"Are you not a French citizen?" demanded Billet warmly.
"I am a French nobleman," said the Count of Launay.
"True, you are a soldier, and speak like one."
"You are right," said the gentleman bowing. "I am a soldier and carry out my orders."
"Well, I am a citizen," went on Billet, "and as my duty as such is opposed to yours as the King's soldier, one of us must die. He who fulfills his orders or his duties."
"That is likely, sir."
"So you are determined to fire on the people?"
"Not unless I am fired at. I pledged myself to that effect to Lord Provost Flesselles' deputation. You see the guns have been retired, but at the first shot, I will roll one—say this one—forward out of the embrasure with my own hands, train it and point it, and fire with the slow-match you see there."
"If I believed that," said Billet, "before you could commit such a crime——"
"I have told you that I am a soldier and know nothing outside my orders."