"Do you not know that if I set out to do a thing, I will do it?" said the _conseillère_, interrupting her husband, and fixing on him a look which seemed to fascinate him. "Although I am sorry to delay your dinner-hour, you will nevertheless take a blunderbuss, and, concealed under this table, will be present at this interview . . . ready to come to my aid, if need be, when I cry, 'To me, Flachsinfingen!'" "I hide myself under this table with a blunderbuss! And what for? Heavens!" "I tell you, sir, that this will be, and it will be!" This scene took place in the councillor's library, where many arms of the middle ages were hung up on the wainscot as objects of curiosity. The lady selected a blunderbuss and a poniard, which she laid on the table; she examined, also, a light Persian shield and a steel coat of mail, and was on the point of investing herself with these defences in order more surely to resist the expected attack of the Marquis; but, deciding that she was sufficiently guarded by the poniard, she again approached her husband. "This poniard will do for me; this blunderbuss for you. Deborah was armed with nothing but a nail; Judith, with a sword; Dalilah, with scissors. . . . Martha will have a poniard." "But, Martha, take care! this blunderbuss has been loaded ever since the day I intended to try it. . . . Good heavens! what's the use of all these implements?" Again a carriage stopped at the gate. Once more, Martha felt a strong emotion of terror, when the servant came to say to her: "It is a French Marquis who asks for you, madame." . . . "Good heavens! 'tis he . . . courage!" . . . said she, in a low voice; and added: "when I ring the bell, Claire, you may introduce this stranger." The servant went out; the _conseillère_ solemnly embraced her husband, and said to him in an agitated voice: "Now, Flachsinfingen, the moment has come . . . take your blunderbuss; and may God save me!" . . . And she raised the cover, making a gesture to her husband to slip under the table. "But, my dear wife, I shall stifle under there. . . . How absurd!" "Do you hear me?" said Martha, imperiously. "But, 'tis useless . . ." "Flachsinfingen, did you hear me?" cried the furious woman, seizing her husband by the arm, and accentuating, so to speak, every word with a sharp pinch. "I must be, by Jupiter! as foolish and weak as you are mad, to lend myself to this nonsense," said the councillor, rubbing his arm, and painfully crawling under the table. "Now, when I cry 'To me, Flachsinfingen!' come out, and fire without mercy on this Philistine!" said his wife; then she drew down the cloth which stifled the councillor's last murmurs. Sure of this concealed auxilliary, Martha made scientific preparations for defence. The table which sheltered the councillor was placed between herself and the dreaded adversary. On her flanks she placed two chairs, with another as a screen; and at her side she had a long Toledo poniard.