"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!"
"Out with the powder," said Billet.
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.
Each man received half a pound of powder, which would fire thirty or forty shots.
But when everybody had powder it was discovered that guns were short. Only some five hundred men had them.
While the powder was being dealt out, some of the unarmed went into a council chamber where a debate was proceeding. It was about the national guards of which the usher had mentioned a word to Billet. It was settled that the force should consist of forty-eight thousand men. The army existed only on paper and yet they were wrangling about who should have the command.
In the midst of this dispute in rushed the weaponless men. The people had formed an army of their own but they wanted arms.
At this moment was heard the arrival of a carriage: it was Flesselles', for they would not let him pass though he had shown the royal order for him to go to Versailles: and he was brought back to the Hall by main force.