Alfred de Rosann — page 17: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

8 : ALFRED DE ROSANN. a madman. Presently, a high pailing arrested his course; Azor had managed to creep between the bars, and was already in the midst of the adjoining field, when Champignon was seated on the top of the fence, hesitating whether he should descend with a leap, as the ground was much lower on the other side. While he was in this ridiculous posture, at one moment ex- amining the green sod beneath, at another casting a searching glance in the direction which the dog had taken, and brandishing his soup-ladle as if it were some martial weapon, the garde-champetre* came up, and catching him by the leg, inquired what he was doing? “ Nothing,” answered Champignon: “ except look- ing after a marrow-bone,’’ he added slowly. “The boundary between two people’s property is a singular place to look aftera marrow-bone,”’ returned the garde-champetre. ‘Tt is as I tell you,’’ said the gastronomer; but no sooner had he uttered these words than he lost his balance, fell backwards into the enclosure, which was attached to the property of Louis Dorval, and knocked off the garde-champetre’s cocked hat with his foot as he rolled over. At the same moment, Azor, who had discussed the bone, and was returning home to his kennel, cantered slowly towards the railing. Perceiving the cocked hat rolling on the ground, be- fore its owner could stoop to pick it up, the playful animal seized it in his mouth, and scampered once more across the fields, wagging his tail, and performing a thousand gambols to exemplify his delight; while the discomfited authority was obliged to run after the mischievous dog, venting his wrath in curses against Champignon, the hat, the pailings, and Azor. In the meantime, the gastronomer raised himself from his fallen position, muttered something about “a series of accidents always happening to the best cook * A species of,police-officer or gendarme, entrusted with the maintenance of order in the country. CORNICLOOLKSsEO)