经典！《喀尔巴阡古堡，牛博士》让无数读者意犹未尽！(22)

But what about? you will ask. About anything and nothing; about the Oudenarde tower, which was falling, and which some wished to pull down, and others to prop up; about the police regulations issued by the council, which some hot-heads threatened to resist; about sweeping the gutters, repairing the sewers, and so on. Nor did the fiery orators confine themselves to the internal administration of the town. Carried On by the current they went further, and tought to plunge their fellow-citizens into the hazards of war.
Quiquendone had had for eight or nine hundred years a casus belli of the best quality; but she had hitherto laid it up like a holy relic, and there had seemed some probability that it would fade away and no longer be effective.
This was its origin.
It is not generally known that Quiquendone, in this cosy corner of Flanders, lies next to the little town of Virgamen. The territories of the two communities are contiguous.
Well, in 1185, some time before Count Baldwin"s departure to the Crusades, a Virgamenian cow— not a cow belonging to a citizen, but a cow which was Communal property, let it be borne in mind -audaciously ventured to graze on Quiquendonian territory. This unfortunate beast had scarcely eaten three mouthfuls; but the offence, the trespass, the crimecall it what you will - was committed and duly indicted, for the magistrates, at that time, had already begun to know how to write.