"Pshaw! leave your people there and come with us."
"Impossible—Ho! hands off the drawbridge chains down there! You know that those things are to be looked at from a distance, and it brings bad luck to touch them. Ravailly, bid them not touch the chains, or I'll fire on them," continued Canolles, frowning; "and I warn you, Ravailly, that I have some excellent marksmen."
"Bah! you are joking!" rejoined the captain. "Let yourself be taken; you are not in force."
"I am not joking. Down with the ladders! Ravailly, beware, I beg you, for it's the king's house you are besieging!"
"Saint-Georges the king's house!"
"Pardieu! look up and you will see the flag on the crown of the embankment. Come, push your boats off into the water, and put the ladders aboard, or I fire. If you want to talk, come alone or with Remonenq, and we will breakfast together, and talk as we eat. I have an excellent cook at Île Saint-Georges."
Ravailly began to laugh, and encouraged his men with a glance. Meanwhile another company was preparing to land.
Canolles saw that the decisive moment had arrived; and, assuming the firm attitude and serious demeanor befitting a man burdened with so heavy a responsibility as his, he cried:—
"Halt there, Ravailly! A truce to jesting, Remonenq! not another word or step, or I fire, as truly as the king's flag is above, and as your arms are raised against the lilies of France."
Suiting the action to the threat, he overturned with his strong arm the first ladder that showed its head over the stones of the rampart.