About midday Passedix issued forth once more, saying to himself:
"I will turn my steps in another direction; perhaps chance will be more favorable to me."
And for two hours the orange chevalier traversed the Saint-Honoré quarter and the Halles in all directions. Then he changed his route, and, turning toward the Cloister of Saint-Merri, entered Rue Brisemiche, then in very bad repute, being specially assigned for the residence of prostitutes. At the end of the fourteenth century, the Provost of Paris had, at the request of the curé of Saint-Merri, issued an edict expelling the golden girdles from Rue Brisemiche and Rue Tire-Boudin; but certain bourgeois resisted the execution of this edict and insisted upon maintaining the prostitutes in possession of those streets. And the Parliament, by a decree of January 21, 1388, ratified the opposition of the bourgeois!—What do you think of the good old times?
Passedix had just passed a dark second-hand clothes shop of very grimy aspect, when a little man, advanced in years, but thickset and powerful, who was taking the air on the threshold of the shop in question, having scrutinized the chevalier for a moment, set up a screech worthy of a peacock, and, darting after the saunterer, overtook him and seized him by his cloak.
"Ah! I have him! here he is!—Oh! you won't get away from me, my buck!"
Surprised by this sudden attack, the Gascon turned, eyed the clothes dealer with a disdainful air, and tried to release his cloak, saying:
"Who in the devil are you seizing, my good man? You have certainly made a mistake; you should try wearing spectacles.—Let this cloak alone, cadédis! you will rumple it!"
But the dealer had strong hands; he did not release the cloak, and so detained Passedix, shouting all the while:
"Let you go, you thief, you brigand! Oh, no! you shall not get away from me! This is my merchandise: cloak, doublet, short-clothes, and even the girdle—nothing is missing!—What an impudent knave you must be, to walk about with it all on your body!—Help, friends, neighbors! Help! Watch! watch! Come and help me arrest a thief!"
"A thief!" the cry was echoed on all sides; people ran to the spot, and in a trice a compact crowd surrounded the two struggling men.