"Sire, I have blown it abroad that your majesty feasts to-night. While the Duke of Burgundy believes us to be carousing, we shall make a sortie from St. Anthony's gate. Our horses' hooves will be muffled, no spur shall jingle, and no bridle clink. We will steal through the night like shadows. At the cross road some few of us will make an attack upon the enemy's left and beat a retreat. This will tempt him into our ambuscade and as I believe end in his rout. At nine, my lords. Farewell." He raised his hand in dismissal; the three captains saluted the king and his minister and passed out of the presence. As they descended the winding stairs, du Lau said to his companions: "I do not know your hearts, my lords, but I love this soldier of fortune." Nantoillet answered cordially: "God knows where he came from and God knows where he will go to, but I would ride with him to the world's end." "My father," said Poncet de Riviere, "told me often of the Maid of Orleans and her power with bearded men. He must be of her kindred, for he wins me against my will." As the sound of their feet died away in the depths of the tower, Villon turned to the king. "If the Duke of Burgundy falls into my trap," he said; "men will call me a great captain. Yet it is no more than remembering the shape of a meadow where I played in childhood. Strange that an urchin's playground should become a Golgotha of graves and glories." The king clapped him playfully on the shoulder. "Where did you learn wisdom?" "In the school of hope deferred. When I was--what I was, I still believed that this dingy carcass swaddled a Roman spirit. In the pomp of my pallet I dreamed Olympian dreams. And the dreams have come true." "You are an amazing fellow. Here in a week, you have made me more popular than I made myself since my accession. In court, in camp, in council, men are pleased to call you paragon." "I am a man of the people and I know what the people need. A week ago the good people of Paris were disloyal enough. I repeal the tax on wine and to-day they clap their hands and cry 'God save King Louis' lustily. A week ago your soldiers were mutinous because they were ill fed, worse clothed, and never paid at all. I feed them full, clothe them warm, pay them well, and to-day your majesty has an army that would follow me to the devil if I whistled a marching tune." "But in the meantime, your sands are running out. Is your heart failing? Is your pulse flagging?" "Not a whit. I have been translated without discredit from the tavern to the palace, and if the worse comes to the worst, I may say with the dying Caesar, 'Applaud me.'" The king grinned sardonically. "Will the worse come to the worst?" he piped, "How is your suit with the Lady Katherine?" Villon's smile lingered still on his lips as he answered: "Sire, no wise man boasts that he knows the heart of a woman, and yet, I hope for the best." "But if you fail," the king persisted.