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," I urged,
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 I measured him.
But the thing had to be done. If I was slight, I was 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