"I have seen the cards, Haviland; take the game; let us be partners; what is the use of dissembling in this extraordinary manner?"
A flash of the whip,—a leap of the two animals,—Picault careening into the ditch, and Chamilly flying into Miséricorde.
CHAPTER XL.
HAVILAND REFUSES
"Nobleness still makes us proud"
—FREDERICK GEORGE SCOTT
The election was Haviland's.
A great crowd gathered into Dormillière at the close of that long day, thickening and pouring in from the country around, and arriving by boats across the river, to hear the returns: and as Zotique read them in triumph from a chair at the door of the Circuit Court, and the issue, at first breathlessly uncertain, finally appeared, the cheering became frantic. Chamilly himself came out to them, an incomprehensible, determined aspect on his face, and amid deafening hurrahs, was seized and hurried on their shoulders across the square to the crier's rostrum, where he stood up before them.
And then and there took place the most unheard of incident, the most remarkable outcome of Haviland's lofty character, of which there as yet was record.
His voice can be heard distinct and clear over a perfect hush. What does he say? tell me,—have we really caught it correctly? Fact unique in political history; he was refusing the election on account of the frauds!