We were turning from all this to go in, when we heard Jean's voice raised in altercation, and thinking our rustic servant had fallen into trouble, we walked across to the stables near which he and the horses were still lingering. "Well, what is it?" Isaid sharply.
"They say that there is no room for the horses," Jean answered querulously, scratching his head; half sullen, half cowed, a country servant all over.
"And there is not!" cried the foremost of the gang about the door, hastening to confront us in turn. His tone was insolent, and it needed but half an eye to see that his fellows were inclined to back him up. He stuck his arms akimbo and faced us with an impudent smile. A lanthorn on the ground beside him throwing an uncertain light on the group, I saw that they all wore the same badge.
"Come," I said sternly, "the stables are large, and your horses cannot fill them. Some room must be found for mine.""To be sure! Make way for the king!" he retorted. While one jeered "VIVE LE ROI!" and the rest laughed. Not good-humouredly, but with a touch of spitefulness.
Quarrels between gentlemen's servants were as common then as they are to-day. But the masters seldom condescended to interfere.
"Let the fellows fight it out," was the general sentiment. Here, however, poor Jean was over-matched, and we had no choice but to see to it ourselves.
"Come, men, have a care that you do not get into trouble," Iurged, restraining Croisette by a touch, for I by no means wished to have a repetition of the catastrophe which had happened at Caylus. "These horses belong to the Vicomte de Caylus. If your master be a friend of his, as may very probably be the case, you will run the risk of getting into trouble."I thought I heard, as I stopped speaking, a subdued muttering, and fancied I caught the words, "PAPEGOT! Down with the Guises!"But the spokesman's only answer aloud was "Cock-a-doodle-doo!""Cock-a-doodle-doo!" he repeated, flapping his arms in defiance.
"Here is a cock of a fine hackle!" And so on, and so forth, while he turned grinning to his companions, looking for their applause.
I was itching to chastise him, and yet hesitating, lest the thing should have its serious side, when a new actor appeared. "Shame, you brutes!" cried a shrill voice above us in the clouds it seemed. I looked up, and saw two girls, coarse and handsome, standing at a window over the stable, a light between them. "For shame! Don't you see that they are mere children? Let them be,"cried one.
The men laughed louder than ever; and for me, I could not stand by and be called a child. "Come here," I said, beckoning to the man in the doorway. "Come here, you rascal, and I will give you the thrashing you deserve for speaking to a gentleman!"He lounged forward, a heavy fellow, taller than myself and six inches wider at the shoulders. My heart failed me a little as Imeasured him. But the thing had to be done. If I was slight, Iwas wiry as a hound, and in the excitement had forgotten my fatigue. I snatched from Marie a loaded riding-whip he carried, and stepped forward.
"Have a care, little man!" cried the girl gaily--yet half in pity, I think. "Or that fat pig will kill you!"My antagonist did not join in the laugh this time. Indeed it struck me that his eye wandered and that he was not so ready to enter the ring as his mates were to form it. But before I could try his mettle, a hand was laid on my shoulder. A man appearing from I do not know where--from the dark fringe of the group, Isuppose--pushed me aside, roughly, but not discourteously.
"Leave this to me!" he said, coolly stepping before me. "Do not dirty your hands with the knave, master. I am pining for work and the job will just suit me! I will fit him for the worms before the nuns above can say an AVE!"I looked at the newcomer. He was a stout fellow; not over tall, nor over big; swarthy, with prominent features. The plume of his bonnet was broken, but he wore it in a rakish fashion; and altogether he swaggered with so dare-devil an air, clinking his spurs and swinging out his long sword recklessly, that it was no wonder three or four of the nearest fellows gave back a foot.
"Come on!" he cried, boisterously, forming a ring by the simple process of sweeping his blade from side to side, while he made the dagger in his left hand flash round his head. "Who is for the game? Who will strike a blow for the little Admiral? Will you come one, two, three at once; or all together? Anyway, come on, you--" And he closed his challenge with a volley of frightful oaths, directed at the group opposite.
"It is no quarrel of yours," said the big man, sulkily; making no show of drawing his sword, but rather drawing back himself.
"All quarrels are my quarrels! and no quarrels are your quarrels. That is about the truth, I fancy!" was the smart retort; which our champion rendered more emphatic by a playful lunge that caused the big bully to skip again.
There was a loud laugh at this, even among the enemy's backers.
"Bah, the great pig!" ejaculated the girl above. "Spit him!"and she spat down on the whilom Hector--who made no great figure now.
"Shall I bring you a slice of him, my dear?" asked my rakehelly friend, looking up and making his sword play round the shrinking wretch. "Just a tit-bit, my love?" he added persuasively. "Amouthful of white liver and caper sauce?"
"Not for me, the beast!" the girl cried, amid the laughter of the yard.
"Not a bit? If I warrant him tender? Ladies' meat?""Bah! no!" and she stolidly spat down again.
