o the death!" cried fifty thousand voices.

"Yes; to the death!" howled a hundred frantic others, as if the great
mass had given them the reply.

"To the halter! to the halter!" cried the great whole; "Vive le roi!"

"Well," said D'Artagnan, "this is droll; I should have thought it was M.
Colbert who had caused them to be hung."

There was, at this moment, a great rolling movement in the crowd, which
stopped for a moment the march of the condemned. The people of a bold
and resolute mien, whom D'Artagnan had observed, by dint of pressing,
pushing, and lifting themselves up, had succeeded in almost touching the
hedge of archers. The cortege resumed its march. All at once, to cries
of "Vive Colbert!" those men, of whom D'Artagnan never lost sight, fell
upon the escort, which in vain endeavored to stand against them. Behind
these men was the crowd. Then commenced, amidst a frightful tumult, as
frightful a confusion. This time there was something more than cries of
expectation or cries of joy, there were cries of pain. Halberds struck
men down, swords ran them through, muskets were discharged at them.
The confusion became then so great that D'Artagnan could no longer
distinguish anything. Then, from this chaos, suddenly surged something
like a visible intention, like a will pronounced. The condemned had been
torn from the hands of the guards, and were being dragged towards the
house of L'Image-de-Notre-Dame. Those who dragged them shouted, "Vive
Colbert!" The people hesitated, not knowing which they ought to fall
upon, the archers or the aggressors. What stopped the people was, that
those who cried "Vive Colbert!" began to cry, at the same time, "No
halter! no halter! to the fire! to the fire! burn the thieves! burn the
extortioners!" This cry, shouted with an ensemble, obtained enthusiastic
success. The populace had come to witness an execution, and here was an
opportunity offered them of performing one themselves. It was this
that must be most agreeable to the populace: therefore, they ranged,
themselves immediately on the party of the aggressors against the
archers, crying with the minority, which had become, thanks to them,
the most compact majority: "Yes, yes: to the fire with the thieves! Vive
Colbert!"

"Mordioux!" exclaimed D'Artagnan, "this begins to look serious."

One of the men who remained near the chimney approached the window, a
firebrand in his hand. "Ah, ah!" said he, "it gets warm." Then, turning
to h