"Ah," cried Ambroise, sadly, "the duke may be dying while this absurd discussion is going on!"
This cry would have scattered all Gabriel's hesitation to the winds, even if the impetuous youth had found it possible to hesitate longer at such a crisis.
"So you really wish that I should treat you as if you were Englishmen!" he cried to the halberdiers. "So much the worse for you, then! Monsieur de Guise's life is worth twenty such lives as yours, after all. We will see if your pikes will dare to cross with my sword."
The blade flashed from the scabbard like a ray of light, and drawing Ambroise Paré after him, he ascended the steps of the guard-house.
There was so much of menace in his whole look and bearing; there was so much force in the physician's calm and determined demeanor; and the mere personality, to say nothing of the expressed will of a man of gentle birth, had so much prestige at that epoch,—that the guards were subdued, and stood aside with their weapons lowered, less in deference to the viscount's sword than to his name.
"Let him pass!" cried a voice among the populace. "They have the appearance of having been sent by God to save the Duc de Guise."
Gabriel and Ambroise Paré reached the door of the guard-house without further hindrance.
In the narrow porch through which they had to pass to reach the main hall, the lieutenant in command of the men outside was stationed, with three or four soldiers.
Vicomte d'Exmès, without stopping, said to him briefly and in a tone which called for no reply,—
"I am bringing another surgeon to see Monseigneur."