told us at the Chatelet that they were
going to take him directly to the pillory."

"Ah, bah! what are you saying, Demoiselle Oudarde Musnier?" interposed
the other Parisienne. "There are two hours yet to the pillory. We have
time enough. Have you ever seen any one pilloried, my dear Mahiette?"

"Yes," said the provincial, "at Reims."

"Ah, bah! What is your pillory at Reims? A miserable cage into which
only peasants are turned. A great affair, truly!"

"Only peasants!" said Mahiette, "at the cloth market in Reims! We have
seen very fine criminals there, who have killed their father and mother!
Peasants! For what do you take us, Gervaise?"

It is certain that the provincial was on the point of taking offence,
for the honor of her pillory. Fortunately, that discreet damoiselle,
Oudarde Musnier, turned the conversation in time.

"By the way, Damoiselle Mahiette, what say you to our Flemish
Ambassadors? Have you as fine ones at Reims?"

"I admit," replied Mahiette, "that it is only in Paris that such
Flemings can be seen."

"Did you see among the embassy, that big ambassador who is a hosier?"
asked Oudarde.

"Yes," said Mahiette. "He has the eye of a Saturn."

"And the big fellow whose face resembles a bare belly?" resumed
Gervaise. "And the little one, with small eyes framed in red eyelids,
pared down and slashed up like a thistle head?"

"'Tis their horses that are worth seeing," said Oudarde, "caparisoned as
they are after the fashion of their country!"

"Ah my dear," interrupted provincial Mahiette, assuming in her turn an
air of superiority, "what would you say then, if you had seen in '61, at
the consecration at Reims, eighteen years ago, the horses of the princes
and of the king's company? Housings and caparisons of all sorts; some
of damask cloth, of fine cloth of gold, furred with sables; others of
velvet, furred with ermine; others all embellished with goldsmith's work
and large bells of gold and silver! And what money that had cost! And
what handsome boy pages rode upon them!"

"That," replied Oudarde dryly, "does not prevent the Flemings having
very fine horses, and having had a superb supper yesterday with
monsieur, the provost of the merchants, at the Hotel-de-Ville, where
they were served with comfits and hippocras, and spices, and other
singularities."

"What are you saying, neighbor!" exclaimed Gervaise. "It was with
monsieur the cardinal, at the Petit Bourbon that they supped."

"Not at