The weekly Butte record., 1858-12-25
Tho Rats of 1tfaucon.


borses are slain. stray dogs are made an end OF
and several other secret mysteries are accom-
plshed. When Monsieur Brissot Thiyars had
charge of the public Salubrity, which gave
him the command of Montfaucon, as well as of
the French sewers, he invited Balzae, the great
French novelist, to a feld-day, which was
eagerly accepted by that distinguished writer,
and the following account of q scene witnessed
there is thus described
1t was agreed that the Inspector of Saubr-
ty, Balzac, DR.. Gent and another gentleman.
should reach their destination at three in the
morning. The party were exact at the rem
devious. A dozen men employed on the place
preceded them with degree OF mysterious cir
cumspection, each having IA lighted resin torch
IN his right hand and long ladder on his left
shoulder four others, having ladders only
followed with the silence of consprators. BY
the side of the party there trotted pack of
dingy dogs, of the same color as the cloudy
night, who had their own private reasons for
joining tbs company besides the affection they
bore TO their masters. They were mastiffs and
bulldogs, descended, by careful crossing, from
the most formidable and famous Saxon and
English races, with square, angular heads,
short ears, prominent and boodshot eyes, teeth
OF iron, and elephantine feet and legs.
Arrived at the inclosure for the purpose, the
ladders were placed against the wall, and after
a diffiult ascent, the party and their dozen
torch bearers took their places on the top of
the wall. Before and below them was a vast
Enclosure, appropriated to the slaughter Of con-
demned horses. Heaps of bones. scattered
here ard there, indicated this funeral destina-
tion. 1t required few minutes to accustom
the eye to the gloomy scene before they could
well make out its details The bottom of this
ill-paved tub was traversed by long and irreg-
uar stone cutters, all of which radiated to-
ward the circumscrbing wall, on reaching
which they were closed by iron doors, consist
ing of perpendicular bars, so placed as to allow
liquid matters TO escape, but preventing the
passage OF solid substances. The spectators
continued to wait on the top of their wall.
One OF the iron gates in the wall opened.
-Four men Immediately entered, dragging after
them with ropes the dead horse, the hero of
the fete, the principal actor, who had been so
lmpatiently expected. As soon as they had
rapidly dsengaged the poor creature from its
last connection with human society, they left
it naked on the stones and retreated hastily,
slamming the iron gate behind them.
At all the iron gates at the ends of the gut
tiers, and doubtless from other unseen ventholes
there instantly appeared several rats, attrac-
ted by the mighty feast. They were the
scouts of the army in ambuscade. A few in
dlvidualS, detached from the first platoon, ad-
vanced on the tips of their toes to within a
few yards of the carcass, and there they turned
by common consent, their sharp muzzles and
their quivering smellers toward the gates by
which they had entered, as if to make sure of
a retreat in case Of need.
The first signs of timdity disappeared when
they found themselves Joined by other rats,
who came in crowds to share the banquet
Their numbers gave them mutual encourage
ment; and the pavement began to be blacken-
ed all over with reinforcements of fresh regi-
ments of rats. Balzac remarked that, among
these rats there was a progression of stature
and strength from the first to the last, or rath-
er from the first to those that followed, for the
last had not yet shown themselves The ear
lest arrivals, lean, long and weakly. were fol-
lowed by others in better plight, who, in
turn, were followed by still more comeiy and
thrifty guests. The first comers were clearly
the hungrest
The floor Of the court disappeared under an
ever thlckening carpet of rats. There were
black rats, brown rats, tawny rats, yellow rats,
rats, and even white rats Just before it was
completely covered, there advanced from the
mass a detachment of rats bolder and more
adventurous than the rest. They marched in
three columns, and in the form OF triangle,
up to the carcass, of which they took posses
sion. 1t was a successful military reconnois-
sance Their other companions, thus encour-
aged, charged with much greater resolution;
the leaders climbed up the horses fianks, rip
ped up its skin from one end to the other, just
as a tailor unstitches an old coat to tear it up
into rags and then hundreds, thousands, my
riads streamed il at every aperture, crowding
thick and anxiousy like an audience rushing
out of a theater on fire. They scramble over
one another and their rustling movements,
their little shrli whistlings, inaudibe at first,
produced by their multiplication, the hum and
murmur ofa crowd. in which you could almost
fancy you heard the sound of human voices
Life was boiling in the animated mass. 1t
made you shudder to think Of what would be
your fate were you to fall in the midst of it
from your perch on the wall.
The Moutfaucon rats had opened the horse;
and they cut it up, boarded it, riddled it thro
and through, and chopped it into mince meat.
The work OF destruction was hidden from sight
few minutes afterwards, the horse having
completely disappeared beneath the hideous
brutes, who, hanging on, with the voracious
precision of leeches, to its rounded form, soon
offered the spectacle of magnificent horse
composed of thousands ofliving rats, after the
fashion of the shell work toys and ornaments
that are made TO represent men and animals.
Now let in the dogs was the second
word of command given by Brissot Thivars to
his man.
The dogs entered the arena, and the carnage
began. The first two minutes were glorious
.or them. They were mad with Joy They
killed; they gave tongue; they killed they
bagged two at shot, like first rate sportsmen
A pair of rats were often entrapped in the
same swapping bite. And when they thought
their victims dead, they shook them about, as
puppies will shake an empty glove. Then they
cast them aside, and recommended the massa-
ere. But all pleasures end in exhaustion. The
excitement of the dogs gradually diminished,
cruelty gave place to clemency-clemency
which was only fatigue in disguise. And yet,
il they had scattered death around they had
destroyed just nothing at all. The first quar-
ter of an hour was all their own the second
was by no means SO. There were. barkings
which sounded more like accents Of pain than
shouts of victarv Tho -aactio, bad hoo-rp