"Black John will tell monseigneur!" several voices called in great excitement.
The African giant turned towards his fellows, motioned them to be silent, and wiping on his sleeves the bloody blade of his dagger, said to the bishop in an excited voice, still trembling with rage, but not without calculatingly casting upon Thiegaud a look of rancorous hatred:
"I had just led Mussine the Pretty to the outer gate—"
"My daughter!" Thiegaud ejaculated stupefied at the very moment when, angrily stamping the ground, the prelate checked the indiscreet words of his slave with a silent gesture. Black John remained mute like one who understands too late the folly he committed, while the rest of the bishop's domestics stealthily giggled at the consternation of Thiegaud. Some dreaded him for his malignity, others envied him for his intimate relations with their master. Thiegaud, livid at the startling revelation, flashed at Gaudry a sinister look quick as lightning; his features thereupon as quickly reassumed their usual expression, and he started to laugh louder than the rest at the awkward blunder of Black John. He even went the length of indulging in ironical deference towards Gaudry. The latter, long acquainted with the criminal life of the serf of St. Vincent, was not surprised at seeing him remain so indifferent to the disgrace of his daughter. Nevertheless, yielding to that respect for man that even the most depraved characters never succeed in wholly stripping themselves of, the bishop silenced the suppressed merriment with an imperious gesture and said: "Those giggles are unseemly. Thiegaud's daughter came early in the morning, as so many other penitents do, to consult me on a case of conscience. After listening to her in the confessional, I ordered John to accompany her to the gate."
"That's so true," added Thiegaud with perfect composure, "that, having to bring this morning a horse to our seigneur the bishop, I expected to return with my daughter. But she left by the vaulted door while I was still on the green."
"Friend Ysengrin," resumed the prelate with a mixture a haughtiness and familiarity, "my words can dispense with your testimony." And wishing to cut off short this incident, which had the archdeacon, silent but profoundly indignant, for a witness, Gaudry said to the black slave: "Speak! What has happened between you and the communiers, whom may the pest carry off and hell confound! May Satan take them all!"
"I was opening the gate for Mussine the Pretty, when three bourgeois, coming from the suburbs and bound for the principal entry of the city, to assist at the ceremonies announced by the belfry of those rogues, passed by the palace. Seeing a veiled woman come out, those scamps set up a malicious laugh, and nudged one another in the ribs while keeping on their way. I ran after them and asked: 'What are you laughing about, you dogs of communiers?' They gave me an insolent answer and called me the bishop's hangman. I then drew my dagger and stabbed one of them in the arm, and leaving his companions and him loudly threatening to demand justice from the Commune, I returned and locked the door after me. By Mahomet, I am proud of what I did. I avenged my master for the insults of those curs!"
"Black John did well!" cried the domestics of the bishop. "We can no longer go out without being shamed by the communiers of Laon."
"The other day," put in one of the falconers, "the butcher of Exchange street, one of the Councilmen of the Commune, refused to give me meat on credit for the falcons!"
"At the taverns we are compelled to pay before drinking! The shame and humiliation of it!"