"D'ye see that?" whispered Guy, "the old rascal has locked the door. He suspects. Come, we may as well trip it. We shan't get either the sword-cane nor yet the pistols and bullets on the top of the guard-robe. My milk-brother, Stephen, saw them there when he took his week of chamber-valeting Old Peace-with-Honour!"
"Screw up your mouth--tight!" said the Abbé John politely; "a deal of nonsense will get spread about otherwise. I will attend to everything in the room of Old Blessings-of-Peace!"
"Yes, I--wait and see. Get out your tablets and take notes--spread your elbows, man! Do as I do, and the blessing of Saint Nicholas of Padua be upon all thieves and rascals--of whom we are two choice specimens!"
"Speak for yourself, Spaniard!" spluttered the other, having accidentally sucked the wrong end of his pen; "my uncle is not a cardinal, and as to my father----"
"He sells hanks of yarn, and cheats in the measurement!"
"I dare you to say so, you left-hand prince, you grease-spot on the cardinal's purple--you----"
"That will do," said the Abbé John calmly; "to-morrow I will give you thwacks when and where you like. But now listen, mark, learn, and in any case keep our good Master Anatole from so frequently glancing at that door. One would think he had the devil shut up within!"
"Impossible--quite impossible; he is loose and exceedingly busy outside there! Listen to the shots," said Guy, inclining an ear to the window.
"Hurrah for the People's Duke! Down with the King! Death to the Huguenots!--to the Barbets!--to the English! Death! Death! Death!"
"Lively down there--I wish we were up and away!" mourned the son of the ex-provost of the merchants, "but without arms and ammunition, what can fellows do?"
"As sayeth the Wise Man"--the voice of the Professor of Eloquence began to quicken into its stride--"'all her main roads are pleasant roads; and her very by-paths, her _sentiers_, lead to peace!'"
"If we could only get at those pistols and things!" murmured Guy Launay. "I wager you a groat that the old man is mistaken! Oh, just hearken to them outside there, will you? Peace is a chafing-dish. War is the great sport!"
"Down with the King! Bring along those chains for the barricade! Students to the rescue!"