eing at least contingent, appeared the milder alternative, and
they might have been inclined to adopt it had not a further obstacle
stood in their way. The gate was barred withinside, and the vergers and
bedels who had the custody of the door, though alarmed at the tumult
without, positively refused to unfasten it.

Again the threats of the scholars were renewed, and further intimations
of violence were exhibited. Again the peas rattled upon the hands and
faces of the halberdiers, till their ears tingled with pain. "Prate to
us of the king's favorites," cried one of the foremost of the scholars,
a youth decorated with a paper collar: "they may rule within the
precincts of the Louvre, but not within the walls of the university.
_Maugre-bleu!_ We hold them cheap enough. We heed not the idle bark of
these full-fed court lapdogs. What to us is the bearer of a cup and
ball? By the four Evangelists, we will have none of them here! Let the
Gascon cadet, D'Epernon, reflect on the fate of Quelus and Maugiron, and
let our gay Joyeuse beware of the dog's death of Saint-Megrin. Place for
better men--place for the schools--away with frills and _sarbacanes_."

"What to us is a president of Parliament, or a governor of the city?"
shouted another of the same gentry. "We care nothing for their
ministration. We recognize them not, save in their own courts. All their
authority fell to the ground at the gate of the Rue Saint Jacques, when
they entered our dominions. We care for no parties. We are trimmers, and
steer a middle course. We hold the Guisards as cheap as the Huguenots,
and the brethren of the League weigh as little with us as the followers
of Calvin. Our only sovereign is Gregory the Thirteenth, Pontiff of
Rome. Away with the Guise and the Bearnaise!"

"Away with Henri of Navarre, if you please," cried a scholar of
Harcourt; "or Henri of Valois, if you list: but by all the saints, not
with Henri of Lorraine; he is the fast friend of the true faith.
No!--No!--live the Guise--live the Holy Union!"

"Away with Elizabeth of England," cried a scholar of Cluny: "what doth
her representative here? Seeks he a spouse for her among our schools?
She will have no great bargain, I own, if she bestows her royal hand
upon our Duc d'Anjou."

"If you value your buff jerkin, I counsel you to say nothing slighting
of the Queen of England in my hearing," returned a bluff,
broad-shouldered fellow, raising his bludgeon after a menacing fashion.