"It is plain that you are not a soldier, my friend," said the other with a kind of pity.
"It is true and come fresh from the country."
"For you do not know what the Bastile is: come with me and I will show you."
"He is going to pull the spring of some trap which will open beneath my feet," thought the adventurer, "and then good-bye, Old Billet!"
But he was intrepid and did not wince as he prepared to accede to the invitation.
"In the first place," continued Launay, "it is well to know that I have enough powder in the store to blow up the castle and lay half the suburbs in ashes."
"I knew that," was the tranquil reply.
"Do you see these cannon? They rake this gallery, which is defended by a guardhouse, and by two ditches only to be crossed by draw-bridges; lastly there is a portcullis."
"Oh, I am not saying that the Bastile will be badly defended, but that it will be well attacked."
"To proceed: here is a postern opening on the moats: observe the thickness of the walls. Forty feet here and fifteen above. You see that though the people have nails they will break against such walls."