"His rider should bear that name!"
"Poor bourrique,[B] who has to carry another of his kind!"
[B] Bourrique, an ass; bourriquet, an ass's colt.
"No, no! your horse shall not take a step!"
"Don't worry him with your rein."
"Dismount, Cédrille of Pau; if not, we will forcibly remove you and your companion from Bourriquet's back!"
Some of Master Hugonnet's customers were already preparing to carry out this threat; but at that crisis, the Béarnais peasant, whose face had turned purple and had assumed a menacing expression, quickly raised his right arm, and brandishing in the air the dogwood staff with which his right hand was armed, twirled it about in the faces of those who approached, with such fearless and uncompromising dexterity that in a moment there was a large space cleared in front of the travellers; and yet, some of the jokers did not move back quickly enough to avoid a blow from the redoubtable dogwood staff.
Meanwhile, the pretty girl threw both arms about her companion, and, raising her head, seemed to defy with her glance those who surrounded her, and to say to them:
"Come forward now, if you dare!"
All this had taken place in an instant; but the panic was soon over, and all the young men, who were in the habit of beating the watch, fighting with citizens, and brawling every night in the streets of Paris, were in no humor to fly from a peasant's club. Having retired to a safe distance, they turned about once more and drew their swords; the bachelors, students, pages, and esquires did the same; for at that blessed epoch almost every man wore a sword or a rapier of some sort, in order to be always in a position to fight on the most trivial pretext: a consequence of the gentle manners and pacific customs of the good old times.