hey shall smart for it!
Depend upon it, it is some deep-laid scheme of that party. I have said
so."

But the Mayor of Gol, a stout, big, placid man, looked at us
doubtfully. "Well," he said, "I know these two; they are strolling
mountebanks, honest knaves enough but always in some mischief."

"What, strolling clowns?" M. Grabot rejoined, his face falling.

"Ay, and you may depend upon it it is some joke of theirs," his friend
answered, his eyes twinkling. "I begin to think that you would have
done better if you had waited a little before bringing M. le Comte into
the matter."

"Ah, but there are these two," M. Grabot cried, as he recovered from
the momentary panic into which the other's words had thrown him.
"Depend upon it they are the chief movers. What else but treason could
they mean by asserting that one of them was Mayor of Bottitort? By
denying my title? By setting up other officers than those to whom his
Gracious Majesty has delegated his authority?"

"Umph!" his brother Mayor said, "I don't know these gentlemen."

"No!" his companion cried in triumph. "But I intend to know them; and
to know a good deal about them. Guard the window there," he continued
fussily. "Where is my clerk? Is M. de Laval coming?"

Two or three cried obsequiously that he had crossed the hill; and would
arrive immediately.

Hearing this, and thinking it more becoming not to enter into an
altercation, I kept my seat and the scornful silence I had hitherto
maintained. The two Mayors had brought with them a posse of
busybodies--huissiers, constables, tip-staves, and the like; and these
all gaped upon us as if they saw before them the most notable traitors
of the age. The women of the house wept in a corner, and the strollers
shrugged their shoulders and strove to appear at their ease. But the
only person who felt the indifference which they assumed was La Font;
who, obnoxious to none of the annoyances which I foresaw, could hardly
restrain his mirth at the DENOUEMENT which he anticipated.

Meanwhile the Mayor, foreseeing a very different issue, stood blowing
out his cheeks and fixing us with his little eyes with an expression of
dignity that would have pleased me vastly if I had been free to enjoy
it. But the reflection that Laval's presence, which would cut the knot
of our difficulties, would also place me at the mercy of his wit, did
not enable me to contemplate it with entire indifference.

By-and-by we heard h