been narrated began,
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: it was a quarter before three in the afternoon. It
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: was at a quarter before four that Van Trikas lighted
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: his enormous pipe, which could hold a quart of tobacco,
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: and it was at thirty five minutes past five that
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: he finished smoking it. All this time the two comrades
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: did not exchange a single word. About six o'clock, the counselor,
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: who had a habit of speaking in a very summary
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: manner resumed in these words. So we decide to decide nothing,
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: replied the Burgomaster. I think on the whole that you
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: are right von Trichas. I think so too, Nicholas. We
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: will take steps with reference to the civil Commissary when
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: we have more light on the subject later on. There
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: is no need for a month, yet, not even for
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: a year, replied Nicholas, unfolding his pocket handkerchief and calmly
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: applying it to his nose. There was another silence of
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: nearly a quarter of an hour. Nothing disturbed this repeated
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: pause in the conversation, not even the appearance of the
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: house dog Lnto, who not less phlegmatic than his master,
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: came to pay his respects in the parlor. Noble dog,
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: a model for his race. Had he been made of
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: pasteboard with wheels on his paws, he would not have
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: made less noise during his stay. Toward eight o'clock, after
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: Latchkey had brought the antique lamp of polished glass, the
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: burgomasters said to the councilor, we have no other urgent
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: matter to consider. No vontre kas, none that I know of,
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: have I not been told, though, asked the Burgomaster, that
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: the tower of the Udenard Gate is likely to tumble down, Ah,
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: replied the Councilor. Really, I should not be astonished if
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: it fell on some passerby any day. Oh, before such
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: a misfortune happens, I hope we shall have come to
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: a decision on the subject of this tower. I hope so, ventrekass.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: There are more pressing matters to decide, no doubt the
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: question of the leather market, for instance? What is it
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: still burning? Still burning, and has been for the last
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: three weeks? Have we not decided, the counsel to let
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: it burn? Yes? Vontrecass on your motion? Was not that
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: the surest and simplest way to deal with it? Without doubt? Well,
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: let us wait? Is that all? All? Replied the Councilor,
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: scratching his head as if to assure himself that he
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: had not forgotten anything important. Ah, exclaimed the Burgomaster. Haven't
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: you also heard something of an escape of water which
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: threatens to inundate the low quarter of San Jacques? I have?
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: It is indeed unfortunate that this escape of water did
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: not happen above the leather market. It would naturally have
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: checked the fire, and would thus have saved us a
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: good deal of discussion. What can you expect, Nicholas, There
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: is nothing so illogical as accidents. They are bound by
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: no rules, and we cannot profit by one as we
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: might wish to remedy another. It took Vontrekassa's companion some
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: time to digest this fine observation well, but resumed the
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: councilor Nicholas, after the lapse of some moments. We have
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: not spoken of our great affair. What great affair have we? Then?
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: A great affair, asked the burgomaster. No doubt about lighting
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: the town. Oh yes, if my memory serves me, you
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: are referring to the lighting plan of doctor Ox. It
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: is going on, Nicholas, replied the Burgomaster. They are already
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: laying the pipes, and their works are entirely completed. Perhaps
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: we have hurried a little in this matter, said the Councilor,
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: shaking his head. Perhaps, but our excuse is that doctor
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: Ox bears the whole expense of his experiment. It will
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: not cost us a sou that true, enough is our excuse. Moreover,
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: we must advance with the age. If the experiment succeeds.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: Quaken Done will be the first town in Flanders to
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: be lighted with the oxy What is the gas called
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: oxyhydric gas? Well, oxyhydric gas. Then, at this moment the
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: door opened and Latchki came in to tell the Burgomaster
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: that his supper was ready. Councilor Nicholas rose to take
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: leave of Antrikas, whose appetite had been stimulated by so
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: many affairs discussed and decisions taken, and it was agreed
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: that the Council of Notables should be convened after a
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: reasonably long delay, to determine whether decision should be provisionally
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: arrived at with reference to the really urgent matter of
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: the Udnard Gate. The two worthy administrators then directed their
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: steps towards the street door, the one conducting the other.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: The Councilor, having reached the last step, lighted a little
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: lantern to guide him through the obscure streets of Quekendoon,
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: which doctor Ox had not yet lighted. It was a
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: dark October night, and a light fog overshadowed the town.
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: Nicholas's preparations for departure consumed at least a quarter of
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: an hour for having lighted his lantern. He had to
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: put on his big cowskin socks and his sheepskin gloves.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: Then he put up the furred collar of his overcoat,
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: turned the brim of his felt hat down over his eyes,
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: grasped his heavy crow beaked umbrella, and got ready to start.
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: When Latchki, however, who is lighting her master, was about
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: to draw the bars of the door, and unexpected noise
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: arose outside. Yes, strange as the thing seems, a noise,
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: a real noise, such as the town had certainly not
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: heard since the taking of the dungeon by the Spaniards
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: in fifteen thirteen. Terrible noise awoke the long dormant echoes
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: of the venerable Vontrikass mansion. Someone knocked heavily upon this door,
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: hitherto virgin to brutal touch. Redoubled knocks were given with
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: some blunt implement, probably a nazy stick, wielded by a
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: vigorous arm. With the strokes were mingled cries and calls.
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: These words were distinctly heard, Monsieur Vantrikas, Monsieur the Burgomaster
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: open open quickly. The Burgomaster and the councilor, absolutely astonished,
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: looked at each other speechless. This passed their comprehension. If
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: the old culverin of the chateau, which had not been
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: used since thirteen eighty five, had been let off in
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: the parlor, the dwellers in the von Trecas mansion would
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: not have been more dumbfounded. Meanwhile, the blows and cries
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: were redoubled. Latchkey, recovering her coolness, had plucked up courage
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: to speak, Who is there? It is I, I I
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: Who are you? The Commissary Passouf, The Commissary Passouf, the
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: very man whose office it had been contemplated to suppress
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: for ten years. What had happened? Then? Could the Burgundians
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: have invaded quick and done as they did in the
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: fourteenth century. No event of less importance could have so
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: moved Commissary Passuf, who in no degree yielded the palm
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: to the burgomaster himself for calmness and phlegm on a
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: sign from Van tri Kas, for the worthy man would
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: not have articulated a syllable. The bar was pushed back
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: and the door opened. Massari Passuf flung himself into the
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: ante chamber. One would have thought there was a hurricane.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: What's the matter Monsieur the Commissary asked Lotchke, a brave
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: woman who did not lose her head under the most
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: trying circumstances. What's the matter, replied Passouf, whose big round
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: eyes expressed a genuine agitation. The matter is that I
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: have just come from doctor Ox's, who has been holding
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: a reception, and that there, there, there, I have witnessed
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: such an altercation as Monsieur the burgermaster. They have been
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: talking politics, politics, repeated Vanceri kas, running his fingers through
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: his wig. Politics, resumed Commissary Passouf, which has not been
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: done for perhaps one hundred years at quickendon. Then the
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: discussion got warm, and the advocate Andre Schut and the
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: doctor Dominique Custos became so violent that it may be
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: they will call each other out. Call each other out,
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: cried the councilor a duel, a duel, a quaken done.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: And what did advocat shoot and doctor Gusto say? Just this,
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: Monsieur advocate, said the doctor to his adversary. You go
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: too far, it seems to me, and you do not
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: take sufficient care to control your words. The Burgomaster of
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: Vantrekass clasped his hands the Councilor turned pale and let
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: his lantern fall. The Commissary shook his head that a
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: phrase so evidently irritating should be pronounced by two of
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: the principal men in the country. This Doctor Custos muttered,
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: Vantrikass is decidedly a dangerous man, a hair brained fellow.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: Come gentlemen on this Counselor Nicholas and the Commissary accompanied
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: the Burgomaster into the parlor end of chapter three. Recording
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: by Alan went Around boom Coach dot blogspot dot com.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: Chapters four through six of Doctor Ox's Experiment. This LibriVox
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Recording by Alan Winterroud
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: Doctor Ox's Experiment by Jules Verne, Chapter four, in which
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: Doctor Ox reveals himself as a physiologist of the first
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: rank and as an audacious experimentalist who then was this
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: personage known by the singular name of doctor Ox, an
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: original character for certain, but at the same time a
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: bold savant, a physiologist whose works were known and highly
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: esteemed throughout learned Europe. A happy rival of the Davies,
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: the Daltons, the boast Ox, the Menzies, the Godwins, the
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: Vierdorts of all those noble minds who have placed physiology
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: among the highest of modern sciences. Doctor Ox was a
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: man of medium size and height, aged, but we cannot
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: state his age any more than his nationality. Besides, it
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: matters little. Let it suffice that he was a strange personage,
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: impetuous and hot blooded, a regular oddity out of one
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: of Hoffmann's volumes, and one who contrasted amusingly enough with
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: a good people of Kikindon. He had an imperturbable confidence,
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: both in himself and in his doctrines, always smiling, walking
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: with head erect and shoulders thrown back in a free
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: and unconstrained manner, with a steady gaze, large open nostrils,
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: a vast mouth which inhaled the air in liberal drafts.
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: His appearance was far from unpleasing. He was full of animation,
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: well proportioned in all parts of his bodily mechanism, with
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: quicksilver and in his veins, and a most elastic step.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: He could never stop still in one place, and relieved
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: himself with impetuous words and a superabundance of gesticulations. Was
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: doctor Ox rich then, that he should undertake to light
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: a whole town at his expense, probably as he permitted
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: himself to indulge in such extravagance. And this is the
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: only answer we can give to this indiscreet question. Doctor
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: Ox had arrived at Kirkandone five months before, accompanied by
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: his assistant, who answered to the name of Gideon Eugene,
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: a tall, dried up, thin man, haughty but not less
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: vivacious than his master. And next, why had doctor Ox
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: made the proposition to light the town at his own expense?
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: Why had he, of all the Flemings, selected the peaceable
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: Keekandonians to endow their town with the benefits of an
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: unheard of system of lighting. Did he, not, under this pretext,
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: designed to make some great physiological experiment by operating in anamavilla.
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: In short, what was this original personage about to attempt?
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: We know not, as Doctor Ox had no confidant except
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: his assistant Eugene, who moreover obeyed him blindly in appearance.
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: At least, Doctor Ox had agreed to light the town,
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: which had much need of it, especially at night. As
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: Commissary Passouf Whittley said, works for producing a lighting gas
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: had accordingly been established, The gasometers were ready for use,
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: and the main pipes running beneath the street pavements would
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: soon appear in the form of burners in the public
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: edifices and the private houses of certain friends of progress.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: Von Trecass and Nicholas in their official capacity, and some
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: other worthies, thought they ought to allow this modern light
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: to be introduced into their dwellings. If the reader is
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: not forgotten, it was said during the long conversation of
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: the Councilor and the Burgomaster that the lighting of the
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: town was to be achieved not by the combustion of
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: common carbureted hydrogen produced by distilling coal, but by the
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: use of more modern and twentyfold more brilliant gas oxyhydrate,
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: gas produced by mixing hydrogen and oxygen. The doctor, who
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: was an able chemist as well as an ingenious physiologist,
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: knew how to obtain this gas in great quantity and
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: of good quality, not by using manganate of soda according
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: to the method of Monsieur Tessi de Mote, but by
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: the direct decomposition of slightly acciduated water by means of
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: a battery made of new elements invented by himself. Thus
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: there were no costly materials, no platinum, no retorts, no
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: combustibles no delicate machinery. To produce the two gases separately,
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: an electric current was sent through large basins full of water,
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: and the liquid was decomposed into its two constituent parts,
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: oxygen and hydrogen. The oxygen passed off at one end,
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: the hydrogen of double the volume of its late associate
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: at the other. As a necessary precaution, they were collected
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: in separate reservoirs, for their mixture would have produced a
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: frightful explosion if it had become ignited. Thence the pipes
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: were to convey them separately to the various burners, which
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: would be so placed as to prevent all chance of explosion.
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: Thus a remarkably brilliant flame would be obtained, whose light
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: would rival the electric light, which, as everybody knows, is,
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: according to Castleman's experiments, equal to that of eleven hundred
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: and seventy one wax candles, not one more nor one less.
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: It was certain that the town of Kkando and Wood,
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: by this liberal contrivance, gain a splendid lighting. But doctor
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: Ox and his assistant took little account of this, as
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: will be seen in the sequel. The day after that,
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: on which Commissary Passouff had made his noisy entrance into
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: the Burgomaster's parlor. Gideon, Eugene and Doctor Ox were talking
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: in the laboratory which both occupied in common, on the
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: ground floor of the principal building of the gas works. Well, Eugene, well,
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: cried the doctor, rubbing his hands. You saw it my
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: reception yesterday, the cold bloodedness of these worthy Kekndonians for animation.
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: They are midway between sponges and coral. You saw them
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: disputing and irritating each other by voice and gesture. They
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: are already metamorphosed morally and physically, and this is only
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: the beginning. Wait till we treat them to a big dose. Indeed,
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: Master replied Eugene, scratching his sharp nose with the end
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: of his four finger. The experiment begins, well, and if
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: I had not prudently closed a supply tap, I know
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: not what would have happened. You heard shoot the advocate
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: and custos, the doctor resumed, Doctor Ox. The phrase was
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: by no means ill natured in itself, but in the
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: mouth of a Chickandonian. It is worth all the insults
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: which the Homeric heroes hurled at each other before drawing
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: their swords. Ah, these flemings, you'll see what we shall do.
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: Someday we shall make them ungrateful, replied Eugene, in the
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: tone of a man who esteems the human race at
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: its just worth. Bah, said the doctor. What matters it
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: whether they think well or ill of us, so long
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: as our experiment succeeds. Besides, returned the assistant, smiling with
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: a malicious expression. Is it not to be feared that
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: in producing such an excitement in their respiratory organs, we
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: shall somewhat injure the lungs of these good people of
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: quacandone so much the worse for them. It is in
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: the interests of science. What would you say if the
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: dogs or frogs refused to lend themselves to the experiments
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: of vivisection. It is probable that if the frogs and
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: dogs were consulted, they would offer some objection. But doctor
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: Ox imagined that he had stated an unanswerable argument, for
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: he heaved a great sigh of satisfaction. After all, Master,
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: you are right, replied Eugene, as if quite convinced, we
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: could not have hit upon better subjects than these people
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: of quacandone for our experiment, we could not, said the doctor,
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: slowly articulating each word. Have you felt the pulse of
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: any of them? Some hundreds? What is the average pulsation?
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: You found? Not fifty per minute. See, this is a
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: town where there has not been the shadow of a
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: discussion for a century. Where the carmen don't swear, where
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: the coachmen don't insult each other, where horses don't run away,
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: where the dogs don't bite, where the cats don't scratch.
