He pointed to a great placard stuck on the wall, near the clock.
"Look at that, and you will see that the Austrians are our true friends."
Old Materne's eyebrows nearly met, but, repressing his feelings, "Oh, ah!" said he.
"Yes, read that."
"But I do not know how to read, Monsieur Dubreuil, nor my boys either. Explain to us what it is."
Then the old innkeeper, leaning with his hands on the arms of his chair, arose, breathing like a calf, and placed himself in front of the placard, with his arms folded on his enormous paunch; and in a majestic tone he read a proclamation from the allied sovereigns, declaring "that they made war on Napoleon personally, and not on France. Therefore everybody ought to keep quiet and not meddle in their affairs, under pain of being burnt, pillaged, and shot."
The three hunters listened, and looked at each other with a strange air.
When Dubreuil had finished, he reseated himself and said, "Now do you see?"
"And where did you get that?" demanded Kasper.
"That, my boy, is put up everywhere!"