"
"What game?" Villon asked.
Huguette answered:
"The fair fool Noel, advised by me, has persuaded the king to see an
astrologer here to-night when the gardens are quiet. Noel believes
that the astrologer will advise the king to fling his Grand
Constable out of the window and call Messire Noel in at the door,
but the comrades of the cockleshell really mean much more mischief.
When once we get the king within reach of our fingers, we mean to
snap him up and carry him out of Paris, willy nilly, and sell him to
the Duke of Burgundy."
Villon caught his breath.
"A great game!" he cried. "But who is this astrologer?"
"Thibaut d'Aussigny," she answered, "who pretends to be dead, but
who lives for this revenge."
Villon leaped to his feet. He remembered what Katherine thought she
had seen.
"Then it was he!" he said.
Huguette went on with her story.
"Noel is to give us the signal by crying an owl's cry thrice."
Villon was revolving many thoughts in his mind and he hardly heeded
her.
"This adventure of the astrologer might be turned to my advantage.
Here is a chance in a thousand," he muttered to himself, as he paced
restlessly on the grass.
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