"They mean that we are fighting against our king, and that comes hard to the French soldier."
"So you sigh to be in his Majesty's service?"
"Dame! yes."
"And you wish to join your king?"
"Yes," said the soldier, who was deceived by Richon's calm manner, and supposed that the affair would end with his simple exclusion from the garrison.
"Very well," said Richon, seizing the man by his baldric; "but as the gates are closed, you must take the only road that is left open to you."
"What is that?" queried the terrified soldier.
"This," retorted Richon, lifting him with his herculean arm, and tossing him over the parapet.
The soldier, with a yell of terror, dropped into the moat, which, luckily for him, was full of water.
This energetic action was greeted with gloomy silence. Richon believed that he had crushed the sedition, and turned to his men with the air of a gambler who risks everything to gain everything.