He walked toward the steps of the guard-house, but a pikeman bowing respectfully as he saw him, barred his way. "Pardon me," said he with deference, "but we have received orders to allow no one whatever to go in." "Blackguard!" said Gabriel, still keeping command over himself, however; "do your orders apply to Vicomte d'Exmès, captain of his Majesty's Guards, and Monsieur de Guise's friend? Where is your leader that I may speak to him?" "Monseigneur, he is on guard at the inner door," replied the pikeman, still more humbly. "I will go to him, then," rejoined Gabriel, haughtily; "Come, Master Paré, follow me." "Monseigneur, you may pass, since you demand it," said the soldier; "but this man cannot pass." "Why so?" asked Gabriel. "Why cannot the surgeon be admitted to the wounded man?" "All the surgeons, doctors, and quacks," replied the pikeman, "all those at least who are recognized and licensed, have already been summoned to Monseigneur's bedside. Not one is missing, so we are informed." "Ah, that is just what alarms me!" said Ambroise Paré, with contemptuous irony. "This man has no license in his pocket," the soldier continued. "I know him well. He has saved more than one poor fellow's life in the camp, it is true; but he is not the man for dukes." "Less talk!" cried Gabriel, stamping his foot angrily. "It is my desire that Master Paré should go in with me." "Impossible, Monsieur le Vicomte." "I have said that it is my desire, blackguard!" "Pray remember," the soldier replied, "that my orders compel me to disobey you." "Ah," cried Ambroise, sadly, "the duke may be dying while this absurd discussion is going on!" This cry would have scattered all Gabriel's hesitation to the winds, even if the impetuous youth had found it possible to hesitate longer at such a crisis. "So you really wish that I should treat you as if you were Englishmen!" he cried to the halberdiers. "So much the worse for you, then! Monsieur de Guise's life is worth twenty such lives as yours, after all. We will see if your pikes will dare to cross with my sword." The blade flashed from the scabbard like a ray of light, and drawing Ambroise Paré after him, he ascended the steps of the guard-house. There was so much of menace in his whole look and bearing; there was so much force in the physician's calm and determined demeanor; and the mere personality, to say nothing of the expressed will of a man of gentle birth, had so much prestige at that epoch,--that the guards were subdued, and stood aside with their weapons lowered, less in deference to the viscount's sword than to his name. "Let him pass!" cried a voice among the populace. "They have the appearance of having been sent by God to save the Duc de Guise." Gabriel and Ambroise Paré reached the door of the guard-house without further hindrance.