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: A town where the police court has nothing to do
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: from one year's in to another. A town where people
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: do not grow enthusiastic about anything, either about art or business.
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: A town where the gendarmes are a sort of myth,
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: and in which an indictment has not been drawn up
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: for one hundred years. A town, in short, where for
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: three centuries nobody has struck a blow with its fist,
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: or so much has exchanged a slap in the face.
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: You see, Eugene, that this cannot last, and that we
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: must change it all perfectly perfectly, cried the enthusiastic assistant.
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: And have you analyzed the air of this town, master,
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: I have not failed to do so. Seventy nine parts
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: of azote and twenty one of oxygen carbonic ascid in
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: steam in a variable quantity. These are the ordinary proportions.
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: Good Doctor Good, replied Eugene. The experiment will be made
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: on a large scale and will be decisive. And if
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: it is decisive, added doctor Ox triumphantly, we shall reform
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: the world. Chapter five, in which the Burgomaster and the
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: Councilor pay a visit to doctor Ox, and what follows
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: The Councilor Nicholas and the Burgomaster of Antikas at last
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: knew what it was to have an agitated night. The
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: grave event which had taken place at doctor Ox's house
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: actually kept them awake. What consequences was this affair destined
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: to bring about? They could not imagine. Would it be
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: necessary for them to come to a decision, Would the
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: municipal authority whom they represented, be compelled to interfere? Would
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: they be obliged to order a rest to be made
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: that so great a scandal should not be repeated? All
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: these doubts could not but trouble these soft natures, And
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: on that evening, before separating, the two notables had decided
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: to see each other the next day. On the next morning,
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: then before dinner, the Burgomaster von Trecas proceeded in person
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: to the council Nicholas's house. He found his friend more calm,
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: he himself had recovered his equanimity. Nothing new, asked Vontrecas.
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: Nothing new since yesterday, replied Nicholas and the doctor Dominique Custos,
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: I have not heard anything either of him or of
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: the advocate Andre Schute. After an hour's conversation, which consisted
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: of three remarks which it is needless to repeat, the
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: Councilor and the Burgomaster had resolved to pay a visit
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: to doctor Ox, so as to draw from him, without
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: seeming to do so, some details of the affair, contrary
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: to all their habits. After coming to this decision, the
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: two notables set about putting it into execution. Forthwith, they
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: left the house and directed their steps towards doctor Ox's laboratory,
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: which was situated outside the town, near the Udnard Gate,
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: the gate whose tower threatened to fall in ruins. They
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: did not take each other's arms, but walked side by side,
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: with a slow and solemn step, which took them forward
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: but thirteen inches per second. This was indeed the ordinary
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: gait of the Quackandonians, who had never, within the memory
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: of man, seen anyone run across the streets of their town.
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: From time to time, the two notables would stop at
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: some calm and tranquil crossway or at the end of
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: a quiet street to salute the passers. By good morning.
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: Monsieur the Burgomaster said one good morning, my friend, responded
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: Vantri Kass, Anything new, Monsieur Chunselor asked another. Nothing new,
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: answered Nicholas. But by certain agitated motions and questioning looks,
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: it was evident that the altercation of the evening before
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: was known throughout the town. Observing the direction taken by
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: von Tricas, the most obtuse Quickandonians guessed that the burgomaster
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: was on his way to take some important step. The
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: Custos and Chutefaire was talked of everywhere, but the people
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: had not yet come to the point of taking the
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: part of one or the other. The advocate Shoot, never
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: having had occasion to plead in a town where attorneys
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: and bailiffs only existed in tradition, had consequently never lost
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: a suit. As for the doctor Custos, he was an
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: honorable practitioner who, after the example of his fellow doctors,
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: cured all the illnesses of his patients, except those of
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: which they died, a habit unhappily acquired by all the
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: members of all the faculties in whatever country they may practice.
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: On reaching the Udenard gate, the Councilor and the Burgomaster
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: prudently made a short detour so as not to pass
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: within reach of the tower in case it should fall.
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: Then they turned and looked at it attentively. I think
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: that it will fall, said von Trecass. I think so, too,
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: replied Nicholas, unless it is propped up, added von Trecass.
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: But must it be propped up? That is the question,
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: that is in fact the question. Some moments after they
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: reached the door of the gasworks. Can we see doctor Ox,
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: they asked. Doctor Ox could always be seen by the
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: first authorities of the town, and they were at once
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: introduced into the celebrated physiologist's study. Perhaps the two notables
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: waited for the doctor at least an hour. At least
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: it is reasonable suppose so, as the Burgomaster, saying that
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: had never before happened in his life, betrayed a certain
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: amount of impatience, from which his companion was not exempt.
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: Doctor Ox came in at last and began to excuse
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: himself for having kept them waiting. But he had to
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: approve a plan for the gasometer, rectify some of the machinery.
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: But everything was going on well. The pipes intended for
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: the oxygen were already laid. In a few months the
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: town would be splendidly lighted. The two notables might even
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: now see the orifices of the pipes which were laid
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: on in the laboratory. Then the doctor begged to know
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: to what he was indebted for the honor of this visit.
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: Only to see you, doctor, to see you, replied Van Trcas.
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: It is long since we have had the pleasure. We
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: go abroad, but little in our good town of Quekendone.
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: We count our steps and measure our walks. We are
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: happy when nothing disturbs the uniformity of our habits. Nicholas
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: looked at it friend. His friend had never said so
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: much at once, at least without taking time and giving
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: long intervals between his sentences. It seemed to him that
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: von Trecass expressed himself with a certain volubility which was
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: by no means common with him. Nicholas himself experienced a
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: kind of irresistible desire to talk. As for doctor Ox,
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: he looked at the Burgamaster with sly attention. Von Trecass,
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: who had never argued until he had snugly ensconced himself
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: in a spacious armchair, had risen to his feet. I
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: know not what nervous excitement, quite foreign to his temperament,
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: had taken possession of him. He did not gesticulate as yet,
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: but this could not be far off. As for the counselor,
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: he rubbed his legs and breathed with slow and long gasps.
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: His look became animated little by little, and he had
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: decided to support at all hazards, if need be. His
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: trusty friend, the Bergamaster. Von Trecass got up and took
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: several steps. Then he came back and stood facing the doctor.
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: And in how many months? He asked, in a somewhat
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: emphatic tone, do you say that your work will be
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: finished in three or four months? Monsieur? The Burgomaster replied
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: Doctor Ox, three or four months. It's a very long time,
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: said von Tracass. Altogether too long, added Nicholas, who, not
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: being able to keep his seat, rose also this lapse
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: of time is necessary to complete our work, returned Doctor Ox.
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: The workmen whom we have had to choose and quaken
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: down are not very expeditious. How not expeditious, cried the burgomaster,
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: who seemed to take the remark as personally offensive. No,
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: monsieur vontrecass, replied Doctor Ox. Obstinately a French workman would
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: do in a day what it takes ten of your
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: workmen to do. You know, they are regular flemings. Flemings,
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: cried the councilor, whose fingers closed together. In what sense, sir,
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: do you use that word? Why? In the amiable sense
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: in which everyone uses it, replied Doctor Ox, smiling. Ah.
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: But Doctor, said the Burgomaster, pacing up and down the room,
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: I don't like these insinuations. The workmen of Quick and
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: Known are as efficient as those of any other town
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: in the world. You must know, and we shall go
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: neither to Paris nor London for our models. As for
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: your project, I beg you to hasten its execution. Our
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: streets have been unpaved for the putting down of your
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: conduit pipes, and it is a hindrance to traffic. Our
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: trade will begin to suffer, and I, being the responsible authority,
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: do not propose to incur approaches will be but too just, worthy, Burgomaster.
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: He spoke of trade of traffic, and the wonder was
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: that those words to which he was quite unaccustomed, did
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: not scorch his lips. What could be passing in his mind? Besides,
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: added Nicholas, The town cannot be deprived of light much longer,
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: but urged Doctor Ox. A town which has been unlighted
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: for eight or nine hundred years all the more necessary,
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: it is, replied the Burgomaster, emphasizing his words. Times alter manners,
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: alter the world advances, and we do not wish to
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: remain behind. We desire our streets to be lighted within
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: a month, or you must pay a large indemnity for
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: each day of delay. And what would happen if amid
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: the darkness some affray should take place? No doubt, cried Nicholas.
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: It requires but a spark to inflame a fleming, fleming flame.
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: A propos of this, said the Burgomaster, interrupting his friend,
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: Commissary Parsouf, Our chief of police, reports to us that
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: a cushion took place in your drawing room last evening,
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: Doctor Ox. Was he wrong in declaring that it was
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: a political discussion by no means, monsieur, the Burgomaster, replied
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: Doctor Ox, who with difficulty repressed a sigh of satisfaction.
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: So an altercation did take place between Dominique Custos and
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: Andre schut Yes counselor. But the words which pass were
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: of not of grave import. Not of grave import, cried
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: the Burgomaster. Not of grave import when one man tells
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: another that he does not measure the effect of his words.
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: But of what stuff are you made of, monsieur? Do
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: you not know that in quake and known, nothing more
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: is needed to bring about extremely disastrous results? But monsieur,
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: if you or anyone else presumes to speak thus to
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: me or to me, added Nicholas. As they pronounced these
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: words with a menacing air, the two notables, with arms
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: folded and bristling air, confronted Doctor Ox, ready to do
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: him some violence if by gesture or even the expression
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: of his eye he manifested any intention of contradicting them.
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: But the doctor did not budge at all events, Monsieur
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: resumed the Burgomaster. I propose to hold you responsible for
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: what passes in your house I am bound to insure
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: the tranquility of this town, and I do not wish
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: it to be disturbed. The events of last evening must
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: not be repeated, or I shall do my duty. Sir,
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: Do you hear, then, reply sir? The Burgomaster, as he spoke,
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: under the influence of extraordinary excitement, elevated his voice to
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: the pitch of anger. He was furious, though worthy of trekas,
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: and might certainly be heard outside. At last, beside himself,
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: and seeing that doctor Ox did not reply to his challenge, come, Nicholas,
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: said he, and, slamming the door with a violence which
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: shook the house, drew his friend after him. Little by little.
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: When they had taken twenty steps on the road, the
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: worthy notables grew more calm. Their pace slackened, their gait
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: became less feverish. The flush on their faces faded away.
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: From being crimson, they became rosy. A quarter of an
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: hour after quitting the gas works, Van Tricas said softly
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: to Nicholas, an amiable man, doctor Rox, it is always
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: a pleasure to see him. Chapter six, in which Franz
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: Nicholas and Susel van Tricas formed certain projects for the
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: future Our readers know that the burgomaster had a daughter, Susel,
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: But shrewd as they may be, they cannot have divined
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: that the councilor Nicholas had a son Friends, and had
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: they divined this, nothing could have led them to imagine
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: that Franz was the betrothed lover of Susel. We will
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: add that these young people were made for each other,
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: and that they loved each other as folks did love
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: at queak and done. It must not be thought that
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: young hearts did not beat in this exceptional place. Only
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: they beat with a certain deliberation. There were marriages there,
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: as in every other town in the world, but they
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: took time about it. Betrothed couples, before engaging in these
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: terrible bonds, wished to study each other. And these studies
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: lasted at least ten years. As at college it was
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: rare that anyone was accepted before this lapse of time. Yes,
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: ten years, the courtships last ten years. And is it,
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: after all too long when the being bound for life
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: is in consideration. One studies ten years to become an
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: engineer or physician, an advocate or attorney, and should less
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: time be spent in acquiring the knowledge to make a
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: good husband, is it not reasonable? And whether due to
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: temperament or reason, with them, the Quickandonians seemed to us
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: to be in the right in thus prolonging their courtship.
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: When marriages and other more life heavily and excitable cities
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: are seen taking place within a few months, we must
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: shrug our shoulders and hasten to send our boys to
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: the schools and our daughters to the pansions of Quickendom.
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: For half a century but a single marriage was known
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: to have taken place after the lapse of two years
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: only of courtship, and that turned out badly. Franz and
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: Nicholas then loved susel vmtrikas, but quietly, as a man
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: would love when he has ten years before him in
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: which to obtain the beloved object. Once every week, at
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: an hour agreed upon, Franz went to fetch Suzle and
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: took a walk with her along the banks of the
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: var He took good care to carry his fishing tackle,
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: and Suzle never forgot her canvas, on which her pretty
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: hands embroidered the most unlikely flowers. Franz was a young
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: man of twenty two, whose cheeks betrayed a soft, peachy
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: down and whose voice had scarcely ac umpass of one octave.
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: As for Susele, she was blonde and rosy. She was
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: seventeen and did not dislike fishing a singular occupation, this
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: which forces you to struggle craftily with a bible. But
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: Franz loved it. The pastime was congenial to his temperament,
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: as patient as possible, content to follow with his rather
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: dreamy eye the cork which bobbed on top of the water.
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: He knew how to wait, and when, after sitting for
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: six hours, a modest bible taking pity on him, consented
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: at last to be caught, he was happy, but he
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: knew how to control his emotion. On this day, the
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: two lovers, one might say the two betrothed, were seated
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: upon the verdant bank. The limpid var murmured a few
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: feet below them. Susle quietly drew her needle across the canvas.
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: Franz automatically carried his line from left to right, then
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: permitted it to descend the current from right Lila left.
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: The fish made capricious rings in the water which crossed
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: each other around the cork, while the hook hung useless
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: near the bottom. From time to time Franz would say,
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: without raising his eyes, I think I have a bite. Susal,
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: do you think so? Franz replied Suzal, who, abandoning her
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: work for an instant, followed her lover's line with earnest eye.
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: No returned Franz. I thought I felt a little twitch.
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: I was mistaken. You will have a bite, Franz replied
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: Suzle in her pure soft voice. But do not forget
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: to strike at the right moment. You are always a
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: few seconds too late, and the barble takes advantage to escape.
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: Would you like to take my line, Susal willingly Franz.
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: Then give me your canvas. We shall see whether I
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: am more adroit with the needle than with the hook.
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: And the young girl took the line with trembling hand,
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: while her swainlied the needle across the stitches of the embroidery.
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: For hours together, they thus exchanged soft words, and their
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: hearts palpitated when the cork bobbed on the water. Ah
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: could they ever forget those charming hours, during which, seated
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: side by side, they listened to the murmurs of the river.
