The tide rose; it was blowing; already the nurses and footmen were crying: "Come down, miss! Come down, sir!" Gesril waited for a big wave, and as it dashed between the stakes, he pushed the child seated next to him. This one fell against another, that against a third; the whole row fell flat like "friars" of cards, but each was saved by his neighbour; the only exception was the little girl at the extreme end of the row, against whom I was upset, with the result that, having no one to support her, she fell off. She was dragged away by the reflux; a thousand cries arose; all the nurses tucked up their skirts and waded into the sea, each catching hold of her brat and giving it a smack. Hervine was fished out, and declared that François had thrown her down. The nurses made a rush for me; I escaped from them, and ran and shut myself in the cellar at home, whither the army of females pursued me. Fortunately my father and mother had gone out Villeneuve valiantly defended the door, and boxed the ears of the enemy's van-guard. The real author of the mischief, Gesril, lent me his aid: climbing to his own floor, with his two sisters he threw pots of water and baked apples at my assailants from the windows. They raised the siege at nightfall; but the news spread through the town, and the nine-year-old Chevalier de Chateaubriand was reputed a monster of iniquity, a survival of those pirates whom St. Aaron had driven from his rock. The other adventure was this: I went with Gesril to Saint-Servan, the suburb divided from Saint-Malo by the merchant harbor. In order to reach it at low water, you cross certain currents by means of low and narrow stepping-stones, which are covered when the sea rises. The footmen who escorted us had loitered some way behind. At the end of one of these bridges of stones we saw two ship's lads coming in our direction. Gesril said to me: "Are we to let those beggars pass?" and shouted to them: "Into the water, ducks!" Like true salts, refusing to take chaff, they came on; Gesril retreated; and stationing ourselves at one end of the bridge, we caught up some pebbles and threw them at the ship-boys' heads. They rushed upon us, forced us to fall back, armed themselves with pebbles in their turn, and drove us back, fighting, upon our reserves, in other words, our servants. I was not, like Horatius, hit in the eye; but a stone caught me so violently that my left ear was cut in two and hung down upon my shoulder. [Sidenote: Our dangerous pastimes.]