GERMINAL
There was a pond there, an infiltration of the water from the pump. It was white with a thick layer of ice; and they struck it and broke the ice, forcing him to dip his head in this cold water.
“Jump in then,” repeated Mother Brûlé. “By God! if you don’t jump in we’ll shove you in. And now you shall have a drink of it; yes, yes, like a beast, with your jaws in the trough!”
He had to drink on all-fours. They all laughed, with cruel laughter. One woman pulled his ears, another woman threw in his face a handful of dung found fresh on the road. His old woollen jacket in tatters no longer held together. He was haggard, stumbling, and with struggling movements of his hips he tried to flee.
Maheu had pushed him, and Maheude was among those who grew furious, both of them satisfying their old spite; even Mouquette, who generally remained such good friends with her old lovers, was wild with this one, treating him as a good-for-nothing, and talking of taking his breeches down to see if he was still a man.
Étienne made her hold her tongue.
“That’s enough. There’s no need for all to set to it. If you like, you, we will just settle it together.”
His fists closed and his eyes were lit up with homicidal fury; his intoxication was turning into the desire to kill.
Are you ready? One of us must stay here. Give him a knife; I’ve got mine.”
Catherine, exhausted and terrified, gazed at him. She remembered his confidences, his desire to devour a man when he drunk, poisoned after the third glass, to such an extent had his drunkards of parents put this beastliness into his body. Suddenly she leapt forward, struck him with both her woman’s hands, and choking with indignation shouted into his face:
“Coward! coward! coward! Isn’t it enough, then, all these abominations? You want to kill him now that he can’t stand upright any longer!”
She turned towards her father and her mother; she turned towards the others.
“You are cowards! cowards! Kill me, then, with him! I will tear your eyes out, I will, if you touch him again. Oh! the cowards!”
[303]
