The sound of military music and the tramp of
marching men could be heard approaching louder and louder.
Five girls had forced their way to the very front row of the throne
and were applauding and shouting with the rest. These were the light
ladies of the Fircone, Isabeau, Jehanneton, Denise, and Blanche with
Guillemette, fat Robin Turgis' fat daughter. They were all in a
state of great excitement, for their lovers had vanished over night
and their Abbess had disappeared like a dream, and they knew not
what had become of them. They had little fear for their lovers, for
the good gentlemen of the Fellowship of the Cockleshell had a way of
diving into the deep waters of existence at intervals in order to
escape the too attentive eye and the too particular finger of the
law, and the girls had a vague idea of some great scheme on hand
which might easily result in trouble for the brotherhood. As for
their Abbess, they were none too sorry to be free from her somewhat
decisive authority, and they chattered and babbled like birds
escaped from a cage.
By this time the advance guard of the army began to pour in through
the narrow mouth of the gateway and to form a line in front of the
populace, thus leaving a wide open space between the assembled
people and the seated king.
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