"Where do you come from?" said one of them, suddenly catching him by the shoulder, and looking angrily at his feet which were still shod in a pair of foreign shoes.
"From the East city," he rejoined easily and fluently, pointing behind him and finding his tongue at once. "I have been sent to find my uncle who keeps a lantern-shop near the Western Four Arches, as we are all intimidated by the signs of the approaching battle."
The man looked at him suspiciously.
"And those shoes?"
"My brother robbed them from one of the cursed foreigners, and as my own were broken I put them on."
"Take them off!" exclaimed the two together.
The boy hesitated. Then with a muttered word he stooped down and flung them one by one far into the roadway.
"That is good," grunted one of the men, "it is lucky you met us instead of a member of the Sword Society. He would have given you short shrift. Everything foreign must indeed be blotted out."
The second man, however, commented on this in the following manner:
"But there is said to be a foreign army only thirty miles away. If they get into the city it will not go well with us."