"Blame you for it!" said Gabriel, "no! But Lord Grey, a gentleman, forsooth! might have taken the trouble to ask me for my sword himself. It is to him that I desire to hand it; do you understand?"
"As Monseigneur pleases."
"And I am glad to believe that he will accept a ransom for me?"
"Oh, never fear, never fear, Monseigneur!" said the archer, eagerly.
"I am at your service, then," said Gabriel.
"But this is an indignity," cried Jean Peuquoy. "You do wrong to submit thus, Monseigneur. Refuse to go; for you are not of St. Quentin,—you are not of the town!"
"Master Jean Peuquoy is right," Arnauld du Thill earnestly interposed, stealthily making a sign to the archer to denounce the citizen to him. "Yes, Master Jean Peuquoy has put his finger upon the truth: Monseigneur is not of St. Quentin; and Master Jean Peuquoy knows it. Yes, indeed, he knows the whole town! He has been burgher for forty years, and syndic of his guild, and captain of the bowmen! What have you to say to that, Englishman?"
"I have just this to say," replied the Briton, who had taken his cue,—"that if this is Master Jean Peuquoy, I have an order to arrest him too, for his name is on my list."
"Me!" ejaculated the worthy burgher.
"Even you, Master," was the response.