"Who may you be?" said Michol from the window in the gate, "and why come you here? These gates open, now, to no visitors, friends or foes."
Comines did not see fit to state the object of his visit, nor to exhibit his authority, and without answering Michol's questions, he asked another.
"Are you the captain of the robbers who have seized upon this chateau?" he said.
"I am the captain of the good and valiant _cotereaux_, who hold this chateau and its belongings as a warranty for a just and righteous debt," answered Michol. "Have you aught to say to me concerning the matter?"
"I have something to say to you," replied Comines, "which you will do well to hear, and that speedily. Open the gate and let me enter."
"If you wish to speak with me," answered Michol, "I am ready to hear what you have to say. But you need not enter, fair sir. I will come out to you."
"No, no!" cried the other. "I must go in. Open the gate!"
"That will I, gladly," said Michol, "but it must be for me to go out and not for you to come in. This is not my dwelling, nor are these my lands. I meet my friends and foes in the forest and on the road."
At these words the gates were thrown open, and Michol rushed out, followed by nearly all his men, who had been closely massed behind him while he spoke. The _cotereaux_ were in such a large and solid body that they completely filled the gateway and forced back Comines and his men, who vainly endeavored to maintain their ground before the gate.
Comines shouted and threatened, and his followers manfully struggled with the robbers, who surged like a great wave from the gate; but it was of no use. Out came the _cotereaux_, and backward were forced Comines's men, until all the robbers, excepting those who were left to guard the other gates, and some archers who were posted on certain of the towers, had rushed into the road, and the gates had been locked behind them.
The sudden confusion had been so great that, at first, the two leaders could not find each other. At length they met in the middle of the road, and the men of each party disengaged themselves from one another as rapidly as possible, and gathered in two confronting bodies, each behind its leader.
"Here am I. What would you have?" said Michol.