"Thank you, comrade. Then I'll bark no more, but at need I'll bite. If he has a lance, I have a sword; if he bleeds you, I'll bleed him. The moment his lance pricks your skin, little one, my sword-hilt knocks against his ribs; I have said it." And Denys turned pale, folded his arms, and looked gloomy and dangerous. Gerard sighed wearily. "Now, as all this is about me, give me leave to say a word." "Ay! let the young man choose life or death for himself." Gerard then indirectly rebuked his noisy counsellers by contrast and example. He spoke with unparalleled calmness, sweetness, and gentleness. And these were the words of Gerard the son of Eli. "I doubt not you both mean me well: but you assassinate me between you. Calmness and quiet are everything to me; but you are like two dogs growling over a bone. "And in sooth, bone I should be, did this uproar last long." There was a dead silence, broken only by the silvery voice of Gerard, as he lay tranquil, and gazed calmly at the ceiling, and trickled into words. "First, venerable sir, I thank you for coming to see me, whether from humanity, or in the way of honest gain; all trades must live. "Your learning, reverend sir, seems great, to me at least, and for your experience, your age voucheth it. "You say you have bled many, and of these many many have not died thereafter, but lived, and done well. I must needs believe you." The physician bowed; Denys grunted. "Others you say you have bled, and--they are dead. I must needs believe you. "Denys knows few things compared with you, but he knows them well. He is a man not given to conjecture. This I myself have noted. He says he has seen the fevered and blooded for the most part die; the fevered and not blooded live. I must needs believe him. "Here, then, all is doubt. "But thus much is certain; if I be bled, I must pay you a fee, and be burnt and excruciated with a hot iron, who am no felon. "Pay a certain price in money and anguish for a doubtful remedy, that will I never. "Next to money and ease, peace and quiet are certain goods, above all in a sick-room; but 'twould seem men cannot argue medicine without heat and raised voices; therefore, sir, I will essay a little sleep, and Denys will go forth and gaze on the females of the place, and I will keep you no longer from those who can afford to lay out blood, and money, in flebotomy and cautery." The old physician had naturally a hot temper; he had often during this battle of words mastered it with difficulty, and now it mastered him. The most dignified course was silence; he saw this, and drew himself up and made loftily for the door, followed close by his little boy and big basket. But at the door he choked, he swelled, he burst. He whirled and came back open-mouthed, and the little boy and big basket had to whisk semicircularly not to be run down, for de minimis non curat Medicina--even when not in a rage.