Billet yielded to his plea, and because he had a new idea.
He ran out on the square, holloaing.
"A cart!"
"Two carts," added Pitou, "thinking you cannot have too much of a good thing."
Ten carts were immediately trundled through the multitude.
"Dry hay and straw!" shouted Billet.
"Straw and hay," repeated Pitou.
Like a flash, two hundred men brought each a truss of straw or half a bale of hay. Others brought dry fodder on litters. They were obliged to call out that they had ten times more than was wanted. In an hour they would have smothered the Bastile.
Billet put himself in the rails of a bush-cart, laden with hay, and pushed it before him instead of dragging it.
Pitou did the same with another, without knowing why but thinking the farmer's example was worthy of imitation.