"And the alarm that brings him from the Council Chamber?"
"Need not of necessity be real. The pinch will be to make use of it.
Make use of it--and the hay will burn!"
"You think it will?"
"What can one man do against a thousand? His own people dare not support
him."
Father Pezelay turned to the lean man who kept the door, and, beckoning
to him, conferred a while with him in a low voice.
"A score or so I might get," the man answered presently, after some
debate. "And well posted, something might be done. But we are not in
Paris, good father, where the Quarter of the Butchers is to be counted
on, and men know that to kill Huguenots is to do God service! Here"--he
shrugged his shoulders contemptuously--"they are sheep."
"It is the King's will," the priest answered, frowning on him darkly.
"Ay, but it is not Tavannes'," the man in black answered with a grimace.
"And he rules here to-day."
"Fool!" Pezelay retorted. "He has not twenty with him. Do you do as I
say, and leave the rest to Heaven!"
"And to you, good master?" the other answered. "For it is not all you
are going to do," he continued, with a grin, "that you have told me.
Well, so be it! I'll do my part, but I wish we were in Paris. St.
Genevieve is ever kind to her servants."