Germinal — Chapter 29 in French
By Émile Zola
Étienne, dégrisé par les gifles de Catherine, était resté à la tête des camarades. SOBERED by Catherine's blows, Étienne had remained at the head of his mates. Mais, pendant qu’il les jetait sur Montsou, d’une voix enrouée, il entendait une autre voix en lui, une voix de raison qui s’étonnait, qui demandait pourquoi tout cela. But while he was hoarsly urging them on to Montsou, he heard another voice within him, the voice of reason, asking, in astonishment, the meaning of all this. Il n’avait rien voulu de ces choses, comment pouvait-il se faire que, parti pour Jean-Bart dans le but d’agir froidement et d’empêcher un désastre, il achevât la journée, de violence en violence, par assiéger l’hôtel du directeur ? He had not intended any of these things; how had it happened that, having set out for Jean-Bart with the object of acting calmly and preventing disaster, he had finished this day of increasing violence by besieging the manager's villa?
C’était bien lui cependant qui venait de crier : halte ! He it certainly was, however, who had just cried, "Halt!" Seulement, il n’avait d’abord eu que l’idée de protéger les Chantiers de la Compagnie, où l’on parlait d’aller tout saccager. Only at first his only idea had been to protect the Company's Yards, which there had been talk of sacking. Et, maintenant que des pierres éraflaient déjà la façade de l’hôtel, il cherchait, sans la trouver, sur quelle proie légitime il devait lancer la bande, afin d’éviter de plus grands malheurs. And now that stones were already grazing the facade of the villa, he sought in vain for some lawful prey on which to throw the band, so as to avoid greater misfortunes. Comme il demeurait seul ainsi, impuissant au milieu de la route, quelqu’un l’appela, un homme debout sur le seuil de l’estaminet Tison, dont la cabaretière s’était hâtée de mettre les volets, en ne laissant libre que la porte. As he thus stood alone, powerless, in the middle of the road, he was called by a man standing on the threshold of the Estaminet Tison, where the landlady had just put up the shutters in haste, leaving only the door free.
— Oui, c’est moi… Écoute donc. "Yes, it's me. Veux-tu m'écouter ? Will you listen?"
C’était Rasseneur. It was Rasseneur. Une trentaine d’hommes et de femmes, presque tous du coron des Deux-Cent-Quarante, restés chez eux le matin et venus le soir aux nouvelles, avaient envahi cet estaminet, à l’approche des grévistes. Some thirty men and women, nearly all belonging to the settlement of the Deux-Cent-Quarante, who had remained at home in the morning and had come in the evening for news, had invaded this estaminet on the approach of the strikers. Zacharie occupait une table avec sa femme Philomène. Zacharie occupied a table with his wife, Philomène. Plus loin, Pierron et la Pierronne, tournant le dos, se cachaient le visage. Farther on, Pierron and Pierronne, with their backs turned, were hiding their faces. D’ailleurs, personne ne buvait, on s’était abrité, simplement. No one was drinking, they had simply taken shelter.