“You take him for a fool?” sneered Collot.
“No, only for a foolhardy adventurer.”
“You imagine that with his wife as hostage in our hands, and the whole city of Boulogne on the lookout for him for the sake of the amnesty, that the man would be fool enough to walk on those ramparts at a given hour, for the express purpose of getting himself caught by you and your men?”
“I am quite sure that if we do not lay hands on him before that given hour, that he will be on the ramparts at the Angelus to-morrow,” said Chauvelin emphatically.
Collot shrugged his broad shoulders.
“Is the man mad?” he asked with an incredulous laugh.
“Yes, I think so,” rejoined the other with a smile.
“And having caught your hare,” queried Collot, “how do you propose to cook him?”
“Twelve picked men will be on the ramparts ready to seize him the moment he appears.”
“And to shoot him at sight, I hope.”