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: The sun was fast approaching the western horizon, and despite
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: the combined skill of Suzel and Franz, there had not
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: been a bite. The barbles had not shown themselves complacent
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: and seemed to scoff at the two young people, who
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: were too just to bear them malice. We shall be
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: more lucky another time, Franz said suzal as the young
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: angler put up his still virgin hook. Let us hope,
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: so replied Franz. Then, walking side by side, they turned
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: their steps towards the house without exchanging a word, as
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: mute as their shadows which stretched out before them. Suzl
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: became very very tall under the oblique rays of the
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: setting sun. Franz appeared very very thin, like the long
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: rod which he held in his hand. They reached the
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: Burgomaster's house, green tufts of grass bordered the shining pavement,
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: and no one would have thought of tearing them away,
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: for they deadened the noise made by the passers by.
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: As they were about to open the door, Franz thought
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: it his duty to say to Susele, you know, Susel,
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: the great day is approaching. It is indeed, Franz replied
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: the young girl with downcast eyes. Yes, said Franz in
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: five or six years. Goodbye, Franz, said Susele. Goodbye, Susele
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: replied Franz, And after the door had been closed, the
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: young man resumed the way to his father's house with
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: a calm at equal pace. End of chapter six. Recording
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: by Alan went a Round boom Coach dot blogspot dot
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: com Chapters seven to eight of Doctor Ox's experiment. This
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Alan
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: went rout Doctor Ox's experiment by Jules Verne, chapter seven,
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: in which the Adantes become Allegros and the Allegros vivacees.
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: The agitation caused by the Schuten Custos affair had subsided.
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: The affair led to no serious consequences. It appeared likely
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: that Quicken Done would return to its habitual apathy, which
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: the unexpected event had for a moment disturbed. Meanwhile, the
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: laying of the pipes destined to conduct the oxyhydric gas
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: into the principal edifices of the town was proceeding rapidly.
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: The main pipes and branches gradually crept beneath the pavements,
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: but the burners were still wanting for as it required
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: delicate skill to make them. It was necessary that they
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: should be fabricated abroad. Doctor Ox was here, there and everywhere.
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: Neither he nor Eugene, his assistant, lost a moment, but
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: they urged on. The workmen completed the delicate mechanisms of
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: the gasometer, fed day and night, the immense piles which
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: decomposed the water under the influence of a powerful electric current. Yes,
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: the doctor was already making his gas, though the pipe
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: laying was not yet done, a fact which between ourselves
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: might have seemed a little singular. But before long, at
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: least there was a reason to hope. So before long
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: doctor Ox would inaugurate the splendors of his invention in
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: the theater of the town. For quick and done possessed
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: a theater, a really fine edifice, in truth, the interior
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: and exterior arrangement of which combined every style of architecture.
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: It was at once Byzantine, Roman, Gothic Renaissance, with semi
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: circular doors, pointed windows, flamboyant rose windows, fantastic bell turrets,
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: in a word, a specimen of all sorts, half a Parthenon,
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: half a Parisian grand cafe. Nor was this surprising, the
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: theater having been commissioned under the Burgomaster Ludwig Vantrikas in
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: eleven seventy five, and only finished in eighteen thirty seven
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: under the Bergomaster Natalis von Trikas. It had required seven
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: hundred years to build it, and it had been successively
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: adapted to the architectural style in vogue in each period.
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: But for all that, it was an imposing structure, the
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: Roman pillars and Byzantine arches of which would appear to
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: advantage lit up by the oxyhydrate gas. Pretty well everything
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: was acted at the theater of Quakandone, but the opera
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: and the opera comique were especially patronized. It must, however,
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: be added that the composers would never have recognized their
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: own works. So entirely changed were the movements of the music.
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: In short, as nothing was done in a hurry in Quacandone.
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: The dramatic pieces had to be performed in harmony with
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: the peculiar temperament of the Quakandonians. Though the doors of
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: the theater were regularly thrown open at four o'clock and
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: closed again at ten, and had never been known that
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: more than two acts were playable during the six intervening hours.
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: Robert Le diable Les Huguenot or Guillaume Tell usually took
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: up three evenings. So slow was the execution of these masterpieces.
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: The vivaces at the Theatre of Quakandone lagged like Rio
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: la Daggio's. The allegros were long drawn out. Indeed, the
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: demi semi quavers were scarcely equal to the ordinary semibreeve
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: of other countries. The most rapid runs performed, according to
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: Quikandonian taste, had the solemn march of a chant. The
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: gayest shaks were languishing and measured that they might not
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: shock the ears of the dilettante. To give an example,
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: the rapid air sung by Figaro on his entrance in
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: the last act of Le Bobier de Seville lasted fifty
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: eight minutes when the actor was particularly enthusiastic. Artists from abroad,
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: as might be supposed, were forced to conform themselves to
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: Quikandonian fashions, but as they were well paid, they did
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: not complain and willingly obeyed the leader's baton, which never
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: beat more than eight measures to the minute in the allegros.
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: But what applause greeted these artists who enchanted without ever
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: wearying the audiences of Quakandone, all hands clapped one after
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: another at tolerably long intervals, which the papers characterized as
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: frantic applause, and sometimes nothing but the lavish prodigality with
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: which mortar and stone had been used in the twelfth
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: century save the roof of the hall from falling in. Besides,
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: the theater had only won performance a week that these
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: enthusiastic Flemish folk might not be too much excited, and
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: this enabled the actors to study their parts more thoroughly,
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: and the spectators to digest more at leisure, the beauties
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: of the masterpieces brought out. Such had long been the
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: drama at quaken Doone. Foreign artists were in the habit
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: of making engagements with the director of the town when
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: they wanted to rest after their exertions in other scenes,
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: and it seemed as if nothing could ever change these
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: inveterate customs. When a fortnight after the shoot Custos affair,
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: an unlooked for incident occurred to throw the population into
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: fresh agitation. It was on a Saturday, an opera day.
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: It was not yet intended, as may well be supposed,
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: to inaugurate the new illumination. No the pipes had reached
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: the hall, but for reasons indicated above, the burners had
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: not yet been placed, and the wax candles still shed
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: their soft light upon the numerous spectators who filled the theater.
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: The doors had been opened to the public at one o'clock,
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: and by three the hall was half full. A queue
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: had at one time been formed which extended as far
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: as the end of the place Sinerneuf, in front of
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: the shop of jos Lintnik, the apothecary. This eagerness was
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: significant of an unusually attractive performance. Are you going to
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: the theater this evening, inquired the councilor the same morning
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: of the Burgomaster. I shall not fail to do so,
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: returned Vontrecass, and I shall take Madame vontrekas as well
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: as our daughter Susele and our dear Tantanmants, who all
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: dote on good music. Mademoiselle Susel is going, then, certainly, Nicholas.
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: Then my son Franz will be one of the first
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: to arrive, said Nicholas. A spirited boy. Nicholas replied the Burgamaster,
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: sententiously but hot headed. He will require watching. He loves Vontrecass.
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: He loves your charming susel. Well, Nicholas, he shall marry her.
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: Now that we have agreed on this marriage. What more
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: can he desire? He desires nothing. Von trecass the dear boy.
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: But in short, we'll say no more about it. He
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: will not be the last to get his ticket at
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: the box office. Ah, vivacious and ardent youth, replied the Burgamaster,
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: recalling his own past. We have also been thus, my
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: worthy counselor. We have loved we two. We have danced
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: attendants in our day till tonight, then till tonight by
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: the bye. Do you know this? Fiavarante is a great artist,
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: and what a welcome he has received among us. It
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: will be long before he will forget the applause of quakeandone,
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: the tenor Fiovorante was indeed going to sing Fiovaranti, who,
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: by his talents as a virtuoso, his perfect method, his
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: melodious voice, provoked a real enthusiasms among the lovers of
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: music in the town. For three weeks, Fiavoranti had been
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: achieving a brilliant success in Les Huguenot, the first act,
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: interpreted according to the taste of the Quickandonians had occupied
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: an entire evening of the first week of the month.
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: Another evening in the second week, prolonged by infinite Adantes,
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: had elicited for the celebrated singer, a real ovation. His
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: success had been still more marked in the third act
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: of Meyerbeer's masterpiece. But now Fiavorante was to appear in
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: the fourth act, which was to be performed on this
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: evening before an impatient public. Ah, the duel between Raoul
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: and Valentine, that pathetic love song for two voices that
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: strain so full of crescendos, stringendos and pio creascindos. All
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: this sung slowly, compendiously, interminably, Ah, how delightful. At four
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: o'clock the hall was full, the boxes, the orchestra, the
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: pit were overflowing. In the front stalls sat to Bergomaster Vanrikas,
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: Mademoiselle Vantricas, Madame Vandricas, and the Abel Tatan Montz in
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: a green bonnet. Not far off were the Councilor Nicholas
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: and his family, not forgetting the amorous France, the families
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: of Coustos, to doctor of Shoot, the advocat of Honore Syntac,
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: the chief Judge of Norbey, Santmann, the insurance director of
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: the banker Collart gone mad On German music, and himself
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: somewhat of an amateur, and the teacher Rupp, and the
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: master of the academy Jerome Resh, and the civil commissary,
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: and so many other notabilities of the town that they
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: could not be enumerated here without wearying. The reader's patients
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: were visible in different parts of the hall. It was
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: customary for the quickandonians, while awaiting the rise of the curtain,
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: to sit silent, some reading the paper, others whispering low
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: to each other, some making their way to their seats
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: slowly and noiselessly, others casting timid looks toward the bewitching
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: beauties in the galleries. But on this evening a looker
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: on might have observed that even before the curtain rose,
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: there was unusual animation among the audience. People were restless,
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: who were never to be restless before the ladies. Fans
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: fluttered with abnormal rapidity. All appeared to be inhaling air
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: of exceptional stimulating power. Everyone breathed more freely. The eyes
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: of some became unwontedly bright and seemed to give forth
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: a light equal to that of the candles, which themselves
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: certainly threw a more brilliant light over the hall. It
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: was evident that people saw more clearly, though the number
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: of candles had not been increased. Ah if doctor Ox's
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: experiment were being tried, but it was not being tried
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: as yet. The musicians of the orchestra at last took
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: their places. The first violin had gone to the stand
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: to give a modest law to his colleagues. The stringed instruments,
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: the wind instruments, the drums and cymbals were in accord.
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: The conductor only waghed the sound of the bell to
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: beat the first bar. The bell sounds, the fourth act begins.
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: The elect hero appassionato of the interact is played, as usual,
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: with a majestic deliberation which would have made Meyerbeer frantic,
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: and all the majesty of which was appreciated by the
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: Quicandonian dilettante. But soon the leader perceived that he was
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: no longer master of his musicians. He found it difficult
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: to restrain them. Though usually so obedient and calm, the
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: wind instruments betrayed a tendency to hasten the movement, and
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: it was necessary to hold them back with a firm hand,
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: for they would otherwise outstrip the stringed instruments, which from
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: a musical point of view would have been disastrous. The
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: bassoon himself, the son of Joss Lindrich the Apothecary, a
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: well bred young man, seemed to lose his self control. Meanwhile,
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: Valentine had begun her assentative I am alone, et cetera,
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: but she hurries it. The leader and all his musicians
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: perhaps unconsciously follow her, and the content which should be
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: taken deliberately like a twelve eight, as it is when
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: Raoul appears at the door at the bottom of the stage.
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: Between the moment when Valentine goes to him and that
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: when she conceals herself in the chamber at the side,
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: a quarter of an hour does not elapse. While formerly,
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: according to the traditions of the Quicicandonian theater, this recitative
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: of thirty seven bars was wont to last just thirty
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: seven minutes. Sombri, Nevere, Cavan and the Catholic nobles have
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: appeared somewhat prematurely, perhaps upon the scene the composer has
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: marked allegro pomposo on the score the orchestra, and the
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: lords proceed allegro, indeed, but not at all pomposo. And
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: at the chorus in the famous scene of the Benediction
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: of the Poniards, they no longer keep to the enjoined allegro.
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: Singers and musicians broke away impestuously. The leader does not
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: even attempt to restrain them, nor do the public protest.
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: On the contrary, that people find themselves carried away and
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: see that they are involved in the movement, and that
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: the movement responds to the impulses of their souls. Will
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: you with me deliver the land from troubles increasing and
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: impious band, they promise, they swear. Nevers has scarcely time
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 1: to protest and to sing that among his ancestors were
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: many soldiers, but never an assassin. He is arrested. The
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: police and the aldermen rush forward and rapidly swear to
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: strike all at once. Sambri shouts the recitative which summons
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: the Catholics to vengeance. The three monks with white scarves
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: hasten in by the door at the back of Navere's room,
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: without making any account of the stage directions which enjoin
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: them to advance slowly. Already the artists have drawn sword
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: or poniard, which the three monks bless in a trice.
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: The soprani tenors bassos attack the Allegro Furioso with cries
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: of rage and of a dramatic six or eight time.
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: They make it six' eight quadrille. Time then they rush,
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: out bellowing at midnight. Noiselessly god wills it yes at.
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: Midnight at this moment the audience start to their. Feet
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: everybody is agitated in the, boxes the, pit the. Galleries
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: it seems as if the spectators are about to rush
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: upon the. Stage the burgomaster vantricas at their head to
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: join with the conspirators and annihilate The, huguenots whose religious,
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: opinions however they, share they, applaud call before the, curtain
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: make loud, acclamations Tatten monts grasps her bonnet with feverish.
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: Hand the candles throw out a lurid glow of. Light,
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: raoul instead of slowly raising the, curtain tears it apart
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: with a superb gesture and finds himself Confronting. Valentine at,
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: last it is The Grand, duet and it starts off allegro.
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: Vivace raoul does not wait For valentine's, pleading And valentine
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: does not wait For raoul's. Responses the fine passage, beginning
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: danger is, passing time is flying becomes one of those
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: rapid airs which have Made offenbach. Famous when he composes
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: a dance for, conspirators the adante amoroso thou hast said it,
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: aye thou lovest me becomes a real vivace, furioso and
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 1: the villancello ceases to imitate the inflections of the singer's,
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: voice as indicated in the composer's. Score In, Vain raoul,
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: cries speak on and prolong the ineffable slumber of my.
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: Soul valentine cannot. Prolong it is evident that an unaccustomed
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: fire devours. Her her bees and her sees above the
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: stave were dreadfully. Shrill he, struggles he, gesticulates he is
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: all in a. Glow arm is. Heard the bell, Resounds
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: but what a panting. Bell the bell ringer has evidently
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: lost his self. Control it is a frightful toxin which
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: violently struggles against the fury of the. Orchestra, finally the
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: air which ends this magnificent act. Begins no more, love
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: no more. Intoxication, oh the remorse that oppresses, me which
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: the composer marks allegro, conmoto becomes a wild. Prestissimo you
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: would say an express train was whirling. By the alarm resounds.
