ut all that was visible of his emotion passed
away like a flash of lightning. He controlled himself and said with
tranquil severity,--

"Gossip Jacques, you enter very abruptly!"

"Sire! sire! there is a revolt!" repeated Gossip Jacques breathlessly.

The king, who had risen, grasped him roughly by the arm, and said in
his ear, in such a manner as to be heard by him alone, with concentrated
rage and a sidelong glance at the Flemings,--

"Hold your tongue! or speak low!"

The new comer understood, and began in a low tone to give a very
terrified account, to which the king listened calmly, while Guillaume
Rym called Coppenole's attention to the face and dress of the new
arrival, to his furred cowl, (_caputia fourrata_), his short cape,
(_epitogia curta_), his robe of black velvet, which bespoke a president
of the court of accounts.

Hardly had this personage given the king some explanations, when Louis
XI. exclaimed, bursting into a laugh,--

"In truth? Speak aloud, Gossip Coictier! What call is there for you
to talk so low? Our Lady knoweth that we conceal nothing from our good
friends the Flemings."

"But sire..."

"Speak loud!"

Gossip Coictier was struck dumb with surprise.

"So," resumed the king,--"speak sir,--there is a commotion among the
louts in our good city of Paris?"

"Yes, sire."

"And which is moving you say, against monsieur the bailiff of the
Palais-de-Justice?"

"So it appears," said the gossip, who still stammered, utterly astounded
by the abrupt and inexplicable change which had just taken place in the
king's thoughts.

Louis XI. continued: "Where did the watch meet the rabble?"

"Marching from the Grand Truanderie, towards the Pont-aux-Changeurs. I
met it myself as I was on my way hither to obey your majesty's commands.
I heard some of them shouting: 'Down with the bailiff of the palace!'"

"And what complaints have they against the bailiff?"

"Ah!" said Gossip Jacques, "because he is their lord."

"Really?"

"Yes, sire. They are knaves from the Cour-des-Miracles. They have been
complaining this long while, of the bailiff, whose vassals they are.
They do not wish to recognize him either as judge or as voyer?"*

* One in charge of the highways.

"Yes, certainly!" retorted the king with a smile of satis-faction which
he strove in vain to disguise.

"In all their petitions to the Parliament, they claim to have but two
masters. Your majesty and their God, who is the