Strike for the
mothers that bore you, the wives that comfort you, the children that
Ren?w you--the women that love you." For a moment his voice quailed
and almost failed him. There were happy men there, no doubt, whom
women loved. But he rallied in a breath and his voice rang out
valiantly again: "Forward in God's name and the king's!"
And every soldier present echoed him: "Forward in God's name and the
king's!"
CHAPTER XIII
THE REDE OF FIVE RIDING ROGUES
Through the silent streets of Paris a slender line of steel moved
slowly--the thread of which Master Fran?ois Villon was the needle
pricked to sew the realm of France together. The Grand Constable
rode at the head with the Lords of Lau, of Riviere, and of
Nantoillet, and somewhere at the tail rode the five released rascals
and babbled beneath their breaths as they rode. For the order to
keep silence did not count until the gates of Paris were reached and
began to turn on their hinges to let Villon's adventurers forth.
Every man of the ruffians had a stout sword swinging at his girdle;
every man of them sported a steel cap upon his head; every man of
them felt his heart pulsing with rare emotions and his brain busy
with strange thoughts.
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