BÉQUART. Monseigneur, it is impossible.

DE LAUNEY [grunting assent]. He's an envoy.

DE LAUNEY. Impossible, you rascal! Envoy from whom?

BÉQUART [gravely]. The people.

DE FLUE [to the Swiss Guards]. Arrest him!

BÉQUART and the PENSIONERS [to the Swiss Guards]. No, comrades, not that! Don't arrest him!

A Swiss GUARD [trying to pass]. That was the command.

BÉQUART and the PENSIONERS. Don't you dare go, or you'll have us to deal with!

VINTIMILLE [watching them, aside]. Ah, ha! [Aloud.] Good! [To DE LAUNEY.] Don't insist.

A Swiss GUARD [entering from the exterior court, to DE LAUNEY]. Monseigneur, there is an immense crowd coming out of the Rue Saint-Antoine. They have taken the Invalides, and are dragging along twenty cannon.