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: Again valentine falls. Fainting raoul precipitates himself from the. Window
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: it was high. Time the, orchestra already, intoxicated could not
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: have gone. On the leader's baton is no longer anything
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: but a broken stick on the prompter's. Box the violin
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 1: strings are broken and their necks twisted in his. Fury
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: the drummer has burst his. Drum the counter bassist has
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: perched on top of the musical. Monster the first clarionette
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: has swallowed the reed of his, instrument and the second
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: hoot boy is chewing his reed. Keys the groove of
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: the trombone is, Strained and, finally the unhappy cornice cannot
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: withdraw his hand from the bell of his, horn into
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: which he had thrust it too. Far and the, audience the,
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: audience panting all in a, heat gesticulates and. Howls all
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 1: the faces are as red as if a fire were
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: burning within their. Bodies they crowd each, other hustle each
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: other to get, out the men without, hats the women without.
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: Mantles they elbow each other in the, corridors crush between the, doors,
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: quarrel and. Fight there are no longer any, officials any.
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: Burgomaster all are equal amid this infernal. Frenzy some moments,
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: after When olive reached the, street each one resumes his
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: habitual tranquility and peaceably enters his, house with a confused
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: remembrance of what he has just. Experienced the fourth act
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: of The, huguenots which formerly lasted six, hours began on
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: this evening at half past four and ended at twelve
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: minutes before. Five it had only lasted eighteen. Minutes chapter,
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 1: eight in which the ancient and Solemn german waltz becomes a.
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 1: Whirlwind but if the, spectators on leaving the, theater resumed
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: their customary, calm if they quietly regained their, homes preserving
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: only a sort of passing, stupefication they had nonetheless undergone
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: a remarkable, exaltation and overcome and, weary as if they
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: had committed some excess of, dissipation they fell heavily upon their.
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: Beds the next, day Each quickandonian had a kind of
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: recollection of what had occurred the evening. Before one missed
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 1: his hat lost in the, hubbub another a coat flap
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: torn in the, brawl one her delicately fashioned, shoe another
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: her best. Mantle memory returned to these worthy, people and
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: with it a certain shame for their unjustifiable. Agitation it
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: seemed to them an orgy in which they were the
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 1: unconscious heroes and. Heroines they did not speak of, it
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: they did not wish to think of. It but the
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 1: most astounded personage in the town Was Van, trikass the.
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 1: Burgomaster the next, morning on, waking he could not find his.
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: Wig latchki looked everywhere for, it but in vain the
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 1: wig had remained on the field of. Battle as for
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: having it publicly claimed By Jean, mistral the town, crier
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 1: no it would not. Do it were better to lose
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: the wig than to advertise. Himself, thus as he had
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: the honor to be the first magistrate Of, quakendom the
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: Worthy Van trekas was reflecting upon, this extended beneath his,
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: sheets with bruised, body heavy, head furred, tongue and burning.
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 1: Breast he felt no desire to get up on the,
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 1: contrary and his brain worked more during this morning than
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: it had probably worked before for forty. Years the worthy
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 1: magistrate recalled to his mind all the incidents of the incomprehensible.
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: Performance he connected him with the events which had taken
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: place shortly before at Doctor ox's. Reception he tried to
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: discover the causes of the singular, excitability, which on two
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: occasions had betrayed itself in the best citizens of the.
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 1: Town what can be going? On he asked. Himself what
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: giddy spirit has taken possession of my peaceable town of
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: quick and? Known are we about to go? Mad and
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: must we make the town one vast? Asylum for yesterday
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 1: we were all, there, notables, counselors, judges, advocates, physicians, schoolmasters and,
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: all if my memory serves, me all of us were
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: assailed by this excess of furious. Folly but what was
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: there in that infernal? Music it is. Inexplicable YET i
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: certainly ate or drank nothing which could have put me
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: in such a. State, no YESTERDAY i had for dinner
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 1: a slice of overdone, veal several spoonfuls of spinach with, sugar,
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 1: eggs and a little beer and water that couldn't get
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 1: into my. Head, no there is something THAT i cannot.
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: Explain and as after ALL i am responsible for the
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: conduct of the, CITIZENS i will have an. Investigation but the,
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 1: investigation though decided upon by the municipal, council produced no.
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: Result if the facts were, clear the causes escaped the
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 1: sagacity of the. Magistrates, besides tranquility had been restored in
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 1: the public, mind and with tranquility forgetfulness of the strange
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 1: scenes of the. Theater the newspapers avoided speaking of, them
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: and the account of the, performance which appeared in The
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 1: quick And Done, memorial made no allusion to this intoxication
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 1: of the entire. Audience, meanwhile though the town resumed its
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: habitual phlegm and became Apparently flemish as, before it was
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 1: observable that at bottom the character and temperament of the
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: people changed little by. Little one might have truly, said
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 1: With Dominique custos the, doctor that their nerves were. Affected
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 1: let us explain this undoubted change only took place under certain.
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: Conditions when The quackandonians passed through the street of the,
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 1: town walked in the, squares or along the var they
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 1: were always the cold and methodical people of former. Days
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: so too when they remained at, home some working with
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: their hands and others with their, heads these doing, nothing
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 1: these thinking. Nothing their private life was, silent, inert vegetating as.
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 1: Before no, quarrels no household, squabbles no acceleration in the
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 1: beating of the, heart no excitement of the. Brain the
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: mean of their pulsations remained as it was of, old
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: from fifty to fifty two per. Minute but strange and inexplicable,
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 1: phenomenon though it, was which would have defied the sagacity
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: of the most ingenious physiologists of the. Day if the
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 1: inhabitants Of quackendom did not change in their home, life
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: they were visibly changed in their civil life and in
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 1: their relations between man and, man to which it. Leads
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 1: if they met together in some public, edifice it did
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 1: not work, Well As Commissary pasuf expressed it on change
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 1: at the town, hall in the amphitheater of The, academy
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 1: at the sessions of The, council as well as at
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 1: the reunions of the, savants a strange excitement seized the assembled.
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: Citizens their relations with each other became embarrassing before they
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: had been together an. Hour in two hours the discussion
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: degenerated into an angry. Dispute heads became, heated and personalities were.
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 1: Used during the, sermon the faithful could not listen to
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 1: vunstable the minister in, patience and he threw himself about
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 1: in the pulpit and lectured his flock with far more
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 1: than its usual. Severity at, last this state of things
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 1: brought about altercations more grave alas than the one Between
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 1: gustos And. Schute and if they did not require the
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: interference of the, authorities it was because the, antagonists after returning,
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 1: home found there with its calm forgetfulness of the offenses
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: offered and. Received this peculiarity could not be observed by these,
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 1: minds which were absolutely incapable of recognizing what was passing in.
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 1: Them one person only in the, town he whose office
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 1: the council had thought of suppressing for thirty, Years Michael
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 1: passouf had remarked that this, excitement which was absent from private,
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 1: houses quickly revealed itself in public, Edifices and he asked,
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 1: himself not without a certain, anxiety what would happen if
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 1: this infection should ever develop itself in the family. Mansions
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 1: and if the epidemic this was the word he, used
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 1: should extend through the streets of the, town then there
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 1: would be no more forgetfulness of, insults no more, tranquility
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: no intermission in the, delirium but a permanent inflammation which
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 1: would inevidently bring The quackandonians into collision with each. Other
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 1: what would, happen, Then Commissary passouf asked himself in, Terror
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 1: how could these furious savages be? Arrested how check these goaded?
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 1: Temperaments my office would be no longer a, sinister and
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: the council would be obliged to double my salary unless
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 1: it should arrest me myself for disturbing the public. Peace
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 1: these very reasonable fears began to be. Realized the infection
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: spread from change the, theater the, church the town, hall the,
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 1: academy the market into private, houses and that in less
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: than a fortnight after the terrible performance of The, huguenots
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: its first symptoms appeared in the house Of, colaire the.
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 1: Banker that wealthy personage gave a, ball or at least
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 1: a dancing, party to the notabilities of the. Town he
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 1: had issued some months before a loan of thirty thousand,
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 1: francs three quarters of which had been, Subscribed and to
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 1: celebrate this financial, success he had opened his drawing rooms
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 1: and given a party to his fellow. Citizens everybody knows
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 1: That flemish parties are innocent and tranquil, enough the principal
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: expense of which is usually in beer and. Syrups some
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: conversation on the, weather the appearance of the, crops the
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: fine condition of the, garden the care of, flowers and
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 1: especially of. TULIPS a slow and measured, dance from time to,
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 1: time perhaps a, minuet sometimes a, waltz but one of
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 1: Those german waltzes which achieve a turn and a half per,
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 1: minute and during which the dancers hold each other as
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 1: far apart as their arms will, permit such as the
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: usual fashion of the balls attended by the aristocratic society
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 1: of Quakend. Ome The, polka after being altered toforetime had
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 1: tried to become accustomed to, it but the dancers always
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 1: lagged behind the, orchestra no matter how slow the, measure
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 1: and it had to be. Abandoned these peaceable, reunions in
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 1: which the youths and maidens enjoyed an honest and moderate
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: pleasure had never been attended by any outburst of ill. Nature, why,
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 1: then on this evening At colaire the, bankers did the
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 1: syrups seem to be transformed into heady, wines into sparkling,
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 1: champagne into heating. Punches why toward the middle of the
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 1: evening did a sort of mysterious intoxication take possession of the.
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 1: Guests why did the minuet become a? Jig why did
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 1: the orchestra hurry with its. Harmonies why did the, candles
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: just as at the, theater burn with unwonted. Refulgence what
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 1: electric current invaded the banker's Draw how happened it that
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 1: couples held each other so closely and clasped each other's
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 1: hands so convulsively that the cavalier's souls made themselves conspicuous
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 1: by certain extraordinary steps in that figure usually so, grave so,
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 1: solemn so, majestic so very proper Alas What oedipus could
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 1: have answered these unsolvable. Questions Commissary, passouf who was present
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 1: at the, party saw the storm coming, distinctly but he
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 1: could not control it or fly from, it and he
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 1: felt kind of intoxication entering his own brain all his
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: physical and emotional faculties increased in. Intensity he was seen
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 1: several times to throw himself upon the confectionery and devour the,
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 1: dishes as if he had just broken along. Fast the
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 1: animation of the ball was. Increasing all this while a long,
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 1: murmur like a dull, buzzing escaped from all. Breasts they, danced,
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 1: really the feet were agitated by increasing. Frenzy the faces
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 1: became as purple as those Of, silenus their eyes shone like.
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 1: Carbuncles the general fermentation rose to the highest, pitch and
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 1: when the orchestra thundered out the waltz in Der. Frereschutz
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 1: when this waltz So, german and with a movement so,
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 1: slow was attacked with wild arms by the, musicians, ah
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 1: it was no longer a, waltz but an insensate, whirlwind
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 1: a giddy, rotation a gyration worthy of being led by some,
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 1: mephistopheles beating the measure with a. Firebrand then a, gallop
• 1:23:39
  Speaker 1: an infernal, gallop which lasted an hour without anyone being
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 1: able to. Stop it whirled off in its windings across the,
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 1: halls the drawing, rooms the anti, chambers by the, staircases
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 1: from the cellar to the garret of this opulent, mansion
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 1: the young people and young, girls the fathers and, mothers
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 1: people of every, age of every, weight of both. Sexes,
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 1: colaire the Fat, banker And Madame, colaire and the, councilors
• 1:24:06
  Speaker 1: and the, magistrates and The Chief, justice And, nicholas And Madame,
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 1: vonstrikass and The Burgomaster, vanstrikass and The Commissary pasuf, himself
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 1: who never could recall afterwards who had been his partner
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 1: on that terrible. Evening but she did not, Forget and
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 1: ever since that day she has seen in her dreams
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 1: the Fiery commissary in folding her in an impassioned, embrace
• 1:24:31
  Speaker 1: and she was the Amiable tottenmonts end of chapter. Eight
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 1: recording By alan went around boomcoach dot blogspot dot com
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 1: chapters nine through twelve Of Doctor ox's. Experiment this LibriVox
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 1: recording is in the public. Domain recording By Alan winter
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 1: Out Doctor Ox's experiment By Jules, verne chapter, nine in
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 1: Which Doctor ox And, eugene his, assistant say a few, Words, Well, eugene, well,
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 1: master all is. Ready the laying of the pipes is.
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 1: Finished mad. Last now then we are going to operate
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 1: on a large scale on the. Masses chapter, ten in
• 1:25:36
  Speaker 1: which it will be seen that the epidemic invades the entire,
• 1:25:39
  Speaker 1: town and what effect it. Produces during the following, months the,
• 1:25:45
  Speaker 1: evil in place of, subsiding became more. Extended from private,
• 1:25:50
  Speaker 1: houses the epidemics spread into the. Streets the town of,
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 1: quakeindone was no longer to be recognized a, phenomenon yet
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 1: stranger than those which had already, happened now. Appeared not
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 1: only the animal, kingdom but the vegetable kingdom itself became
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 1: subject to the mysterious. Influence according to the ordinary course of,
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 1: things epidemics are special in their. Operation those which attack
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 1: humanities spare the, animals and those which attack the animals
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 1: spare the. VEGETABLES a horse was never inflicted with, smallpox
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 1: nor a man with the cattle, plague nor do sheep
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 1: suffer from the potato. Rot but here all the laws
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 1: of nature seemed to be. Overturned not only were the, character,
• 1:26:37
  Speaker 1: temperament and ideas of the townsfolk, changed but the domestic,
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 1: animals dogs and, cats horses and, cows asses and goats
• 1:26:47
  Speaker 1: suffered from this epidemic, influence as if their habitual equilibrium
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 1: had been. Changed the plants themselves were infected by a
• 1:26:56
  Speaker 1: similar strange. Metamorphosis in the garden and vegetable patches and,
• 1:27:01
  Speaker 1: orchards very curious symptoms manifested. Themselves climbing plants climbed more.
• 1:27:07
  Speaker 1: Audaciously tufted plants became more tufted than. Ever shrubs became.
• 1:27:13
  Speaker 1: Trees cereals scarcely, sown showed their little green, heads and
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 1: gained in the same length of time as much in
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 1: inches as, formerly under the most favorable circumstances they had
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 1: gained in. Fractions asparagus attained the height of several. Feet
• 1:27:31
  Speaker 1: the artichokes swelled to the size of, melons the melons
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 1: to the size of, pumpkins the pumpkins to the size of,
• 1:27:38
  Speaker 1: gorge the gorge to the size of the belfry, bell
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 1: which measured in truth nine feet in. Diameter the cabbages were,
• 1:27:47
  Speaker 1: bushes and the mushrooms. Umbrellas the fruits did not lag
• 1:27:51
  Speaker 1: behind the. Vegetables it required two persons to eat a,
• 1:27:55
  Speaker 1: strawberry and four to consume a. Pair the grapes also
• 1:27:59
  Speaker 1: attained the enormous proportions of those so well depicted By
• 1:28:03
  Speaker 1: poussin in his return of the envoys to the promised.
