"Mercy to the soldiers—but death to their colonel!" cried the men who had just been driven to the spot before the merciless and headlong onslaught of the Count of Plouernel. "Death to the colonel!"
"Yes! Yes!" repeated several voices.
"No!" shouted back the linendraper, barring the door with his gun, while George came to his support. "No! No! No massacre after battle! No cowardice!"
"The colonel killed my brother with a pistol shot fired within an inch of his face—down there, at the corner of the street," bellowed a man with bloodshot eyes, his mouth foaming with rage, and brandishing a sword. "Death to the colonel!"
"Yes! Yes! Death!" shouted several threatening voices. "Death!"
"No! You shall not kill a wounded man! You can not mean to murder an unarmed man—a prisoner!"
"Death," shouted back an increasing number of angry voices. "Death!"
"Very well, walk in! Let us see if you will have the heart to dishonor the cause of the people with a crime."
And the merchant, although ready to offer fresh resistance to the ferocity of the angry men, left free the passage of the door which he had until then blocked.
The assailants remained motionless. Lebrenn's words had gone home.