"But I will," said Marat, taking the paper from his hands: "for your liberty is here to answer for his--your head will guarantee his. There is your pass, my brave Billet."
Flesselles called for his coach and said loudly:
"I suppose, my friends, you are asking nothing more?"
"My young friend," said the gentleman, "I should like to observe that you are rather too insufficiently clad to stand guard at my door. If you feel constrained to do it, at least sling your cartridge-box round and stand with your back to the wall."
"Am I to let him go?" asked Pitou again, looking at the speaker as if he did not relish the jest.
"Perhaps you are wrong to let him go," said Marat as Pitou stepped aside; "he was a good hostage to hold: but in any case, be he where he may, I can lay hands on him, never fear."
"Labrie," said Flesselles to his valet, as he got into his carriage, "they are going to serve out the powder. If the City Hall goes up in an explosion I should like to be well out of the reach of splinters. Tell the coachman to whip up smartly."
The vehicle rolled under the covered way and came out on the square before some thousands of spectators. The Provost feared that his departure might be misinterpreted and taken for a flight. So he leaned out of the window and said loudly:
This earned him a cheer. Up on the balcony, outside, Marat and Billet heard the order.
"My head to his, that he is not going to the Assembly but to the King," commented the surgeon.
"Had he not better be stopped?" said the farmer.
"No," replied the other with a hideous grin. "Be easy: go where he may, and however quickly, we shall travel more quickly than he. Now, let us get out that powder!"
Flesselles was right in saying there were eight thousand pounds of gunpowder in the vaults.
Marat and Billet walked in the first with a lantern which they hung to a beam. Pitou mounted guard at the door.
The powder was in twenty-pound kegs; men were stationed in a line and the kegs were passed out, hand to hand. There was a brief confusion as it was not known what was the amount and some feared they could not get any if they did not scramble for it. But Billet had selected his lieutenants on his own model, with leg-of-mutton fists, and the distribution went on with much order.