• 1:28:07
  Speaker 1: Land it was the same with the. Flowers immense violets
• 1:28:12
  Speaker 1: spread the most penetrating perfumes through the. Air exaggerated roses
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 1: shone with the brightest, Colors lilies formed in a few,
• 1:28:21
  Speaker 1: Days impenetrable, copses, geraniums, daisies, camellias rhododendrons invaded the garden
• 1:28:29
  Speaker 1: walks and stifled each. Other and the, tulips those dear
• 1:28:34
  Speaker 1: lilaceous plants so dear to The flemish. Heart what emotion
• 1:28:38
  Speaker 1: they must have caused to their zealous. Cultivators the worthy
• 1:28:43
  Speaker 1: Van bistron nearly fell over backwards one day on seeing
• 1:28:47
  Speaker 1: in his garden an Enormous tulipia, jasnaria a gigantic monster
• 1:28:53
  Speaker 1: whose cup afforded space to a nest for a whole
• 1:28:56
  Speaker 1: family of. Robins the entire town locked to see this floral,
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 1: phenomenon and renamed it The tulipa. Quicindonia but, alas if these,
• 1:29:08
  Speaker 1: plants these, fruits these flowers grew visibly to the naked,
• 1:29:12
  Speaker 1: eye if all the vegetables insisted on assuming colossal, proportions
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 1: if the brilliancy of their colors and. Perfume intoxicated the
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 1: smell and the, sight they quickly. Withered the air which
• 1:29:25
  Speaker 1: they absorbed rapidly exhausted, them and they soon, died, faded
• 1:29:29
  Speaker 1: and dried. Up such was the fate of the famous, tulip,
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 1: which after several days of, splendor became emaciated and fell.
• 1:29:38
  Speaker 1: Lifeless it was soon the same with the domestic, animals
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 1: from the house dog to the stable, pig from the
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 1: canary in its cage to the turkey of the back.
• 1:29:48
  Speaker 1: Court it must be said that in ordinary times these
• 1:29:52
  Speaker 1: animals were not less phlegmatic than their. Masters the dogs
• 1:29:56
  Speaker 1: and cats vegetated rather than. Lived they never betrayed wag of,
• 1:30:00
  Speaker 1: pleasure nor a snarl of. Wrath their tails moved no
• 1:30:04
  Speaker 1: more than if they had been made of. Bronze such
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 1: a thing as a bite or scratch from any of
• 1:30:09
  Speaker 1: them had not been known from time. Immemorial as for mad,
• 1:30:14
  Speaker 1: dogs they were looked upon as imaginary, beasts like The
• 1:30:18
  Speaker 1: griffins and the rest of the menagerie of the. Apocalypse
• 1:30:23
  Speaker 1: but what a change had taken place in a few,
• 1:30:25
  Speaker 1: months the smallest incidents of which we are trying to.
• 1:30:28
  Speaker 1: Reproduce dogs and cats began to show teeth and. Claws
• 1:30:33
  Speaker 1: several executions had taken place after reiterated. OFFENSES a horse
• 1:30:38
  Speaker 1: was seen for the first time to take his bit
• 1:30:41
  Speaker 1: in his teeth and rush through the streets Of Qui.
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 1: Condone an ox was observed to precipitate itself with lowered
• 1:30:48
  Speaker 1: horns upon one of his. Herd an ass was seen
• 1:30:52
  Speaker 1: to turn himself over with his legs in the air
• 1:30:55
  Speaker 1: in the Place Saint enouf And bray As ass never
• 1:30:58
  Speaker 1: brayed before a. Sheep actually a sheep defended valiantly the
• 1:31:04
  Speaker 1: cutlets within him from the butcher's. Knife Von. Trecass the
• 1:31:08
  Speaker 1: burgomaster was forced to make police regulations concerning the domestic
• 1:31:13
  Speaker 1: animals as seized with. Lunacy they rendered the streets Of quiquendone,
• 1:31:17
  Speaker 1: unsafe but alas if the animals are, mad the men
• 1:31:22
  Speaker 1: were scarcely, less so no age was spared by the.
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 1: Scourge babies soon became quite, insupportable though till now so
• 1:31:31
  Speaker 1: easy to bring, up and for the first time On aire,
• 1:31:34
  Speaker 1: syntax the judge was obliged to apply the rod to
• 1:31:38
  Speaker 1: his youthful. Offspring there was a kind of insurrection at
• 1:31:42
  Speaker 1: the high, school and the dictionaries became formidable missiles in the.
• 1:31:46
  Speaker 1: Classes the scholars would not submit to be shut, in and,
• 1:31:50
  Speaker 1: besides the infection took the teachers, themselves who overwhelmed the
• 1:31:55
  Speaker 1: boys and girls with extravagant tasks and. Punishments range phenomenon.
• 1:32:01
  Speaker 1: Occurred all These, prequandonians so sober, before whose chief food
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 1: had been whipped, creams committed wild excesses in their eating and.
• 1:32:10
  Speaker 1: Drinking their usual regimen no longer. Sufficed each stomach was
• 1:32:15
  Speaker 1: transformed into a, gulf and it became necessary to fill
• 1:32:19
  Speaker 1: this gulf by the most energetic. Means the consumption of
• 1:32:23
  Speaker 1: the town was. Trebled instead of two, repasts they had.
• 1:32:26
  Speaker 1: Six many cases of indigestion were. Reported the Councilor, nicholas
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 1: could not satisfy his. Hunger Van trakast found it impossible
• 1:32:36
  Speaker 1: to assuage his thirst and remained in a state of
• 1:32:39
  Speaker 1: rabid semi. Intoxication in, short the most alarming symptoms manifested
• 1:32:45
  Speaker 1: themselves and increased from day to. Day drunken people staggered
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 1: in the, streets and these were often citizens of high
• 1:32:53
  Speaker 1: position dominique. Custos the physician had plenty to do with the, heartburns,
• 1:32:58
  Speaker 1: inflammations and, afflictions which proved to what a strange degree
• 1:33:03
  Speaker 1: the nerves of the people had been. Irritated there were
• 1:33:06
  Speaker 1: daily quarrels and altercations in the once deserted but now
• 1:33:10
  Speaker 1: crowded streets Of. Quiquindone for nobody could any longer stay at.
• 1:33:14
  Speaker 1: Home it was necessary to establish a new police force
• 1:33:18
  Speaker 1: to control the disturbers of the public. PEACE a prison
• 1:33:22
  Speaker 1: cage was established in the town hall and speedily became
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 1: full night and day of refractory. Offenders Commissary passuf was in.
• 1:33:31
  Speaker 1: DESPAIR a marriage was concluded in less than two. Months
• 1:33:36
  Speaker 1: such a thing had never been seen. Before, yes the
• 1:33:39
  Speaker 1: son Of, rupp the, schoolmaster wedded the daughter Of augustine De,
• 1:33:44
  Speaker 1: rovere and that fifty seven days only after he had
• 1:33:47
  Speaker 1: petitioned for her hand and. Heart other marriages were decided
• 1:33:51
  Speaker 1: upon which in old times would have remained in doubt
• 1:33:55
  Speaker 1: and discussion for. Years the burgomaster perceived that his own,
• 1:33:59
  Speaker 1: laws the charming, susal was escaping from his. Hands as
• 1:34:04
  Speaker 1: for Dear, tatemants she had dared to Sound Commissary passouf
• 1:34:08
  Speaker 1: on the subject of a union which seemed to her
• 1:34:11
  Speaker 1: to combine every element of, happiness, fortune honor youth at
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 1: last to reach the depths of. ABOMINATION a duel took, place,
• 1:34:22
  Speaker 1: yes a duel with, pistols horse pistols at seventy five,
• 1:34:26
  Speaker 1: paces with ball, cartridges and between whom our readers will never,
• 1:34:31
  Speaker 1: believe Between Monsieur Franz, nicholas the gentle, angler and Between Simon,
• 1:34:37
  Speaker 1: colaire the wealthy banker's. Son and the cause of the
• 1:34:41
  Speaker 1: duel was the burgomaster's, daughter for Whom simon discovered himself
• 1:34:45
  Speaker 1: to be fired with, passion and whom he refused to
• 1:34:48
  Speaker 1: yield to the claims of an audacious. Rival chapter, eleven
• 1:34:54
  Speaker 1: in which The quackandonians adopt a heroic. Resolution we have
• 1:34:59
  Speaker 1: seen to what a deplorable condition the people Of quiquindone were.
• 1:35:02
  Speaker 1: Reduced their heads were in a. Ferment they no longer
• 1:35:07
  Speaker 1: knew or recognized. Themselves the most peaceable citizens had Become
• 1:35:11
  Speaker 1: quarrelsome if you looked at them, askance they would speedily
• 1:35:15
  Speaker 1: send you a, challenge some let their mustaches, grow and
• 1:35:19
  Speaker 1: several the most, belligerent curled them up at the. Ends
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 1: this being their, condition the administration of the town and
• 1:35:27
  Speaker 1: the maintenance of order in the streets became difficult, tasks
• 1:35:30
  Speaker 1: for the government had not been organized for such a
• 1:35:33
  Speaker 1: state of. Things The, burgomaster that worthy Van, tricas whom
• 1:35:38
  Speaker 1: we have seen so, placid so, dull so incapable of
• 1:35:41
  Speaker 1: coming to any. Decision The burgomaster became. Intractable his house
• 1:35:47
  Speaker 1: resounded with the sharpness of his. Voice he made twenty
• 1:35:50
  Speaker 1: decisions a, day scolding his officials and himself enforcing the
• 1:35:54
  Speaker 1: regulations of his. Administration, ah what a change the amiable
• 1:36:00
  Speaker 1: and tranquil mansion of The, burgomaster that Good flemish. Home
• 1:36:04
  Speaker 1: where was its former? Calm what changes had taken place
• 1:36:08
  Speaker 1: in your household? Economy Madame vontrkrass had become, acrid, whimsical.
• 1:36:13
  Speaker 1: Harsh her husband sometimes succeeded in drowning her voice by
• 1:36:18
  Speaker 1: talking louder than, she but could not silence. Her the
• 1:36:22
  Speaker 1: petulant humor of this worthy dame was excited by. Everything
• 1:36:27
  Speaker 1: nothing went. Right the servants offended her every moment. Tatramants
• 1:36:32
  Speaker 1: her sister in, law who was not less, irritable replied
• 1:36:35
  Speaker 1: sharply to. Her Monsieur vontrkass naturally supported lotchkei his, Servant
• 1:36:41
  Speaker 1: as is the case in all good, households and this
• 1:36:44
  Speaker 1: permanently Exasperated, madame who constantly, disputed, discussed and made scenes
• 1:36:50
  Speaker 1: with her. Husband what on earth is the matter with,
• 1:36:53
  Speaker 1: us cried the unhappy. Burgomaster what is this fire that
• 1:36:57
  Speaker 1: is devouring? Us are we possessed with the devil? Ah Madame,
• 1:37:02
  Speaker 1: Vontrecass Madame, Vontrecas yu'll end by making me die before,
• 1:37:06
  Speaker 1: you and thus violate all the traditions of the. Family
• 1:37:11
  Speaker 1: the reader will not have forgotten the strange custom by
• 1:37:14
  Speaker 1: Which Monsieur vontrecass would become a widower and marry, again
• 1:37:18
  Speaker 1: so as not to break the chain of. Dissent, meanwhile
• 1:37:23
  Speaker 1: this disposition of all minds produced other curious effects worthy of.
• 1:37:27
  Speaker 1: Note this, excitement the cause of which has so far escaped,
• 1:37:32
  Speaker 1: us brought about unexpected physiological. Changes talents hitherto unrecognized betrayed.
• 1:37:39
  Speaker 1: Themselves aptitudes were suddenly. Revealed artists before commonplace displayed new.
• 1:37:46
  Speaker 1: Ability politicians and authors. Arose orators proved themselves equal to
• 1:37:51
  Speaker 1: the most arduous, debates and on every question inflamed audiences
• 1:37:56
  Speaker 1: which were quite ready to be inflamed from the sessions
• 1:37:59
  Speaker 1: of The. Count's this movement spread to the public political,
• 1:38:02
  Speaker 1: meetings and the club was formed At, quaquindone whilst twenty,
• 1:38:07
  Speaker 1: newspapers The Quaquindone, signal The Quaquandone, impartial The Quaquindone, radical
• 1:38:12
  Speaker 1: and so, on written in an inflammatory, style raised the
• 1:38:16
  Speaker 1: most important, Questions but what about you will ask apropos
• 1:38:21
  Speaker 1: of everything and of, Nothing apropos of the ordinary tower
• 1:38:26
  Speaker 1: which was falling and which some wished to pull, down
• 1:38:29
  Speaker 1: and others to prop. Up apropos of the police regulations
• 1:38:32
  Speaker 1: issued by the, council which some obstinate citizens threatened to.
• 1:38:36
  Speaker 1: Resist apropos of the sweeping of the, gutters repairing the,
• 1:38:40
  Speaker 1: sewers and so. On nor did the enraged orators confine
• 1:38:44
  Speaker 1: themselves to the internal administration of their. Town carried on
• 1:38:49
  Speaker 1: by the, current they went further and essayed to plunge
• 1:38:52
  Speaker 1: their fellow citizens into the hazards of. War quaquindone had
• 1:38:56
  Speaker 1: had for eight or nine hundred years a causus bella
• 1:39:00
  Speaker 1: of the best. Quality but she had preciously laid it
• 1:39:03
  Speaker 1: up like a, relic and there had seen some probability
• 1:39:06
  Speaker 1: that it would become a feat and no longer. Serviceable
• 1:39:09
  Speaker 1: this was what had given rise to the Causes. Bellai
• 1:39:13
  Speaker 1: it is not generally known That, quiquindone in this cozy
• 1:39:17
  Speaker 1: corner Of, flanders lies next to the little town Of.
• 1:39:20
  Speaker 1: Viergemen the territories of the two communities are. Contiguous. Well
• 1:39:25
  Speaker 1: in eleven eighty, five some time Before Count baldwin's departure
• 1:39:29
  Speaker 1: to The, crusades a Virgam and, cow not a cow
• 1:39:33
  Speaker 1: belonging to a, citizen but a cow which was common.
• 1:39:36
  Speaker 1: Property let it be, observed audaciously ventured to pasture on
• 1:39:41
  Speaker 1: the territory Of. Quaquindone this unfortunate beast had scarcely eaten three.
