"Sire, sire, I will die for him!"
Villon's heart leaped to his throat when he saw her.
"Mammy, mammy, go away!" he cried, and he made a vain attempt to
move towards his mother, a movement instantly restrained by the
crossed weapons of his captors. At the same moment Katherine de
Vaucelles came out of the church door in obedience to the summons of
a royal page, who had found her at her prayers, and who told her
that the king desired her presence. She paused at the head of the
steps in amazed survey of the crowded place and a scene that at
first she could not understand.
"Who is this woman?" Louis asked, looking down at the poor old dame,
who knelt before him and besought him. Olivier answered in his ear:
"The fellow's mother, sire."
A very little tenderness came into Louis' eyes, a very little
tenderness trembled on his lips.
"Woman, we cannot hear you," he said. "By God's law you have given
him life once and by my law you may not give him life again."
"Sire, I beseech you," Mother Villon entreated; but the king's pity
was not to be purchased so.
"Take her away and use her gently," he said.
Noel le Jolys stooped to obey the king's command, but the old woman,
rising to her feet, repulsed him fiercely.
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