“It is so.”

“But,” he persisted feebly, “Father Mestienne is the gravedigger.”

“After Napoleon, Louis XVIII . After Mestienne, Gribier. Peasant, my name is Gribier.”

Fauchelevent, who was deadly pale, stared at this Gribier.

He was a tall, thin, livid, utterly funereal man. He had the air of an unsuccessful doctor who had turned gravedigger.

Fauchelevent burst out laughing.