• 1:39:46
  Speaker 1: Mouthsful but the, offense the, abuse the, crime whatever you,
• 1:39:50
  Speaker 1: will was committed and duly. Indicted for the magistrates at
• 1:39:54
  Speaker 1: that time had already begun to know how to. Write
• 1:39:58
  Speaker 1: we will take revenge at the proper, moment said Simply
• 1:40:01
  Speaker 1: natilis Van, tricas the thirty second predecessor of the burgomaster
• 1:40:06
  Speaker 1: of this. Story and The virgamenians will lose nothing by.
• 1:40:10
  Speaker 1: Waiting The virgamenians were. Forewarned they, waited thinking without doubt
• 1:40:15
  Speaker 1: that the remembrance of the offense would fade away with
• 1:40:18
  Speaker 1: a lapse of, time and really for several centuries they
• 1:40:21
  Speaker 1: lived on good terms with their neighbors Of, quiquindone but
• 1:40:25
  Speaker 1: they counted without their, hosts or rather Without this strange,
• 1:40:29
  Speaker 1: epidemic which radically changing the character of The, quiquandonians aroused
• 1:40:34
  Speaker 1: their dormant. Vengeance it was at the club of The
• 1:40:37
  Speaker 1: Rue monstrelais that the truculent orator, shoot, abruptly introducing the
• 1:40:42
  Speaker 1: subject to his, hearers inflamed them with the expressions and
• 1:40:46
  Speaker 1: metaphors used on such. Occasions he recalled the, offense the
• 1:40:51
  Speaker 1: injury which had been done To, quiquindone and which a
• 1:40:54
  Speaker 1: nation jealous of its rights could not admit as a.
• 1:40:57
  Speaker 1: Precedent he showed the insult to be still, existing the
• 1:41:01
  Speaker 1: wounds still. Bleeding he spoke of certain special headshakings on
• 1:41:06
  Speaker 1: the part of the people Of, ergemen which indicated in
• 1:41:09
  Speaker 1: what degree of contempt they regarded the people Of. Quiquendone
• 1:41:14
  Speaker 1: he appealed to his fellow, citizens who unconsciously perhaps had
• 1:41:18
  Speaker 1: supported this mortal insult for long. Centuries he adjured the
• 1:41:22
  Speaker 1: children of the ancient town to have no other purpose
• 1:41:26
  Speaker 1: than to obtain a substantial. Reparation and, lastly he made
• 1:41:30
  Speaker 1: an appeal to all the living energies of the. Nation
• 1:41:35
  Speaker 1: with what enthusiasm these words so new To quiquandonian ears
• 1:41:39
  Speaker 1: were greeted may be, surmised but cannot be. Told all
• 1:41:43
  Speaker 1: the auditors, rose and with extended arms demanded war with loud.
• 1:41:48
  Speaker 1: Cries never had the advocate shoot achieved such a, success
• 1:41:52
  Speaker 1: and it must be avowed that his triumphs were not.
• 1:41:55
  Speaker 1: Few The, burgomaster the councilor all the notability present at
• 1:42:00
  Speaker 1: this memorable meeting would have vainly attempted to resist a popular. Outbursts,
• 1:42:05
  Speaker 1: besides they had no desire to do, so and cried as,
• 1:42:09
  Speaker 1: loud if not louder than the rest to the. Frontier
• 1:42:12
  Speaker 1: to the, frontier as the frontier was but three kilometers
• 1:42:17
  Speaker 1: from the walls Of, quiquindone it is certain that The
• 1:42:20
  Speaker 1: bergamenians ran a real, danger for they might easily be
• 1:42:24
  Speaker 1: invaded without having had time to look about. Them, meanwhile Josh,
• 1:42:29
  Speaker 1: leefrinck the worthy, chemist who alone had preserved his senses
• 1:42:33
  Speaker 1: on this grave, occasion tried to make his fellow citizens
• 1:42:36
  Speaker 1: comprehend that, guns, cannons and generals were equally wanting to their.
• 1:42:41
  Speaker 1: Design they replied to, him not without many impatient gestures
• 1:42:46
  Speaker 1: that these, generals cannons and guns would be, improvised that
• 1:42:50
  Speaker 1: the rights and love of country sufficed and rendered a people.
• 1:42:54
  Speaker 1: Irresistible hereupon The bergamaster himself came, forward and in a
• 1:42:59
  Speaker 1: sublime harangue made short work of those fewsillanimous people who
• 1:43:03
  Speaker 1: disguised their fear under a veil of, prudence which veil
• 1:43:07
  Speaker 1: he tore off with a patriotic. Hand at this, sally
• 1:43:11
  Speaker 1: it seemed as if the hall would fall in under the.
• 1:43:14
  Speaker 1: Applause the vote was eagerly demanded and was taken amid.
• 1:43:18
  Speaker 1: Acclamations the cries of To, vigamen to vergamen. Redoubled The
• 1:43:24
  Speaker 1: burgomaster then took it upon himself to put the armies in,
• 1:43:27
  Speaker 1: motion and in the name of the, town he promised
• 1:43:31
  Speaker 1: the honors of a triumph such as was given in
• 1:43:33
  Speaker 1: the times of The, romans to that one of his
• 1:43:36
  Speaker 1: generals who should return. Victorious, Meanwhile Joss, leefrinck who was
• 1:43:41
  Speaker 1: an obstinate fellow and did not regard himself as, beaten
• 1:43:45
  Speaker 1: though he really had, been insisted on making another. Observation
• 1:43:50
  Speaker 1: he wished to remark that the triumph was only accorded
• 1:43:53
  Speaker 1: At rome to those victorious generals who had killed five
• 1:43:56
  Speaker 1: thousand of the. Enemy well well the meeting, deliriously and
• 1:44:02
  Speaker 1: as the population of the town Of bergemann consists of
• 1:44:05
  Speaker 1: but three, thousand five hundred and seventy five, inhabitants it
• 1:44:09
  Speaker 1: would be difficult unless the same person was killed several.
• 1:44:12
  Speaker 1: Times but they did not let the luckless logician, finish
• 1:44:16
  Speaker 1: and he was turned, out hustled and. Bruised citizens Said,
• 1:44:21
  Speaker 1: polknacher the, grocer who usually sold groceries by. Retail whoever
• 1:44:26
  Speaker 1: this cowardly apothecary may have, BEEN i engaged by myself
• 1:44:30
  Speaker 1: to kill five Thousand, vergaminians if you will accept my,
• 1:44:33
  Speaker 1: services five, thousand five, hundred cried a yet more resolute.
• 1:44:38
  Speaker 1: Patriot six, thousand six hundred retorted the. Grocer seven, thousand
• 1:44:44
  Speaker 1: Cried Jean, arbadeck the confectioner of the Rue, hemling who
• 1:44:48
  Speaker 1: was on the road to a fortune by making whipped creams,
• 1:44:52
  Speaker 1: adjudged exclaimed the burgomaster Of, entrecas on finding that no
• 1:44:56
  Speaker 1: one else rose on the. Bid and this was How Jean,
• 1:45:00
  Speaker 1: orbideck the, confectioner became general in chief of the forces
• 1:45:04
  Speaker 1: Of quiquin doone chapter, twelve in Which, eugene the, assistant
• 1:45:09
  Speaker 1: gives a reasonable piece of, advice which is eagerly rejected
• 1:45:13
  Speaker 1: By Doctor. Ox Well, master Said. Eugene next, day as
• 1:45:18
  Speaker 1: he poured the pails of sulfuric acid into the troughs
• 1:45:21
  Speaker 1: of the great. Battery well Resumed Doctor, ox WAS i
• 1:45:25
  Speaker 1: not right see to what not only the physical developments
• 1:45:28
  Speaker 1: of a whole, nation but its, morality its, dignity its,
• 1:45:32
  Speaker 1: talents its political sense have. Come it is only a
• 1:45:36
  Speaker 1: question of, molecules no. Doubt but but do you not
• 1:45:42
  Speaker 1: think that matters have gone far enough and that these
• 1:45:45
  Speaker 1: poor devils should not be excited beyond? Measure, No, no
• 1:45:49
  Speaker 1: cried the. Doctor. NO i will go on to the
• 1:45:52
  Speaker 1: end as you. Will. Master the, experiment, however seems to me,
• 1:45:56
  Speaker 1: conclusive AND i think it time to to to close the.
• 1:46:01
  Speaker 1: Valve you'd, better Cried Doctor. Ox if you attempt, It
• 1:46:06
  Speaker 1: i'll throttle. You end of chapter. Twelve recording By Alan
• 1:46:12
  Speaker 1: winterroud boomcoach dot blogspot dot, Com chapters thirteen through seventeen
• 1:46:25
  Speaker 1: Of Doctor ox's. Experiment this LibriVox recording is in the public.
• 1:46:30
  Speaker 1: Domain recording By Alan Winterroud Doctor Ox's experiment By Jules,
• 1:46:37
  Speaker 1: verne chapter, thirteen in which it is once more proved
• 1:46:43
  Speaker 1: that by taking high, ground all human littlenesses may be.
• 1:46:46
  Speaker 1: Overlooked you, say asked The burgomaster Of entrecass of the Councilor.
• 1:46:53
  Speaker 1: NICHOLAS i say that this war is, necessary Replied nicholas,
• 1:46:58
  Speaker 1: firmly and that the time has come to avenge this. Insult,
• 1:47:03
  Speaker 1: WELL i repeat to, you replied The burgomaster, tartly that
• 1:47:07
  Speaker 1: if the people Of quackandone do not profit by this
• 1:47:10
  Speaker 1: occasion to vindicate their, rights they will be unworthy of their.
• 1:47:14
  Speaker 1: Name and as for, ME i maintain that we ought
• 1:47:18
  Speaker 1: without delay to collect our forces and lead them to the. Front,
• 1:47:23
  Speaker 1: really monsieur, really Replied Van. Tricass and do you speak
• 1:47:27
  Speaker 1: thus to me to, Yourself monsieur The, burgomaster and you
• 1:47:33
  Speaker 1: shall hear the, truth unwelcome as it may, be and
• 1:47:36
  Speaker 1: you shall hear it, Yourself, counselor Returned Van tricas in a,
• 1:47:40
  Speaker 1: passion for it will come better from my mouth than from. Yours, yes, monsieur,
• 1:47:46
  Speaker 1: yes any delay would be. Dishonorable the town Of quakandone
• 1:47:50
  Speaker 1: has waited nine hundred years for the moment to take its.
• 1:47:53
  Speaker 1: Revenge and whatever you may, say whether it pleases you or,
• 1:47:57
  Speaker 1: not we shall march upon the. Enemy ah you take, it,
• 1:48:02
  Speaker 1: thus Replied nicholas, harshly very, well, monsieur we will march without,
• 1:48:07
  Speaker 1: you if it does not please you to. GO a
• 1:48:10
  Speaker 1: burgamaster's place is in the, front, rank, monsieur and that
• 1:48:14
  Speaker 1: of a councilor, also. Monsieur you insult me by thwarting
• 1:48:19
  Speaker 1: all my, wishes cried the, burgomaster whose fists seem likely
• 1:48:23
  Speaker 1: to hit out before. Long and you insult me equally
• 1:48:27
  Speaker 1: by doubting my, patriotism Cried, nicholas who was equally ready
• 1:48:31
  Speaker 1: for a. TUSSLE i tell, you, monsieur that the army
• 1:48:35
  Speaker 1: Of Quaquin, done shall be put in motion within two.
• 1:48:38
  Speaker 1: Days AND i repeat to, you, monsieur that forty eight
• 1:48:43
  Speaker 1: hours shall not pass before we shall have marched upon the.
• 1:48:46
  Speaker 1: Enemy it is easy to see from this fragment of.
• 1:48:50
  Speaker 1: Conversation had the two speakers supported exactly the same, idea
• 1:48:55
  Speaker 1: both wished for, hostilities but as their excitement disposed them
• 1:48:59
  Speaker 1: to alter, Casereation nicholas would not listen To Van, trecass
• 1:49:03
  Speaker 1: Nor Van trecass To. Nicholas had they been of contrary
• 1:49:07
  Speaker 1: opinions on this grave. Question had the burgomaster favored war
• 1:49:11
  Speaker 1: and The counselor insisted on, peace the quarrel would not
• 1:49:15
  Speaker 1: have been more. Violent these two old friends gazed fiercely
• 1:49:19
  Speaker 1: at each. Other by the quickened beating of their, hearts
• 1:49:22
  Speaker 1: their red, faces their contracted, pupils the trembling of their,
• 1:49:26
  Speaker 1: muscles their harsh. Voices it might be conjectured that they
• 1:49:30
  Speaker 1: were ready to come to, blows but the striking of
• 1:49:34
  Speaker 1: a large clock happily checked the adversaries at the moment
• 1:49:37
  Speaker 1: when they seemed on the point of assaulting each. Other at,
• 1:49:41
  Speaker 1: last the hour has, come cried The. Burgomaster what, hour
• 1:49:45
  Speaker 1: asked the, counselor the hour to go to the belfry.
• 1:49:48
  Speaker 1: Tower it is, true and whether it pleases you or,
• 1:49:52
  Speaker 1: NOT i shall, go, monsieur AND i, Too let us,
• 1:49:56
  Speaker 1: Go let us. Go it might have been supposed from
• 1:50:01
  Speaker 1: these last words that a collision had, occurred and that
• 1:50:04
  Speaker 1: the adversaries were proceeding to a, duel but it was not.
• 1:50:07
  Speaker 1: So it had been agreed that The burgomaster and The,
• 1:50:11
  Speaker 1: councilor as the two principal dignitaries of the, town should
• 1:50:15
  Speaker 1: repair to the Town, hall and there show themselves on
• 1:50:18
  Speaker 1: the high, tower which overlooked quakendone that they should examine
• 1:50:22
  Speaker 1: the surrounding country so as to make the best strategic
• 1:50:25
  Speaker 1: plan for the advance of their. Troops though they were
• 1:50:28
  Speaker 1: in accord on this, subject they did not cease to quarrel.
• 1:50:32
  Speaker 1: Bitterly as they. Went their loud voices were heard resounding
• 1:50:35
  Speaker 1: in the, streets but all the passers by were now
• 1:50:38
  Speaker 1: accustomed to. This the exasperation of the dignitaries seemed quite,
• 1:50:43
  Speaker 1: natural and no one took notice of. It under the,
• 1:50:46
  Speaker 1: circumstances a calm man would have been regarded as a.
