"Take off my short-clothes! What for?"
"Sandis! so that I may put them on, of course! I can't stand here all day in my shirt!"
"But I have no others, monsieur; and if you take mine, then I shall be in my shirt."
"That makes no difference to me—a terrible calamity, truly, that you should be a little cool in your turn!"
"No, no! I won't give you my short-clothes!"
"Give them to me this instant, knave, and your miserable doublet too, or I'll run you through with Roland!"
Passedix made such a terrible face, and held the point of his sword so near the poor fellow's breast, that he, trembling for his life, quickly removed his doublet and his breeches. The chevalier lost no time in donning them, saying to himself:
"I shall be a horrible-looking creature in this costume! but, after all, it is preferable to being naked!—Now, I will conceal it as well as I can with my cloak.—Come, don't cry, you fool! Do you imagine that I propose to steal your clothes? They will be returned to you as soon as I have been home and have dressed myself in orange, pending the purchase of a lovely costume, new throughout. I shall select a sky-blue this time!—If my people return, you will say to them that I shall expect them at the Hôtel du Sanglier, Place aux Chats; but I begin to doubt whether they will return—the vagabonds!"
And Passedix, having finished his toilet to the best of his ability, left the bathing establishment, grumbling between his teeth:
"These breeches are horribly unbecoming to me!—O my esquire! O my page! you shall pay me for all this!"