Those in the outer room went with the light to inquire as to the cause of the outcries, and they saw the husband and wife holding Robineau, who was trying to bury himself under the straw anew, while the goat jumped upon all the company impartially.
Robineau was gazing with a terrified expression at the goat and the shepherd. Alfred and Edouard began by laughing at his face, while the old man cried:
"What’s got into you all?"
"Why, Claudine woke me up by yelling like one possessed," said the shepherd.
"Pardi!" said Claudine, "I cried for I felt something—I mean someone, and I wanted to find out what it was."
"What were you there for, so close to my wife?" the shepherd asked Robineau; "what made you leave your sheepskins?"
"Faith, my dear friends," said Robineau, emerging entirely from beneath the straw, "I really don’t know just how it happened; but something woke me up,—I felt a long beard and something walked on me."
"Ha! ha! it was the old goat that woke you, Robineau, and you took him for the devil or the little sorceress, I’ll bet!"
Robineau opened his eyes to their fullest extent, stared at the goat and cried:
"What! was it that infernal beast? That’s what comes of sleeping in a Noah’s Ark!"