• 1:50:49
  Speaker 1: Monster The burgomaster and The, councilor having reached the porch
• 1:50:54
  Speaker 1: of the, belfry were in a paroxysm of. Fury they
• 1:50:57
  Speaker 1: were no longer read but. Pale this terrible, discussion though
• 1:51:02
  Speaker 1: they had the same, idea had produced internal, spasms and
• 1:51:06
  Speaker 1: everyone knows that paleness shows that anger has reached its last.
• 1:51:10
  Speaker 1: Limits at the foot of the narrow tower, staircase there
• 1:51:14
  Speaker 1: was a real. Explosion who should go up? First who
• 1:51:18
  Speaker 1: should first creep up the winding. Steps truth compels us
• 1:51:22
  Speaker 1: to say that there was a tussle and that the Councilor,
• 1:51:25
  Speaker 1: nicholas forgetful of all that he owed to his superior
• 1:51:29
  Speaker 1: to the supreme magistrate of the, town Pushed Van trekaz
• 1:51:32
  Speaker 1: violently back and dashed up the staircase. First both, ascended
• 1:51:38
  Speaker 1: denouncing and raging at each other at every. Step it
• 1:51:42
  Speaker 1: was to be feared that a terrible climax would occur
• 1:51:45
  Speaker 1: on the summit of the, tower which rose three hundred
• 1:51:47
  Speaker 1: and fifty seven feet above the. Pavement the two enemies
• 1:51:51
  Speaker 1: soon got out of, breath, however and in a little
• 1:51:54
  Speaker 1: while at the eightieth, step they began to move up,
• 1:51:57
  Speaker 1: heavily breathing loud and. Short then was it because of
• 1:52:02
  Speaker 1: their being out of breath their wrath, subsided or at
• 1:52:05
  Speaker 1: least only betrayed itself by a succession of unseemly. Epithets
• 1:52:10
  Speaker 1: they became silent and strange to, say it seemed as
• 1:52:14
  Speaker 1: if their excitement. Diminished as they ascended higher above the,
• 1:52:17
  Speaker 1: town a sort of lull took place in their. Minds
• 1:52:20
  Speaker 1: their brains became cooler and simmered down like a coffee
• 1:52:24
  Speaker 1: pot when taken away from the. Fire why we cannot
• 1:52:28
  Speaker 1: answer this, Why but the truth is that having reached
• 1:52:32
  Speaker 1: a certain landing stage two hundred and sixty six feet above.
• 1:52:36
  Speaker 1: Ground the two adversaries sat, down and really more calm
• 1:52:41
  Speaker 1: looked at each other without any anger in their. Faces
• 1:52:44
  Speaker 1: how high it, is said The, burgomaster passing his handkerchief
• 1:52:48
  Speaker 1: over his rubicunt. Face very, high returned The councilor do
• 1:52:54
  Speaker 1: you know that we have gone fourteen feet higher than
• 1:52:57
  Speaker 1: The church Of Saint michael At. HAMBURG i know, it
• 1:53:01
  Speaker 1: replied The, burgomaster in a tone of. Vanity very pardonable
• 1:53:04
  Speaker 1: in the chief magistrate Of. Quakmandone the two notabilities soon
• 1:53:09
  Speaker 1: resumed their, ascent casting curious glances through the loopholes pierced
• 1:53:13
  Speaker 1: in the tower. Walls The burgomaster had taken the head
• 1:53:17
  Speaker 1: of the procession without any remark on the part of
• 1:53:19
  Speaker 1: The councilor it even happened, that at about three hundred
• 1:53:23
  Speaker 1: and fourth Step Van, trekas being completely tired, Out nicholas
• 1:53:28
  Speaker 1: kindly pushed him from. Behind The burgomaster offered no resistance to,
• 1:53:33
  Speaker 1: this and when he reached the platform of the tower said, graciously, Thanks,
• 1:53:37
  Speaker 1: NICHOLAS i will do the same for. You one. DAY
• 1:53:41
  Speaker 1: a little while, before it had been two wild beasts
• 1:53:44
  Speaker 1: ready to tear each other to. Pieces who had presented
• 1:53:47
  Speaker 1: themselves at the foot of the. Tower it was now
• 1:53:50
  Speaker 1: two friends who reached its. Summit the weather was. Superb
• 1:53:54
  Speaker 1: it was the month Of. May the sun had absorbed
• 1:53:57
  Speaker 1: all the. Vapors what a, pure limpid. Atmosphere the most
• 1:54:02
  Speaker 1: minute objects over a broad space might be. Discerned the
• 1:54:06
  Speaker 1: walls Of, bergamen glistening in their, whiteness its red pointed,
• 1:54:10
  Speaker 1: roofs its belfry shining in the, sunlight appeared a few miles.
• 1:54:14
  Speaker 1: Off and this was the town that was foredoomed to
• 1:54:18
  Speaker 1: all the horrors of fire and. Pillage The burgomaster and
• 1:54:22
  Speaker 1: the councilor sat down beside each other on a small stone,
• 1:54:25
  Speaker 1: bench like two worthy people whose souls were in close.
• 1:54:29
  Speaker 1: Sympathy as they recovered, breath they looked. Around, then after
• 1:54:34
  Speaker 1: a brief, Silence how fine this, is cried the. Burgomaster
• 1:54:39
  Speaker 1: yes it is, admirable replied The councilor does it not
• 1:54:43
  Speaker 1: seem to, you my good Van tricas that humanity is
• 1:54:46
  Speaker 1: destined to dwell rather at such heights than to crawl
• 1:54:49
  Speaker 1: about on the surface of our. GLOBE i agree with,
• 1:54:53
  Speaker 1: you Honest nicholas returned The. BURGOMASTER i agree with. You
• 1:54:57
  Speaker 1: you see sentiment better when you get clear of, nature
• 1:55:00
  Speaker 1: you breathe it in every. Sense it is at such
• 1:55:03
  Speaker 1: heights that philosophers should be, formed and that sages should
• 1:55:07
  Speaker 1: live above the miseries of this. World shall we go
• 1:55:11
  Speaker 1: around the, platform asked The councilor let us go round the,
• 1:55:15
  Speaker 1: platform replied The, burgomaster and the two, friends arm in
• 1:55:19
  Speaker 1: arm and putting as formerly long pauses between their questions and,
• 1:55:23
  Speaker 1: answers examined every point of the. Horizon it is at
• 1:55:28
  Speaker 1: least seventeen years SINCE i have ascended the belfry, tower
• 1:55:31
  Speaker 1: Said Van. TRAKAS i do not THINK i ever came up,
• 1:55:35
  Speaker 1: before Replied, nicholas AND i regret, it for the view
• 1:55:39
  Speaker 1: from this height is. Sublime do you, see my, friend
• 1:55:43
  Speaker 1: the pretty stream of the var as it winds among
• 1:55:45
  Speaker 1: the trees and beyond the heights Of Saint. Hermadad how
• 1:55:50
  Speaker 1: gracefully they shut in the, horizon observe that border of
• 1:55:54
  Speaker 1: green trees which nature has so picturesquely. Arranged, Aha, Nature, Nature,
• 1:56:00
  Speaker 1: nicholas could the hand of man ever hope to rival?
• 1:56:04
  Speaker 1: Her it is, enchanting my excellent, friend replied The, Councilor
• 1:56:10
  Speaker 1: see the flocks and hers lying in the verdant, pastures the,
• 1:56:14
  Speaker 1: oxen the, cows the, sheep and the laborers going to the.
• 1:56:18
  Speaker 1: Fields you would say they Were arcadian. Shepherds they only
• 1:56:21
  Speaker 1: want a. Bagpipe and over all this fertile, country the
• 1:56:26
  Speaker 1: beautiful blue, sky which no vapor, Dims, Ah, nicholas one
• 1:56:31
  Speaker 1: might become a poet. HERE i do not understand Why
• 1:56:34
  Speaker 1: Saint simeon's stylites was not one of the greatest poets
• 1:56:38
  Speaker 1: of the. World it was because perhaps his column was
• 1:56:43
  Speaker 1: not high, enough replied The, councilor with a gentle. Smile
• 1:56:48
  Speaker 1: at this, moment the chimes Of quequindone rang, out their
• 1:56:52
  Speaker 1: clear bells played one of their most melodious. Airs the
• 1:56:56
  Speaker 1: two friends listened in. Ecstasy, then in his call, Voice
• 1:57:00
  Speaker 1: Von trecass, said, but, what, Friend, nicholas did we come
• 1:57:05
  Speaker 1: to the top of this tower to? Do in, fact
• 1:57:08
  Speaker 1: replied The, councilor we have permitted ourselves to be carried
• 1:57:12
  Speaker 1: away by our. Reveries what did we come here to,
• 1:57:15
  Speaker 1: do repeated The. Burgamaster we, came Said, nicholas to breathe
• 1:57:20
  Speaker 1: this pure, air which human weaknesses have not. Corrupted, well
• 1:57:25
  Speaker 1: shall we, descend Friend, Nicholas let us, descend Friend. Vontrecas
• 1:57:30
  Speaker 1: they gave a parting glance at the splendid panorama which
• 1:57:33
  Speaker 1: was spread before their. Eyes then The burgamaster passed down
• 1:57:37
  Speaker 1: first and began to descend with a slow and measured.
• 1:57:40
  Speaker 1: Pace The councilor followed a few steps. Behind they reached
• 1:57:45
  Speaker 1: the landing stage at which they had stopped on. Ascending
• 1:57:49
  Speaker 1: already their cheeks began to Redden they tarried a, moment
• 1:57:53
  Speaker 1: then resumed their. Descent in a few. Moments Von trecas
• 1:57:57
  Speaker 1: Begged nicholas to go more, slowly as he felt him
• 1:58:00
  Speaker 1: on his, heels and it worried. Him it even did
• 1:58:03
  Speaker 1: more than worry. Him for twenty steps lower, down he
• 1:58:07
  Speaker 1: ordered The councilor to, stop that he might get on
• 1:58:09
  Speaker 1: some distance. Ahead the council replied that he did not
• 1:58:13
  Speaker 1: wish to remain with his leg in the air to
• 1:58:15
  Speaker 1: await the good pleasure of The, burgomaster and kept. On
• 1:58:19
  Speaker 1: Van trekass retorted with a rude. Expression the council responded
• 1:58:24
  Speaker 1: by an insulting allusion to The burgomaster's, age destined as
• 1:58:28
  Speaker 1: he was by his family traditions to marry a second.
• 1:58:31
  Speaker 1: Time The burgomaster went down twenty steps more and Warned
• 1:58:35
  Speaker 1: nicholas that this should not. Pass, Thus nicholas replied that
• 1:58:39
  Speaker 1: at all events he would pass down, First and the,
• 1:58:43
  Speaker 1: space being very, narrow the two dignitaries came into collision
• 1:58:47
  Speaker 1: and found themselves in utter. Darkness the words blockhead and
• 1:58:51
  Speaker 1: booby were the mildest which they now applied to each.
• 1:58:53
  Speaker 1: Other we shall, see stupid, beast cried The. Burgomaster we
• 1:58:58
  Speaker 1: shall see what figure you you will make in this,
• 1:59:00
  Speaker 1: war and in what rank you will, march in the
• 1:59:04
  Speaker 1: rank that precedes, Yours you, silly old, fool Replied. Nicholas
• 1:59:08
  Speaker 1: then there were other, cries and it seemed as if
• 1:59:11
  Speaker 1: bodies were rolling over each. Other what was going? On
• 1:59:15
  Speaker 1: why were these dispositions so quickly. Changed why were the
• 1:59:19
  Speaker 1: gentle sheep of the tower's summit metamorphosed into tigers two
• 1:59:22
  Speaker 1: hundred feet below? It, however this might be the guardian
• 1:59:27
  Speaker 1: of the, tower hearing the, noise opened the door just
• 1:59:30
  Speaker 1: at the moment when the two, adversaries bruised and with protruding,
• 1:59:34
  Speaker 1: eyes were in the act of tearing each other's. Hair
• 1:59:37
  Speaker 1: fortunately they wore. Wigs you shall give me satisfaction for,
• 1:59:42
  Speaker 1: this cried The, burgomaster shaking his fist under his adversary's.
• 1:59:46
  Speaker 1: Nose whenever you, please growled The Councilor, nicholas attempting to
• 1:59:51
  Speaker 1: respond with a vigorous kick the, guardian who was himself
• 1:59:55
  Speaker 1: in a. PASSION i cannot say, why thought the scene
• 1:59:59
  Speaker 1: a very NATURAL i know not what excitement urged him
• 2:00:02
  Speaker 1: to take part in, it but he controlled himself and
• 2:00:05
  Speaker 1: went off to announce throughout the neighborhood that a hostile
• 2:00:08
  Speaker 1: meeting was about to take place between The burgomaster Of
• 2:00:11
  Speaker 1: antricas and The Councilor. Nicholas chapter, fourteen in which matters
• 2:00:18
  Speaker 1: go so far that the inhabitants Of, quiquindone the, reader
• 2:00:22
  Speaker 1: and even the author demand an immediate. Denoument the last
• 2:00:27
  Speaker 1: incident proved to what a pitch of excitement The quiqundonians
• 2:00:31
  Speaker 1: had been, wrought the two oldest friends in the town
• 2:00:34
  Speaker 1: and the most gentle before the advent of the, epidemic
• 2:00:38
  Speaker 1: to reach this degree of, violence and that, too only
• 2:00:41
  Speaker 1: a few minutes after their old mutual, sympathy their amiable,
• 2:00:45
  Speaker 1: instincts their contemplative habit had been restored at the summit
• 2:00:49
  Speaker 1: of the. Tower on learning what was going, on Doctor
• 2:00:53
  Speaker 1: ox could not contain his. Joy he resisted the arguments Which,
• 2:00:57
  Speaker 1: eugene who saw what a serious turn of affairs were,
• 2:01:00
  Speaker 1: taking addressed to. Him, besides both of them were infected
• 2:01:04
  Speaker 1: by the general. Fury they were not less excited than
• 2:01:07
  Speaker 1: the rest of the, population and they ended by quarreling
• 2:01:10
  Speaker 1: as violently as the burgomaster and the. Councilor, besides one
• 2:01:15
  Speaker 1: question eclipsed all, others and the intended duels were postponed
• 2:01:20
  Speaker 1: to the issue of The virgamenian. Difficulty no man had
• 2:01:23
  Speaker 1: the right to shed his blood uselessly when it belonged
• 2:01:26
  Speaker 1: to the last drop to his country in. Danger the affair,
• 2:01:30
  Speaker 1: was in short a grave, one and there was no
• 2:01:33
  Speaker 1: withdrawing from. It The burgomaster Of, antricas despite the warlike
• 2:01:37
  Speaker 1: ardor with which he was, filled had not thought it
• 2:01:40
  Speaker 1: best to throw himself upon the enemy without warning. Him he, had,
• 2:01:44
  Speaker 1: therefore through the medium of the rural Policeman, hattering sent
• 2:01:48
  Speaker 1: to demand reparation of The vergamenians for the offense committed
• 2:01:52
  Speaker 1: in eleven ninety five on The quiquandonian. Territory the authorities
• 2:01:58
  Speaker 1: Of ergamen could not at first imagine of what the envoy,
• 2:02:01
  Speaker 1: spoke and the, latter despite his official, character was conducted
• 2:02:05
  Speaker 1: back to the. Frontier very Cavalierly Van trekas then sent
• 2:02:10
  Speaker 1: one of the aide de camp of The Confectioner, General
• 2:02:13
  Speaker 1: Citizen Hildevert, schumann a manufacturer of barley, sugar a very
• 2:02:18
  Speaker 1: firm and energetic, man who carried to the authorities Of
• 2:02:22
  Speaker 1: bergemann the original minute of the indictment drawn up in
• 2:02:25
  Speaker 1: eleven ninety five by order of The, Burgomaster nautilist Van.
