This changed everything; but when the army got upon its feet again, Doctor Ox and his assistant Ygène had disappeared.
CHAPTER XVI.
IN WHICH THE INTELLIGENT READER SEES THAT HE HAS GUESSED CORRECTLY, DESPITE ALL THE AUTHOR'S PRECAUTIONS.
After the explosion, Quiquendone immediately became the peaceable, phlegmatic, and Flemish town it formerly was.
After the explosion, which indeed did not cause a very lively sensation, each one, without knowing why, mechanically took his way home, the burgomaster leaning on the counsellor's arm, the advocate Schut going arm in arm with Custos the doctor, Frantz Niklausse walking with equal familiarity with Simon Collaert, each going tranquilly, noiselessly, without even being conscious of what had happened, and having already forgotten Virgamen and th