• 2:02:29
  Speaker 1: Trikas the authorities Of bergemann burst out laughing and served
• 2:02:34
  Speaker 1: the aide de camp in the same manner as the rural.
• 2:02:36
  Speaker 1: Policeman The burgomaster then assembled the dignitaries of the. TOWN a,
• 2:02:42
  Speaker 1: letter remarkably and vigorously drawn, up was written as an.
• 2:02:46
  Speaker 1: Ultimatum the cause of the quarrel was plainly, stated and
• 2:02:50
  Speaker 1: the delay of twenty four hours was accorded to the
• 2:02:52
  Speaker 1: guilty city in which to repair the outrage done To.
• 2:02:55
  Speaker 1: Quikundone the letter was sent off and returned a few
• 2:02:59
  Speaker 1: hours after towards torn to, bits which made so many
• 2:03:02
  Speaker 1: fresh insults The vergaminians knew of old the forbearance and
• 2:03:06
  Speaker 1: equanimity of The, quiquandonians and made sport of them and
• 2:03:10
  Speaker 1: their demand of their Causes bellai and their. Ultimatum there
• 2:03:14
  Speaker 1: was only one thing left to, do to have recourse to,
• 2:03:17
  Speaker 1: arms to invoke The god of, battles and after The prussian,
• 2:03:21
  Speaker 1: fashion to hurl themselves upon The vergaminians before the latter
• 2:03:25
  Speaker 1: could be. Prepared this decision was made by The council
• 2:03:29
  Speaker 1: in solemn, conclave in which, cries objurations and menacing gestures
• 2:03:34
  Speaker 1: were mingled with unexampled. Violence an assembly of, idiots a
• 2:03:38
  Speaker 1: congress of, madmen a club of maniacs would not have
• 2:03:41
  Speaker 1: been more. Tumultuous as soon as the declaration of war was,
• 2:03:46
  Speaker 1: Known General Jean orbideck assembled as troops and perhaps two,
• 2:03:50
  Speaker 1: thousand three hundred and ninety three combatants from a population
• 2:03:54
  Speaker 1: of two, thousand three hundred and ninety three. Souls the,
• 2:03:57
  Speaker 1: women the, children the old men were joined with the
• 2:04:00
  Speaker 1: able bodied. Males the guns of the town had been
• 2:04:03
  Speaker 1: put under. Requisition five had been, found two of which
• 2:04:07
  Speaker 1: were without, cocks and these had been distributed to the advance.
• 2:04:10
  Speaker 1: Guard the artillery was composed of the old culverin of
• 2:04:14
  Speaker 1: the chateau taken in thirteen thirty nine at the attack On,
• 2:04:18
  Speaker 1: quesnoy one of the first occasions of the use of
• 2:04:21
  Speaker 1: cannon in, history and which had not been fired off
• 2:04:23
  Speaker 1: for five. Centuries happily for those who were appointed to
• 2:04:27
  Speaker 1: take it in, charge there were no projectiles with which
• 2:04:30
  Speaker 1: to load. It but such as it, was this engine
• 2:04:33
  Speaker 1: might well impose on the. Enemy as for side, arms
• 2:04:37
  Speaker 1: they had been taken from The museum Of, antiquities flint, hatchets,
• 2:04:41
  Speaker 1: Helmets frankish battle, axes, javelins, halberds rape, years and so,
• 2:04:46
  Speaker 1: on and also in those domestic arsenals commonly known as
• 2:04:50
  Speaker 1: cupboards and. Kitchens but, courage the right hatred of the,
• 2:04:54
  Speaker 1: foreigner the yearning for vengeance were to take the place
• 2:04:58
  Speaker 1: of more perfect, engines and to, replace at, least it
• 2:05:01
  Speaker 1: was hoped, so the modern matliuses and. Breechloaders the troops
• 2:05:06
  Speaker 1: were passed in, review not as citizen failed at the roll.
• 2:05:09
  Speaker 1: Call General, orbadek whose seat on horseback was far from
• 2:05:13
  Speaker 1: firm and whose steed was a vicious, beast was thrown
• 2:05:17
  Speaker 1: three times in front of the, army but he got
• 2:05:19
  Speaker 1: up again without, injury and this was regarded as a favorable.
• 2:05:22
  Speaker 1: Omen the burgomaster or the councilor the civil, commissary the chief,
• 2:05:27
  Speaker 1: justice the school, teacher the, banker the, rector in, short
• 2:05:31
  Speaker 1: all the notabilities of the town marched at the. Head
• 2:05:35
  Speaker 1: there were no tears shed either by, mothers sisters or.
• 2:05:38
  Speaker 1: Daughters they urged on their husband's, fathers brothers to the,
• 2:05:41
  Speaker 1: combat and even followed them and formed the rearguard under
• 2:05:45
  Speaker 1: the orders of the Courageous madame Van. Tricas the Crier Jean,
• 2:05:50
  Speaker 1: mistral blew his. Trumpet the army moved off and directed
• 2:05:54
  Speaker 1: itself with ferocious cries toward The udnard. Gate at the
• 2:05:59
  Speaker 1: moment when the head of the column was about to
• 2:06:01
  Speaker 1: pass the walls of the, town a man threw himself before.
• 2:06:04
  Speaker 1: It stop stop fools that you, are he, cried suspend your,
• 2:06:10
  Speaker 1: blows let me shut the. Valve you are not changed in.
• 2:06:13
  Speaker 1: Nature you are good, citizens quiet and. Peaceable if you
• 2:06:18
  Speaker 1: are so, excited it is my, master Doctor ox's. Fault
• 2:06:21
  Speaker 1: it is an experiment under the pretext of lighting your
• 2:06:24
  Speaker 1: streets with oxyhydrate. Gas he has. Saturated the assistant was beside,
• 2:06:29
  Speaker 1: himself but he could not finish at the instant that
• 2:06:33
  Speaker 1: the doctor's secret was about to escape his. Lips Doctor
• 2:06:36
  Speaker 1: ox himself pounced upon the Unhappy eugene in an indescribable,
• 2:06:40
  Speaker 1: rage and shut his mouth by blows with his. Fist
• 2:06:44
  Speaker 1: it was a. Battle the, burgomaster the counselor the, dignitaries
• 2:06:48
  Speaker 1: who had stopped short On eugene's sudden, appearance carried away
• 2:06:52
  Speaker 1: in turn by their, exasperation rushed upon the two, strangers
• 2:06:56
  Speaker 1: without waiting to hear either the one or the. Other
• 2:07:00
  Speaker 1: Doctor ox and his, assistant beaten and, lashed were about
• 2:07:03
  Speaker 1: to be dragged by order Of entracost to the roundhouse
• 2:07:07
  Speaker 1: when chapter, fifteen in which the Dan nument takes, place
• 2:07:13
  Speaker 1: when a formidable explosion, resounded all the atmosphere which Enveloved
• 2:07:18
  Speaker 1: quaquandones seemed on. FIRE a flame of an intensity and
• 2:07:21
  Speaker 1: vividness quite, unwonted shot up into the heavens like a
• 2:07:25
  Speaker 1: meteor had at. Midnight this flame would have been visible
• 2:07:28
  Speaker 1: for ten leagues. Around the whole army Of quaquandone fell
• 2:07:32
  Speaker 1: to the earth like an army of. Monks happily there
• 2:07:36
  Speaker 1: were no. VICTIMS a few scratches and slight hurts were
• 2:07:39
  Speaker 1: the only. Result the, confectioner, who as chance would have,
• 2:07:43
  Speaker 1: it had not fallen from his horse this, time had
• 2:07:46
  Speaker 1: his plume singed and escaped without any further. Injury what
• 2:07:50
  Speaker 1: had happened something very, simple as was soon, learned the
• 2:07:55
  Speaker 1: gas works had just blown up during the absence of
• 2:07:59
  Speaker 1: the doctor and. Assistant some careless mistake, had no, doubt been.
• 2:08:03
  Speaker 1: Made it is not known how or why a communication
• 2:08:06
  Speaker 1: had been established between the reservoir which contained the oxygen
• 2:08:11
  Speaker 1: and that which enclosed the. Hydrogen an explosive mixture had
• 2:08:14
  Speaker 1: resulted from the union of these two, gases to which
• 2:08:17
  Speaker 1: fire had accidentally been. Applied this changed. Everything but when
• 2:08:22
  Speaker 1: the army got upon its feet, Again Doctor ox and
• 2:08:26
  Speaker 1: his Assistant eugene had. Disappeared chapter, sixteen in which the
• 2:08:31
  Speaker 1: intelligent reader sees that he has guessed correctly despite all
• 2:08:35
  Speaker 1: the author's. Precautions after the, Explosion quiquindone immediately became the,
• 2:08:42
  Speaker 1: peaceable phlegmatic And flemish town it formerly. Was after the,
• 2:08:47
  Speaker 1: explosion which indeed did not cause a very lively, sensation each,
• 2:08:51
  Speaker 1: one without knowing, why mechanically took his way. Home the,
• 2:08:55
  Speaker 1: burgomaster leaning on the councillor's. Arms the advocates, should going
• 2:09:00
  Speaker 1: arm in arm With custos to Doctor, franz And nicholas
• 2:09:04
  Speaker 1: walking with equal familiarity With Simon, collart each going, tranquility,
• 2:09:09
  Speaker 1: noiselessly without even being conscious of what had, happened and
• 2:09:13
  Speaker 1: having already Forgotten bergemann and their. Revenge the general returned
• 2:09:17
  Speaker 1: to his confections and his aid de camp to the barley.
• 2:09:20
  Speaker 1: Sugar thus everything had become calm. Again the old existence
• 2:09:25
  Speaker 1: had been resumed by men and, beasts beasts and, plants
• 2:09:29
  Speaker 1: even by the tower Of Udenard, gate which the explosion
• 2:09:33
  Speaker 1: these explosions are sometimes, astonishing had set upright. Again and
• 2:09:38
  Speaker 1: from that time never a word was spoken more loudly than,
• 2:09:42
  Speaker 1: another never a discussion took place in the town Of,
• 2:09:45
  Speaker 1: quekuindone there were no more, politics no more, clubs no more,
• 2:09:50
  Speaker 1: trials no more. Policemen the post of The Commissary passouf
• 2:09:54
  Speaker 1: became once again a sinis, here and if his salary
• 2:09:57
  Speaker 1: was not, reduced it was because The burgamaster and the
• 2:10:01
  Speaker 1: counselor could not make up their minds to decide upon.
• 2:10:04
  Speaker 1: It from time to, time, Indeed passu flitted without anyone suspecting.
• 2:10:09
  Speaker 1: It through the dreams of the inconsolable. Tatanemants as For franz's,
• 2:10:15
  Speaker 1: arrival he generously abandoned the charming susal to her, lover
• 2:10:19
  Speaker 1: who hastened to wedder five or six years after these.
• 2:10:21
  Speaker 1: Events and as For Madame, vontreicass she died ten years
• 2:10:26
  Speaker 1: later at the proper, time and The burgamaster Married Mademoiselle Pelagie,
• 2:10:31
  Speaker 1: vontreicas his, cousin under excellent conditions for the happy mortal
• 2:10:36
  Speaker 1: who should succeed. Him chapter, seventeen in which Doctor ox's
• 2:10:42
  Speaker 1: theory is. Explained what then had this mysterious Doctor ox?
• 2:10:47
  Speaker 1: Done tried a fantastic, experiment nothing. More after having laid
• 2:10:53
  Speaker 1: down his gas, pipes he had saturated first to public
• 2:10:57
  Speaker 1: buildings than the private dwellings final the streets Of quiquindone
• 2:11:01
  Speaker 1: with pure, oxygen without letting in the least atom of.
• 2:11:05
  Speaker 1: Hydrogen this, gas tasteless and, odorless spread in generous quantity
• 2:11:11
  Speaker 1: throughout the, atmosphere causes when it is, breathed serious agitation
• 2:11:16
  Speaker 1: to the human. Organism one who lives in an air
• 2:11:19
  Speaker 1: saturated with oxygen grows excited frantic. Burns you scarcely return
• 2:11:26
  Speaker 1: to the ordinary atmosphere before you return to your usual.
• 2:11:29
  Speaker 1: State for, example the councilor and the burgomaster at the
• 2:11:33
  Speaker 1: top of the belfry were themselves again as the oxygen
• 2:11:37
  Speaker 1: is kept by its weight in the lower strata of the.
• 2:11:39
  Speaker 1: Air but one who lives under such conditions breathing this,
• 2:11:44
  Speaker 1: gas which transforms the body physiologically as well as the,
• 2:11:48
  Speaker 1: soul dies speedily like a. Madman it was, fortunate then
• 2:11:52
  Speaker 1: for The quiquandonians that at a providential explosion put an
• 2:11:56
  Speaker 1: end to this dangerous experiment and abolished Doctor ox's gas.
• 2:12:00
  Speaker 1: Work to, conclude our, virtue, courage, talent, wit. Imagination are
• 2:12:07
  Speaker 1: all these qualities or faculties only a question of? Oxygen
• 2:12:11
  Speaker 1: such is Doctor ox's. Theory but we are not bound
• 2:12:14
  Speaker 1: to accept, it and for ourselves we utterly reject, it
• 2:12:18
  Speaker 1: in spite of the curious experiment of which the worthy
• 2:12:21
  Speaker 1: old town Of quiquendone was the. Theater end Of chapter
• 2:12:25
  Speaker 1: seventeen recording By alan Winter Out boomcoach dot blogspot dot.
• 2:12:31
  Speaker 1: Com end Of Doctor ox's experiment By jules vern